Reviews

I'm a Buddhist and absolutely adore the Dalai Lama. His kindness and compassion are simply breath-taking and I felt that from this film, which is undoubtedly beautiful, but a few parts irked me. For example, the constant referral of Buddhism as "a religion" (both verbally and implied), which felt very Western - as if people wouldn't understand that Buddhism is a way of life - a desire for enlightenment and attainment of peace, so it was Westernised into it being "a religion" as an easy explanation. As the 14th said himself, "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.". I think people get "spirituality" and "religion" mixed up way too easily - the whole Buddhist portrayal was actually rather shallow, which is deeply sad.

I found the blaring music to be entirely over the top. It blares out, over and over, sounding as if it should be in a high-stakes action movie. It was loud - too loud, I thought, for a pretty gentle film.

I didn't really enjoy the cinema of the film (I felt it was meant to be "art" more than anything) - I did enjoy the portrayal of the 14th, and it made me cry more than once. I read that a few people found it "passionless", which I didn't - he is a Buddhist monk - they are non-violent and seek to master their mind - of course there are going to be subdued reactions from himself and others. Another quote from the 14th, "When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength." That said, the scenes in which he cries were incredibly powerful.

So... I liked it and disliked it. It was emotionally powerful but not at all a good representation into Buddhism or even fact - there is more than one part that have been nay-said by not only the Lama himself, but also his mother, and by photographic evidence of the events in China.

I think this show is unmitigated trash. The characters are shallow, the main character seems to have some serious mental health issues that are ignored and glossed over (it's made to be "funny"), the show is said to have a vary of emotion but it's always the same, every season, every episode. There is no realism at all in the way the characters interact in and around hospital, and honestly, if we're being "real", at least half of the character's stupidity would have killed them by now - it's amazing all have made it into adulthood. The 'hilarity' of the programme doesn't come out of the terrible, cringe- worthy situations that the characters are constantly and consistently getting themselves into, the humorous part of this series is the fact that people STILL watch it.

I loved it. I absolutely loved this movie, which was both funnier and better plotted than the first. The little digs the characters make at each other are hilarious and make the movie for me - where else do you see all the "old" stars of Hollywood take cracks at each other like that? It breaks the movie up from something serious, sombre and sad, to something that has surprising moments of laugh-out-loud humour and nearly childish delight. Some movies break up the shooting (be warned - the sound of shooting never ends in this movie) with girls and sex, but The Expendables does it with laughs and petty jabs, and it fits perfectly with the older actors.

Sylvester Stallone and Statham seem to play the same characters in every single movie they're in, but in this, they fit perfectly. Hell, all the actors are so clichéd that they're perfect for the roles, and they're also able to do the serious stuff with decency. I am a huge Jet Li fan, and was sad that he was only briefly in it, but I was also actually quite surprised by the appearance of Chuck Norris - I read nothing about the movie before watching it - I didn't want to ruin it.

I cannot wait until 3 comes out - I'll be seeing it at the cinema for sure - who could pass up seeing Jackie Chan on the big screen?

So, because I watched the entire thing and it passed my expectations magnificently (and I was expecting it to be half decent), had a hearty laugh every half an hour, and because it was better written and seemed to be going somewhere (and even promising a sequel!), I gave it 9 stars. It's not something that will go down in history, but it's going on my "Personal Favourites" list, that's for sure.