SPOILERS: 'Expendables' Take On London

by uInterviewAugust 16, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

Jason Statham and Dolph Lundgren, two of the stars of the much-hyped The Expendables 2, also starring Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Chick Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Hemsworth and Charisma Carpenter, had a little bit of tough-guy fun outside the iconic Tower of London during the 2012 Olympic games, decked out in expensive suits and toting prop machine guns.

The Expendables are a group of elite mercenaries whose last task in the first Expendables film, which was written and directed by Stallone and enjoyed impressive commercial success upon its release almost exactly two years ago, was to overthrow a Latin American dictator who was the puppet of an ex-CIA officer.

In The Expendables 2, the deadly group of ass-kickers are tasked with what appears to be an easy job, until one of their own gets killed. Then it gets personal, and even bad guy Van Damme shouldn't want to piss off this group of badasses.

So why a sequel, other than the nearly guaranteed paycheck? "Every sequel has to be bigger and better, otherwise the challenge isn't there, and the expectation is that for the audience," said Statham, reports thefancarpet.com. "And if anyone knows how to make action movies, it's Sly, so when he gets this crowd together, you know you are in safe hands."

Though Stallone didn't always put himself in such safe hands in making the new film, which is directed this time by Simon West of Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, though still penned by Stallone with partner Richard Wenk.

Stallone's risks making The Expendables 2 were largely physical. "The doctors said, after I had my neck fused for the first one, I had two back operations, shoulder operation, Achilles operation, the first movie took its toll and the doctor said, 'Don't take any rough falls, let a stuntman do it,'" Stallone said. "But sometimes you just have to, common sense goes out the window, I couldn't help myself, it's a fools paradise for me."

The British Statham, who has been enjoying the Olympic games, also posed with fastest man alive Usain Bolt at the London premiere of The Expendables 2. His new film, Homefront, in which he costars with James Franco, is in pre-production.