Right from the get-go, The Losers makes damn sure to tell the audience that they’re watching a really cool movie. The movie has it all: shaky hand-held camera work, freeze frames, jump cuts and the requisite “group walking towards the camera in slow motion” scene—reassuring the audience that they are indeed watching an awesome film. If you want explosions, vehicular mayhem, gadgets and guns then The Losers should be right up your alley. However, if you want anything else, like say clever dialogue, interesting characters, good acting or a coherent plot—then The Losers is not for you. The film is an exercise in action movie cliché and trying too hard.
Spoilers to follow
Here’s what you need to know: a crack team of special forces operatives, codenamed the Losers, are on a mission in South America. They are ordered by their handler to take out a villa belonging to a drug kingpin. However, the Losers soon discover that the villa is filled with children that the kingpin has been using as mules. The Losers are principled soldiers of fortune; fine with assassinating adults, but not kiling children. Much to their handler’s dismay, the team disobeys orders by rescuing the children first, and then completes the mission. This failure to follow orders leads their mysterious handler, known only as Max, to order an airstrike on their location, destroying the extraction helicopter that was at the time full of the children the Losers just rescued. Presumed dead, the team vows revenge against the person responsible, and the rest of the film plays out exactly like you’d expect.
