The Losers

The best way to approach this comic book adaptation is to not take it remotely seriously. The film has zero pretensions to any kind of depth (something of a relief), but accept it on its own terms and it's an enjoyable 90 minutes (see, short too!) There's lots of guns (large and small); things get blown up (cars, planes, haciendas); comic book panels are recreated; and there's lots of sarcastic dialogue (not least from Max, the villain) We're not exactly talking chcracter development, but the interplay among the Losers is wildly entertaining. At opposite ends of the scale there's Cougar, the sniper who rarely talks, and Jensen, the techie who never stops (when Roque threatens to break his neck if he doesn't shut up you feel it's a threat that's been used before); there's Pooch, the family man, and Clay, the leader continually derailed by his involvement with women (enter Aisha, immediately distrusted by Roque possibly for that very reason). Roque is the most enigmatic, the large knives he carries pointing to just how dangeous he can be but he's also the most pragmatic, ready to cut his losses and reclaim his life after the Bolivian debacle that starts the film - which immediately puts him at odds with both Clay and Aisha. The latter turns out to be smarter and more devious than everybody, though Roque runs her close, pursuing her own agenda of revenge.
There's a lot of fun to be had from the incidental details (don't worry about the plot): Cougar and Jensen reduced to working side by side in a Bolivian doll factory; Pooch's lucky mascot nodding away on the dashboards of various vehicles; Jensen's hopeless attempts at wooing, including a hilariously deflating one-sided flirtation with Aisha; the alarmingly conspicuous vehicles stolen by Pooch (often yellow it seems); and the wondrous array of T-shirts worn by Jensen (I deeply covet the bright pink Go Petunias one that provokes such ire from Roque) Clearly none of this is Oscar material but everyone seems to be having a whale of a time -Jeffrey Dean Morgan looks increasingly rumpled as the film progresses (a neat contrast to the besuited Max), Idris Elba glowers forbiddingly (really, you wouldn't mess with this man), and Chris Evans walks off with the film, especially in the sequence where he infiltrates a building dressed as a bicycle courier (if you want the lift to yourself sing loudly and appallingly), which also has a great payoff involving the incomparable Cougar.