Blu-Ray Review: Nonsensical ‘The Losers’ is a Complete Waste of Time

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CHICAGO – “The Losers” tries so hard to be edgy, cool, and action-packed that it thinks it will be effective merely by numbing the viewer’s senses into oblivion. The film either defies all critical analysis by being so ridiculous that it doesn’t really need it or it just sucks. It’s up to you to decide but this critic is going with the latter.

Blu-Ray Rating: 1.0/5.0

Based on the comic by Andy Diggle, “The Losers” refers to a group of Special Forces soldiers who we’re introduced to on a life-changing job. They’re ordered to take part in a mission that will result in the death of innocent children. Of course, they refuse and become ghosts hell-bent on revenge against the man who set them up. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Watchmen”) stars as the leader of the ragtag group while Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Columbus Short, and Oscar Jaenada play members. Zoe Saldana (“Avatar”) plays the sultry woman who helps the group with their plan for revenge but clearly has an ulterior motive and Jason Patric has a little fun as the bad guy.

The Losers was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 20th, 2010
Photo credit: Magnolia

I’m all for tesosterone-heavy action that’s filled with extreme firepower, cool characters, and ludicrous dialogue but all of those elements have a breaking point and “The Losers” crosses them with almost remarkable abandon. It’s just a horribly put together film with bad dialogue, paper-thin characters, and even technical elements that seem pulled from a Spike TV commercial. Morgan, Saldana, Elba — these actors have all delivered in other films which is just proof that even the best ingredients mean nothing if there’s no chef using them to make a full meal. This movie makes “Smokin’ Aces 2” look downright logical and restrained.

The Losers was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 20th, 2010 Photo credit: Magnolia

More slow-motion (the film may hold a 2010 record for guitar-scored slo-mo), more heavy metal on the soundtrack, more over-lighting, more “big booms” — “more” was the driving force behind “The Losers” and it resulted in so much less than you can even imagine. To say I never once cared about anything that was happening in the film is an understatement. Considering I did openly hope that it would end soon, I suppose I did care about something.

Most of the special features on the DVD/Blu-ray combo for “The Losers” are as surface-level and useless as the film itself. They all run under ten minutes and have that soundbite feeling that you get from bonus material that’s obviously not going to teach anything about the art of filmmaking. Then again, it’s pretty clear that those who made “The Losers” know nothing about the art of filmmaking.

Special Features:
o Band of Buddies: Ops Training
- Intensive Training Sessions by Military Advisor and Ex-Navy Seal Harry Humphries
- Close-Up Look at the Intense Action Sequences
- Transforming Puerto Rico As a Stand-in for Several Global Locations
o The Losers: Action-Style Storytelling
o Deleted Scene
o Sneak Peek - “Batman: Under the Red Hood”

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com