The Expendables 3
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 15, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
18
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 15, 2014
This has to be an intentional wink from Stallone and his contemporaries. They know their days are not only numbered as action stars, but probably should have ended long ago. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyAug 14, 2014
So let me just say that this latest rah-rah red-meat installment is the biggest and best surprise of the series. It has its flaws, but it's mostly a big, dumb, gruntingly monosyllabic hoot. Read full review
67
The PlaylistDrew TaylorAug 14, 2014
There have been some reports that this is the last entry in the series, but it feels like the franchise is (finally) just getting started. "The Expendables 4" anyone? Read full review
67
HitfixDrew McWeenyAug 12, 2014
It is forgettable fluff, but well-delivered, and it suggests that they'll be able to keep making these as long as they can prop up the cast, and with the younger generation making a decent showing this time out, they may even be able to hand it off when the time comes. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoAug 14, 2014
It’s a preposterously overstuffed strategy that, go figure, not only works, but even cures a thing or two that ailed the previous movies. Read full review
60
EmpireSimon CrookAug 13, 2014
The Expendables 3 has its cake and shoots it: armed to the nipples with vast action and bulging A-listers, but over-over-blown and overcrowded. See it for Gibson’s big-bad. Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamAug 4, 2014
The Expendables 3 marks a sizeable improvement on the first two outings. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 14, 2014
With its third entry, the Sylvester Stallone-led Expendables franchise finally becomes the live-action Saturday morning cartoon it was always destined to be. Read full review
50
Paste MagazineScott WoldApr 3, 2018
Joke’s way over, guys, and everyone’s now uncomfortable, thanks. Now, who needs a drink…? Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 16, 2014
For a mostly brainless movie, The Expendables 3 has a surprisingly dense plot, which is part of the problem. The 2-hour running length is unnecessarily long. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 14, 2014
The best thing about this self-mocking affair, which runs a leisurely two-plus hours and affords plenty of time for an insane body count, is Antonio Banderas' manic gusto in the role of a gabby mercenary. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreAug 13, 2014
Antonio Banderas pretty much steals The Expendables 3. But at this stage in that winded franchise, that amounts to petty theft. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweAug 4, 2014
Hughes and cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. handle the assignment skillfully enough, but without much imagination, sticking to a conventional action style that is more about the quantity of explosions than nuances of execution. Read full review
40
TimeRichard CorlissAug 18, 2014
Studying the topography of decay in a veteran actor’s face is one of the few worthy pursuits for moviegoers sitting through the epic-length, belligerently inconsequential The Expendables 3 — a picture whose very title proclaims its redundancy. Read full review
40
CineVueJamie NeishAug 14, 2014
Hughes' sequel fails because it makes no attempts whatsoever to rise above its predicable formula, even with the new cast additions and a promising director. Read full review
40
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldAug 14, 2014
It’s all a bit like a classic-rock tribute concert, or playing with all your action figures at once, or maybe “Cannonball Run,” with the strained buddy-buddy back-and-forth. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 14, 2014
Expendables 3 is a kind of ho-hum experience, wherein a lot of bullets are expended and a lot of structures exploded to minimal dramatic effect. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 14, 2014
The charm of these movies — such as it is — comes from the notion of aging action stars slugging it out between wheezes. So when Stallone brings in a new cast of mostly generic warriors, the premise, like the movie, deflates. Read full review
40
The DissolveMatt SingerAug 14, 2014
The film actually has some solid elements—a couple of appealing supporting performances, a good villain, effective comic relief, and even some awkward but sincere attempts at subtext about its aging cast. But the fact remains: An Expendables movie should be fun, and for long stretches, this one isn’t. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonAug 5, 2014
Thank the gods of war for Antonio Banderas, who single-handedly steals (and almost saves) the show as a loquacious assassin. Read full review
40
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 4, 2014
The Expendables 3 is silly and overblown, yes, and it could definitely do without Antonio Banderas‘ motor-mouth routine (not to mention an out-of-nowhere reference to Benghazi), but it's less silly and overblown than “The Expendables 2,” for whatever that's worth. Read full review
40
The GuardianAndrew PulverAug 4, 2014
[A] blundering jackhammer of a film. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 4, 2014
You can’t help but wonder if some important people in boardrooms watched the last two Expendables films and, between sips of mineral water, diligently noted all the ways in which the third might be made slicker and more polished, without realising the franchise’s doughy unslickness was the wellspring of its charm. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryAug 14, 2014
The movie’s action sequences are both thrilling and idiotic. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 15, 2014
A sad, bad, parade of uninspired cameos and listless violence. Read full review
30
Film.comJordan HoffmanAug 14, 2014
Cripplingly lifeless. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 13, 2014
What the movie ultimately demonstrates is that the sum total is less than the individual parts when you add together Rocky, the Terminator, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, Blade, Zorro, Hercules, and the Transporter. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 15, 2014
The Expendables 3, trading on our affection for action stars of the past, has officially worn out its already shaky welcome. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 14, 2014
The latest iteration of Sylvester Stallone’s aging warrior franchise, The Expendables 3, is proof that sometimes even your low expectations can be far too high. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 14, 2014
The Expendables 3 is as boneheaded and disposable as it sounds. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 14, 2014
The Expendables 3 is proof a movie can be exceedingly loud and excruciatingly dull. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 14, 2014
Really, The Expendables 3 has only one thing going for it, beyond the unremarkable novelty of seeing lots of celebrities in a lousy movie. It has Mel Gibson, who is at his grim, tormented and quirky best here, playing someone who has crossed a moral line and has no regrets. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinAug 11, 2014
For all the brawn on display, the film never slows down to take in the thrill and talent of hand-to-hand combat. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 14, 2014
The Expendables 3 lets down its cast with a film that’s about as thrilling as the arrival of a monthly Social Security check. Read full review
20
VarietyJustin ChangAug 4, 2014
This is the sort of numbskull non-entertainment that considers it worthwhile to fly in a martial-arts superstar like Jet Li and have him sit around firing a machine gun, pausing every so often to deliver the most awkward line readings of his career. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickAug 14, 2014
Time to pull the plug on this brain-dead franchise. Read full review
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