The Losers (Sylvain White, 2010)

A crack team of black ops agents get stabbed in the back by their corrupt CIA boss and vow revenge, take 313. The best that can be said of The Losers is that it's superior in terms of editing, wit and acting to the overall identikit The Expendables that came out later in the year. This is of course not saying much. Ok, it was cheaper too, with a cast that's still recognisable prepared to grunt their way through the motions for a fee far short of what Stallone and co. demanded, and hence may be viewed in a favourable light simply for its economy. But indulgence can only go so far when there's such a paucity of imagination at work that the regulation-ethnically assorted protagonists have to wave big guns in each other's faces to punctuate every argument and we're asked to put up with the tiresome bag of playschool-psychotic quips that is Jason Patric as the arch-villain.

4/10