The Losers

Dir: Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard)
Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Óscar Jaenada, Jason Patric
USA, 2010

Seen: Opening Day! April 23, 2010 at the Rainbow.

Reason to see: How do I count the ways? Jeffrey Dean Morgan is always a yes. Chris Evans is always a yes. Bunch of misfit films are always a yes. Well, that's three reason before sitting in the theatre!

Yes! Finally a movie I can get 100% behind. I loved The Losers. It won me over very almost instantly and kept winning me over again and again throughout the movie. I knew going into it that there were a lot of elements I liked, but all of those elements it took and made them even better than I expected.

The group dynamic in the team is fantastic. They really feel like a group of people that not only know how to do their jobs really well, but also know each other so well that they know each others demenors, actions and thoughts as they go along. I love seeing and believing that. Because of this it makes them pretty self-aware to the point of getting away with acknowledging elephants in the room. This led for some great, and intelligent comedy that was really refreshing.

Technically, they feel a little less misfit-y than I thought going in as the 5 guys & 1 woman that make up the ensemble cast are actually all extremely skilled in each of their specified areas. Another plus there because expertise of any kind is a beautiful thing to see. Bonus points go to the awesome camaraderie within the group, making them one heck of a unique team.

Now, it is an action film so there is lots of blowing stuff up and guns and such. But... it technically wasn't very violent and there wasn't stupid random nudity thrown in either. I was already won over by this point, but this put me over the moon happy. It doesn't stop there because they level of action (i.e. not excessive) didn't feel like a trick to sneak it to be a lower rated film, because it actually matched the characters because they don't really want to hurt people. Now those are real heroes in my book.

The cast is what really makes it all gel together to be a very fun film watching experience. All of the performances were good here, which is key in a film with such a group dynamic. First up, I have to say that Chris Evans is spectacular. Unrelenting, hilarious performance that perfectly played endearing geekiness with a backbone. Loved him in this, really loved him. I also specifically though Óscar Jaenada was fantastic as the sniper savvy Cougar, especially given that he's got a fair amount of screen time but not tons of dialogue and still made quite an impression. Very impressive. I also thought Columbus Short was great as the lovable Pooch, who had such a big heart and I even liked Zoe Saldana as Aisha which I totally wasn't expecting. She's was pretty convincing and pretty bad ass.

If these are misfit, who'd want to be anything else. I want to be a Loser, because The Losers are my heroes.

Shannon's Overall View:
I loved it
I'll buy it & I might even see it again in the theatre
I'd recommend it to fans of action films that have a heart

10 minutes of preshow including 4 commercials and 3 previews: The A-Team, Inception and Lottery Ticket

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© Shannon Ridler, 2010