The Losers

On the surface, it’s just another action movie. Stuff blows up, people get shot, the bad guy is trying to destroy the world and the good guys are trying to stop him. It’s the perfect popcorn movie. But take a closer look at The Losers and you’ll start to see that there’s more than just mindless entertainment going on here. It’s not trying to deliver a message, thank god, and it’s not an action movie with pretentions of being great art. But it’s smart, well written and well acted, and that separates it from the last 10 action movies you paid good money to sit in the dark and stare at. The cast of the film does a great job, embodying the quirks of their characters in a way that feels fresh and original. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Watchmen) is grizzled good fun as the leader of the group and Chris Evans (The Fantastic Four) is perfectly cast as the goofball. Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) is the big surprise of the film, combining smart, sexy and bad-ass enough to kick all the guys to the curb in one smoldering package. Good as everyone else is, though, it’s Jason Patric’s performance as the mysterious bad guy Max that steals the show. The secret to any good bad guy is for them to win the audience over so they like watching him no matter what he does, and it’s almost impossible not to fall for Patric’s charming performance, even as Max plots to destroy the world.