4K Review: “Expend4bles”: Finding beauty in the sound and the fury

The “Expendables” franchise has reached its fourth entry, and while the stunts and the banter between the main characters maintains levels from previous entries, the story for this one feels like there’s more focus on the formula and less focus on the story and the fun. It’s a good way to ease people into the inevitable idea that new, younger “expendables” will have to be brought in, and those new “kids” will have to work with the salty old crew that’s still around. Great idea, but for me, it didn’t quite hit all the marks.

But we’re here to talk about the 4K / Blu-ray release of Expend4bles.

The technical aspects of the film are top notch, the colors and clarity of the shots are satisfying. The darker colors are rich, and transitions from explosions to close-up action scenes featuring the team don’t have any technical glitches (that I could see). Visually, it’s a treat. This is also the first movie in the franchise to receive an “R” rating, and the amped up violence of the fights (and the deaths of the bad guys) reflects this.

Unfortunately, I do not have a sound system that can make the most of a Dolby Atmos so I cannot give a fair assessment of the sound mixing, but I could tell they were making use of separated channels. There are sequences where you can hear background and effects that are supposed to be happening to the left, right and rear of the viewer, but the immersive multi-dimensional audio experience wasn’t something I could experience given my hardware.

If you’re a fan of the franchise, the film is an okay addition, and for me, while the number of features included aren’t as extensive as I’d personally want, the ones included are well done.

Special Features:
* Audio Commentary with Director Scott Waugh
* Bigger, Bolder, Badder: The Expendables in Action
* More Than a Team: New Blood Meets Old Blood
* Theatrical Trailer

These features are included on both the Blu-ray and 4K discs, so there’s no need to swap discs in order to watch all the features (something that’s been happening on a lot of newer home video releases, and I am not amused).

There are two additional bonus features that are only available on the Amazon Exclusive release:
* Costuming the Expendables
* We Get the Job Done: Breaking Down the Fighting Styles

Personally, I would love to see a longer version of “Breaking Down the Fighting Styles”, and I hope they make this featurette more widely available later.

All of these featurettes are a lot of fun, and they remind me of the fun of the first movie (for better or worse). I hope they can get back into the groove for Expendables 5 (which would be a changing of the guard, given the setups in this film).

All versions are available on November 21:
4K Ultra HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital (SRP: $42.99)
Blu-ray™ + DVD + Digital (SRP: $39.99)
DVD (SRP: $29.96)

AMAZON EXCLUSIVE 4K Ultra HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital (SRP: $42.99)
BEST BUY EXCLUSIVE SteelBook® 4K Ultra HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital (SRP: $42.99)

There’s also another Walmart Exclusive Steelbook release of the 4-film collection:
WALMART EXCLUSIVE SteelBook® 4-Film Collection 4K Ultra HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital (SRP: $69.99)

Many thanks to Lionsgate for providing a 4K combo copy of “Expend4bles” for this review

A new generation of stars join the world’s top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure in Expend4bles. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia.

Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.

Cast: Jason Statham, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, with Andy Garcia, and Sylvester Stallone
Directed by: Scott Waugh
Screenplay by: Kurt Wimmer & Tad Daggerhart and Max Adams
Screen Story by: Spenser Cohen and Kurt Wimmer & Tad Daggerhart
Based on Characters Created by David Callaham