Jman & Johnny Love Movie Review: The Losers

Jman & Johnny Love Movie Review: The Losers

Did this merry band of CIA misfits please movie going audiences? No it didn't! Obviously by the weekend tally. Plus: Based on this performance is Chris Evens right for the Captain America role? Also a special shout out to the herald of Galactus: Brent Sprecher!!

Review Opinion
By jman1977 - Apr 26, 2010 08:04 AM EST
Filed Under: The Losers
Source: ComicBookMovie.com

Well, since it is Monday morning and not Friday night (Computer issues all weekend, that's why this is just getting posted today, but we shot this review Friday night) I might as well post the weekend tally. Another dismal theater turnout, but this week I don't blame the movie going audience. People don't go see movies that suck, or even sound like they suck. $45, $50 is a lot of money to waste on a bad flick. The Losers brought in a whopping $9.6 million this weekend. No doubt making Jeffrey Dean Morgan squint his eyes and make his stomach turn. However Kick Ass did not beat The Losers like I thought it would, instead only bringing in $9.5 million.

Here is our review:



I gave this movie a 7 on the Jman Movie Meter. Just a quick recap for you:

Clash of the Titans: 5 (Special Effect Extravaganza) Although I enjoyed watching this movie more then The Losers, Clash's story was no were near as well thought out, nor was the acting totally were it should have been. That's why The Losers got a 2 click advantage on the Jman Movie Meter.

Kick Ass: 13, because it was a better movie, had a lot more depth then both The Losers and Clash. See my Kick Ass review right over there on the left.

No, I'm not buying anything under a 10 (save Clash of the Titans, that movie just had too much eye candy for me not to have in my collection)! The Losers unfortunately under performed. They had an all star cast all lined up for a potential blockbuster trilogy, but what the movie turned out to be was a familiar road that didn't lead us into anything new and exciting. It was almost like The Losers was released way before The A Team and The Expendables because the movie gods new that those two movies would blow The Losers right out of the Theater. Like John said at the beginning of our review 'It was a movie that did not show us anything we haven't seen before'. John was right. No need for a sequel.

Just in case you were wondering Johnny and I will be taking a trip down to Elm Street this coming weekend. Then next weekend we'll be hanging out with Iron Man 2. Early screenings are very cool and ultimate (shout out goes to Brent Sprecher for being at the Iron Man 2 premiere, nice digs Brent!!!!) but for Jman and Johnny we would rather gauge the movie somewhat by the reaction from the audience and off course, interview them(not that we wouldnt go to a premiere believe that brother). Did we get a chance to do that with The Losers? No because there was next to no one in the Theater. But that's the fun of it. You guys get a lot of stiff stuffy boring reviews from the critics. Our format is we watch the movie in question. I take down certain notes and a certain score card (thanks Gtrman), I let John loose on the review, while I try to provide a bit of structure, then we find a few peeps that watched the movie as well and get their opinion. Most of the time it's very fly by the seat of your pants but it is also an initial reaction based on the film we just watched. Anybody can watch a movie then mull it for 3 or 4 days and pick it apart. We watch it, shoot it, BOOM. And sometimes it is just that a BOOM. But hey nobody's perfect, when your an established critic the sky's the limit, when your Jman and Johnny sometimes the limit's the sky!

Many thanks again to the Portage 16 IMAX Theater in Portage IN.

Related:

Jock Artwork Revealed For The Losers DVD/Blu-Ray Release!

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Joel Silver Shares His Thoughts On Comic Book Movies

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Shaman
Shaman - 4/26/2010, 8:45 AM
Good review!

Losers was obviously going to loose against A-Team and Expendables.

A-Team= Nostalgia of the show.
Expendables= Nostalgia of the actors in the film.

Losers had nothing to compete with that. Visually speaking, Losers still looks better than A-Team IMO but Expendables is looking to be something monumentally better than both films put together.
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 4/26/2010, 8:51 AM
THE LOSERS,, WINNER OF THE YEAR!!!

; P
THEHAWK
THEHAWK - 4/26/2010, 8:53 AM
Good review guys, not as entertaining as usual though.
Gotta agree that somethign with as many action stars in it as Expendables has can't end well.

Am I the only one on here who actually read the books and enjoyed the Losers film?

When I saw it the theater was packed.

But if it does 9 million each week it will make up its 25 million dollar budget. I still think we will get a sequel.

Hey everyone, if you want to see a somewhat unbiased view of the film by a long time fan of the books, check out my Losers review by clicking the pic below

An In Depth Look at "The Losers"


A comprehensive and detailed look at the recent Vertigo adaption “The Losers”. This review includes trailers, character posters and some scenes WB released from the film.
jman1977
jman1977 - 4/26/2010, 8:54 AM
The only thing I can give this movie and why i said it was at least a solid flick is the actors worked well together and the story progressed, although it was nothing we have not seen before. Some Comic adaptions are total garbage, The Losers wasnt total garbage but it could have and should have been way better.
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 4/26/2010, 8:58 AM
Cool vid @ Dudes!

Well i'm buying it on BLU-RAY,, only movie CBM wise i havn't bought is that turd BORIGINS, that was no excuse, but enough about that lol!

Fingers crossed it'll make its money Internationally!

Can't wait to see JONAH HEX!!!

One day HOLLYWOOD will learn though, one day!

High hopes for GREEN LANTERN!
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 4/26/2010, 8:59 AM
HAWK @ Um check ya article!! ; p

And I've got most of the comic book series.
THEHAWK
THEHAWK - 4/26/2010, 9:09 AM
@Multi. I agree, it would ahve been much better if they stayed true to the comics in tone, and not used the blasted "snuke" idea.

We may still get a sequel out of it. It has already made back more than a third of its budget. And this was a slack weekend at the box office, it seems like family freindly movies were at the top.

Who knows, both it and Kick Ass may bring in some more dough
jman1977
jman1977 - 4/26/2010, 9:11 AM
@ Multi: Good luck with that one dude. It's those pesky sanctions. I'm not dogging early screenings, just doesnt fit what we do. If I wrote everything out it would be cool. On The Losers I thought the acting was good, one of the strong parts of the movie, it just lacked the WOW factor. Seems like the producers put to much creed into Zoe, Even, and Morgan's star power that they thought with these guys in it it will be a hit. Just no WOW factor but I thought the actors did good. For me though, Not a buyer, but I will buy the Comic, seems like that will be a better read then viewing the movie?
THEHAWK
THEHAWK - 4/26/2010, 9:15 AM
@Jman. The comic is a million times better than the movie! The movie is fine on its own, but after reading the books, you could get angry that the movie deviated on what it did.
jman1977
jman1977 - 4/26/2010, 9:23 AM
Hawk I had a feeling that may be the case while watching the movie. Thanks for confirming.
DasBoot
DasBoot - 4/26/2010, 9:25 AM
So what was the main reason this wasn't a good movie? I haven't seen it yet, but IMO when you have a cast of well known actors with reputations of being good actors, and the movie turns out to be a turd, then it is either the directors or the writers fault.

The last movie that Sylvain White directed was Stomp The Yard, and before that I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. Do I really need to state the obvious in how bad of a choice he was to direct? Wait, I guess I just did :)

But even with a bad director, usually with a good cast something can be put together to salvage a movie. But that's only when there is a good script to work with. It wouldn't matter if you had Spielberg directing, and casted it with nothing but Oscar winners. If the story sucks then there is nothing anyone can do to save it.

Always remember... You can't polish a turd!
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 4/26/2010, 9:29 AM
this is a terrible comparison for saying if Evans can play Cap. they're two TOTALLY different roles...
jman1977
jman1977 - 4/26/2010, 9:34 AM
I know CDB I said that. Evens has never been in a lead role. He has to take all the supportive role experience he has and step it up a level because we have never seen him in a Lead role. I think he can do it(notice I said that as well CDB :) Captain America is the man and if he doesnt come off like he can tell Iron Man what to do then it will be like what was that DAS Boot, oh yeah, like trying to polish a turd.
thatiscrazy
thatiscrazy - 4/26/2010, 9:49 AM
First thing that made this movie average is the fact that its pg-13.... Nobody is really ever seen getting killed. They use tranqulizers, they choke people out instead of breaking there necks or its just really dark and you can't see anything. Not that violence is needed but its ridiculusly obvious that they went out of there way to tone this movie down... This is a case of a movie that would have made more money if it was R rated. The oher thing I didn't like was the main bad guy, his character was Awful and so was his acting. all the rest of the characters were awsome...

I also didn't like how ZOE's ass shot was used in the comercials to sell tickets only to find out that it was just a reflection in a small piece of broken glass, thats only a few inches across on the bigscreen.. thats why that particular shot looks grainy in the trailers, That was kinda pathetic.

Evens as always was really good, its hard to use this to judge his acting abilities... But he usually does comedy really well which most actors say is harder then drama, and most funny actors can transition to drama pretty well. He reminds me of a Will Smith type actor.
THEMRTERRIFIC
THEMRTERRIFIC - 4/26/2010, 9:58 AM
I gave it a 7 as well. My wife and I enjoyed it. Or maybe it was because we got a night out without the kids ;)
DasBoot
DasBoot - 4/26/2010, 10:00 AM
@jman You nailed it! With the way RDJ's Tony Stark is portrayed, how well do you think Captain America will be able give the orders and have them followed? Maybe Stark will rebel, and midway through come around and be a team player, but still be a headache for Captain America? That may be a good way to slip in the comedic moments I guess.
Ranger14
Ranger14 - 4/26/2010, 10:07 AM
Considering that most people aren't familiar with the comic "The Losers", they probably didn't feel a need to keep it really close to the source material. More mainstream comics are going to dictate that a film is more true to the source. More obscure comics are going to give them more room to work with as most of the movie going audience will have never read the comic, so adaptation only matters to the few who read the source material.
InFamouslyCool
InFamouslyCool - 4/26/2010, 10:08 AM
it was a decent movie. not as much "bang bang, shoot'em up" as i expected though. chris evans and columbus short saved it. all the funny parts came from them, and the funny parts was the only real good thing about the movie.
supermarioworldE
supermarioworldE - 4/26/2010, 10:46 AM
Good review. The Losers wasn't anything great, but no where near terrible. The cast really saved this movie from being as bad as it could have been. I had a good time watching it. I saw it as a big budget B-movie, and a very enjoyable one at that.
mwmcintyre
mwmcintyre - 4/26/2010, 11:57 AM
didn't watch the video(no sound on this computer) But I would say based on this performance that Chris Evans definitely could pull off Steve Rogers, especially when you consider that they are doing a young Steve, not the decade or two older, much more experienced version you see in the comics today. Yes, he should bulk up a bit, but that's pretty simple. No, I do not think he should play it like he played his character here, but he is after all, an actor, his job is to play different roles and when someone shows comedic acting ability, I have no worries about whether they can do serious.

"Dying is easy, comedy is hard."
Phinehas
Phinehas - 4/26/2010, 2:02 PM
Multi
Purhaps you can build a rating system much the same way as Jman. And present it as a "Pre-empt review of IM." An introduction to a future full review, if you will.

From 1 to 5 in each category:
Action
Plot
Writing
Pace
Actor performance
Direction
and so on for each one...

That way you don't really discuss the film, yet let us know what to expect.
PWhite
PWhite - 4/26/2010, 2:41 PM
I just watched this movie last night. There was only 4 of us in the theater. It was a good movie. 7 is a perfect rating 4 it.
flames809
flames809 - 4/26/2010, 6:04 PM
saw the loser and i liked it. and the theater was full where i went
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 4/26/2010, 7:52 PM
Great stuff lads. I'm sure i'm gonna be annoyed by this film having read the comics, but I'm also sure i'll enjoy elements if it..sooo, download:)
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