We don’t want to say action movies are getting wimpier, but when 12-year-old Jaden Smith is the biggest action star of the summer, you know something’s gone wrong. Now, along comes 64-year-old Sylvester Stallone to kick it old-school. He’s going full-on 1980s with “The Expendables,” out Aug. 13, a simple throwback tale of revenge about a team of mercenaries hired to take down a vicious South American dictator. The biceps are big, the guns bigger, the explosions frequent and the leading men’s faces mostly like hamburger. Expect theaters to be hosed down nightly from the stink of testosterone.
Joining Stallone on his mission are Brit baldie Jason Statham, martial artist Jet Li, “Rocky IV” baddie Dolph Lungren, Ultimate Fighting Championship king Randy Couture, and ex-NFLer and star of TBS’s “Are We There Yet?” Terry Crews. Not to mention former boxer Mickey Rourke, slimy bad guy Eric Roberts and cameos from Mr. Die Hard and the Governator (see sidebar).
“I don’t feel comfortable in something that’s highly futuristic or technical,” Stallone tells The Post. “I understand it, but I’m not as comfortable as in doing ‘First Blood’ or ‘Cliffhanger.’ I thought, ‘That hasn’t been around for a while. ‘I’d like to bring it back.’”
Stallone, who wrote and directed “The Expendables,” says that, besides ’80s movies, his new film is meant to recall guy team-up flicks like “The Dirty Dozen.”
Grab a protein shake and meet the members of the team.
STEVE AUSTIN
Plays: henchman Paine
Height and weight: 6-foot-1, 250 pounds
Favorite action movie: “I’d have to go with the first ‘Rocky.’ I saw that, got up the next morning, drank my eggs and was running down the street like an idiot.”
Toughest Expendable: “The guys are all tough, but if you’re going to sit there and talk about a physical fight, I don’t think anyone will give you any argument that Randy Couture is that guy.”
Last time you were in a real fight: “I damn near got into a couple fights in the ring. When a guy snubs you a bit too hard, we call that a ‘potato.’ Depending on how good-natured you are, that dictates how many potatoes you want to take. When you’ve had enough, you send back what’s called a ‘receipt.’ Then it goes accordingly. Usually when you get a potato and send back a receipt, things settle down pretty fast.”
Toughest stunt: “My fight with Stallone. Being in a physical place with that guy and nothing but a brick and concrete floor with sand on it, and getting cut up and grinded. It was like rolling around on sandpaper. And on top of that, not wanting to throw the wrong punch and hit that guy, because that’s your star. It’s a moment of stress fighting with a guy like Sly, because I don’t care if you’re Steve Austin or not, you throw the wrong punch, you’re probably going to be gone.”
Favorite onscreen kill: “I don’t even know. That’s a shame that I have to think about that. That only inspires me in my next endeavor to kill someone in such an extravagant fashion that we’ll have something to talk about next time."
"The Expendables" is out in theaters nationwide on August 13. For other release dates, click here.
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