My anticipation for the original The Expendables was massive, only to be matched in size and scope by my disappointment after I actually saw the film. Stallone’s new version of Rambo was awesome, it was packed full of R-rated action movie sleaze and it wasn’t at all ashamed of being exploitation. The Expendables looked like it was going to be a continuation of that, and also a massive team-up of bitchin’ 80s action stars the likes of which we’ve never seen. It didn’t really turn out to be all that though. It was kind of lame and boring, and really it was just a Stallone and Statham team-up movie with a handful of other cameos thrown in. So I’m approaching The Expendables 2 much more cautiously. But even with lowered expectations, I can’t help but feel a little bit of a tingle watching the first teaser. I don’t know if it’s going to be the classless, take no prisoners, R-rated schlock that I’m hoping for, but at least it looks like this one is finally going to be the huge team-up of old guys that I wanted from the first. The team-up aspect is all that can be discerned from this teaser though. It’s a teaser in the truest sense, basically we get the names and head shots of the principal cast and not much else.

Next year’s The Expendables 2 is set up to be a team-up movie of the biggest action stars Hollywood has ever known. The only problem is that it looks a bit more like a senior’s circuit than it does an all-star game. Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris are all huge stars, sure, but if you add up their combined ages you get… okay, I don’t know, I’m not going to take the time to add up their combined ages. But they’re old. Jason Statham is going to need somebody who he can fight in this thing without worrying about knocking out their dentures with an uppercut or ripping their colostomy bag with a roundhouse. Luckily for him, Variety’s Showblitz is reporting that he may have found a sparring partner. Earlier this summer Chris Hemsworth made a pretty big name for himself by very charismatically filling the shoes of the mighty Thor. He’s probably got a big Hollywood career ahead of him from this point forward. But it’s starting to look like little brother Liam is playing a quick game of catch up. Not only does he have one of the big roles in next year’s much hyped The Hunger Games, but also it looks like he’s going to be joining Stallone and company in becoming Expendable. His role in the film is currently undisclosed, but adding another high profile project to the resume has got to be big news for the young [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

When Sylvester Stallone started casting for the original The Expendables it was said to be an all-star action icon meet up. Anybody who had ever been in an action movie before, and even a lot of dudes who just slept on those guys’ couches for a couple months, were all rumored to be in the film. When all was said and done, however, it mostly just ended up being a Stallone and Jason Statham team-up movie, with a dash of Jet Li, a sprinkle of Mickey Rourke, and a very brief cameo from the other big action icons Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. Not quite the all-star lineup people hoped for. Now that production is underway for a sequel, the rumor mill has once again been churning out hopes and dreams of an all-star action cast. Not only are Willis and Schwarzenegger supposed to have bigger roles this time around, but sources loosely associated with the project have intimated that huge names in the action genre like John Travolta, Chuck Norris, and Jean Claude Van Damme are all going to be in the cast as well.

It was bound to happen eventually. Alien invasions seem to be the note every production is striking these days (for better or worse), and there’s no way the paying public would want to see the fad die without Jean-Claude Van Damme taking a swing at those extra-terrestrial thugs. According to Variety, Dominic Burns will write and direct UFO, which sees Van Damme kickpunch his way through an invasion with help from several newcomers. Burns has acted, produced, written and directed most notably with Black & Blue Films (the studio that’s bringing you Strippers vs Werewolves!) which seems slightly like a Britain-based Asylum-style studio with a focus on schlocky horror and comedy. Sometimes at the same time. However, it’s Burns’s own Hawthorne Productions that will be handling this particular gem. Thus, the sky is literally the limit for this project. But honestly, who here among us doesn’t want to see Van Damme put his work boot through the slimy flesh of some alien with guts that hopefully explode out from his body? Exactly. None of us raised our hands. Bring it on. And if those aliens happen to look anything like snakes, they are boned (see above).

David Varod is the CEO of a Bulgaria based film studio called Nu Boyana. This is notable because Sylvester Stallone and his new director pal Simon West are filming scenes for their upcoming sequel to Stallone’s team-up movie The Expendables in Bulgaria. This is newsworthy because Varod is claiming that some big names, not previously confirmed as being in The Expendables 2, are on their way to Bulgaria to film for the movie. When speaking to Novinite, Varod first confirmed that shooting was taking place in September, and then hinted that a lot of Hollywood stars would be moving into the country to do work, “Yes, we are definitely going to do that project. It is going to be a sequel the (sic) The Expendables. The shooting is going to take place the second week of September. The movie is on, definitely. It will be a very good thing for Bulgaria, since there are some very big stars coming.” Big stars, that makes sense. It’s long been assumed that the stars from the original film like Stallone, Jason Statham, and Mickey Rourke would return. There was even some notion that guys like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who only made small cameos in the first film, might return in larger roles this time. But when pressed to name off the “big stars” that would be making their way into the country, Varod named a few that could potentially be huge casting announcements.

Good news for fans of guys who can kick high and have indecipherable accents. Jean Claude Van Damme has got his newest movie lined up and ready to go. Remember how excited everyone was when it was announced that Van Damme would be starring in the new Ernie Barbarash helmed film Assassination Games? Yeah, I don’t either. As a matter of fact, I think my Internet broke when I tried to Google its non-existent IMDB page. Regardless, producer Brad Krevoy is planning on teaming the actor/director duo back up for a new film called Six Bullets. This one would see Van Damme starring as an ex-mercenary kidnapping expert hired by a martial arts fighter to help him find his missing daughter. No, that wasn’t a typo, I actually did write all of those words in a row. I may not have ever heard of Ernie Barbarash, Assassination Games, or seen many of these lower tier Van Damme releases that have come out over the past decade, but I do remember when he played himself in 2008’s JVCD and I found the film to be surprisingly affecting and well made, and Van Damme’s performance to be legitimately nuanced and the best he has ever given in his career. What happened to that? Shouldn’t it have sparked at least one talented director to give this guy a more legit chance at a career resurgence?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this shit late at night, what do you expect?

A hearty, heart attack welcome back to Junkfood Cinema, where all manner of Ho Hos, Twinkies, and Ding Dongs are more than welcome. And, after that salutation, I’m a little more intrigued by the nature of how Hostess runs their business. Once again, your normal cruise director, Brian, has side-stepped his junkfood duties. Something about a triple bypass, but I only skim through those company-wide emails I receive. Nonetheless, the general idea came across loud and clear. We need a junkie movie. We need a junkfood tie-in. We need defibrillator pads, S-T-A-T.

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema: the worst part of your weekend. Every Friday I assault your sense of cinematic decency by serving up some truly awful films. These are the movies you would happily leave at the bottom of the dollar bin at that truck stop in northern Iowa, but for which I harbor great fondness. I will breakdown exactly what makes these films so bad but also what makes them hurt so good. As if that weren’t enough, I will also select a custom snack food to complement the film and add to your waistline what I subtract from your IQ.

We had to know this day would come. Jean Claude Van Damme, master of badass martial arts and all things round-house kick, has joined the cast of Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom.

That’s right, start your Wednesday morning off right with yet another chance to win something free. This time it also comes personalized with an awesome quote from yours truly.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released the first trailer for the upcoming Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren movie Universal Soldier: Regeneration today, leaving us caught in a web of awesome.

The much talked about final secret screening of this year’s Fantastic Fest was said to be epic, with a larger-than-life guest in the house to do Q&A. Some said Avatar, but they were wrong. In the end, it was Dolph Lundgren that delighted the Drafthouse crowds…

Could this trailer be hinting at Jean-Claude Van Damme’s involvement in Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet?

Since it has become aparent that all of you need updates on everything that happens in the lives of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren we are happy to share with you a few photos from the set of their upcoming collaboration, Universal Soldiers: The Next Generation.

Lock your doors and bust out your flashlights because the world as we know it is coming to an end: Jean-Claude Van Damme has turned The Expendables because he wasn’t given enough detail about his character or the story.

In an effort to fully express the rage Robert Fure contains, Boiling Point introduces the “Things That Don’t” subcategory. In the inaugural example – Things That Don’t Stop Bullets.

Can the action star draw in an audience with beautiful action scenes and…a love story?

Foreign Objects travels the world of international cinema each week to look for films worth visiting. So renew your passport, get your shots, and brush up on the local age of legal consent, this week we’re heading to… France!

Previously we had thought that getting into Cannes was an infinitely difficult task, but apparently it is not — at least, it’s not if you know wicked kung fu.