BUSINESS
August 13, 2010 | By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times
One of the biggest action stars of the 1980s is poised to destroy the competition at the box office. "The Expendables," directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, has men of all ages excited to come to theaters this weekend, with pre-release surveys indicating it will sell about $35 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada. An adaptation of the bestselling book "Eat Pray Love," starring Julia Roberts, is expected to draw a smaller number of adult women and open to around $25 million.
BUSINESS
August 10, 2010 | By Claudia Eller and Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times
When a movie is about to open, its actors and filmmakers usually think only about whether audiences will show up and like what they see. But Sylvester Stallone, who stars in and directed this coming weekend's "The Expendables," is acutely aware of a pressing matter of an entirely different nature: the behind-the-scenes war raging between the movie's distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., and corporate raider Carl Icahn, who has been trying to seize control of the company for more than a year.
ENTERTAINMENT
August 23, 2010 | By John Horn, Los Angeles Times
When it comes to people of a certain age, Hollywood has a certain reputation. Older screenwriters say they can't get jobs, leading parts for actresses start vanishing once they turn 35 and the studios have all but abandoned adult dramas. Which makes the continued success of "The Expendables" all the more remarkable. For the second weekend in a row, the action movie starring, directed and co-written by the 64-year-old Sylvester Stallone was the nation's No. 1 film, grossing $16.5 million, according to Sunday's studio estimates.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 17, 2012 | By Noel Murray
The Expendables 2 Lionsgate, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99 Available on VOD beginning Nov. 20 Doubling down on what worked just fine two years ago, this sequel brings back Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and adds Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme to the roster of action veterans paying homage to the big, dumb guns-and-bombs flicks of the 1980s. The plot this time has the team of mercenaries losing one of their own and exacting revenge, but "plot" isn't really the point of either of the "Expendables" movies; the idea is to show buff, beloved old stars, swapping quips and bullets while running in slow-motion ahead of explosions.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 19, 2010 | By Geoff Boucher
Former NFL defensive end Terry Crews has made 30 movies in the last decade and he has his own television series now with "Are We There Yet?" on TBS, but as he was munching on a steak salad at a Pasadena diner on a recent afternoon, he explained that fame is a fickle thing. "The people that recognize me, the ones that stop me on the sidewalk, it's because of that Old Spice commercial. I didn't know the meaning of viral before those commercials came out. I can't get away from those things."
ENTERTAINMENT
July 18, 2010 | By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
The lights were down low in Sylvester Stallone's Beverly Hills office on a recent afternoon so it was impossible to see the 64-year-old movie star's eyes behind his plum-tinted sunglasses. His snug Italian suit emphasized his still-muscular frame as he sat ramrod straight. His face doesn't move much, either, so he seemed like a statue, until he started recounting the moment when he knew that he was becoming expendable. "It was that first Batman movie," he said, referring to the 1989 film starring Michael Keaton, an actor never known for biceps.