The Expendables 2 trailer looks fun, but will a slumming Schwarzenegger sink the movie?

This looks like more of the same, which is just fine by me.  The first film was just a little better than I expected, offering a fantasy of American warriors who could save the day with no collateral damage and with their morality intact by the time the credits rolled.  This one of course brings a bunch of new cast members, although my biggest fear is that Arnold Schwarzenegger may sink the whole thing.  His cameo in the first film was the worst scene of the picture, as he was basically refusing to take it seriously while Stallone and Willis respectively played it straight.  His performance here seems to be approaching Batman & Robin-level camp, which could prove fatal depending on how much screentime he has.  The rest of the gang looks fine, and considering Jean-Claude Van Damme's best pure-action film over the last 15 years involved him playing a villain (and that villain's clone... rent Replicant), it's so surprise that he seems to be having fun playing the super-villain this time around.  Anyway, this won't reinvent the wheel, but that's kind of the point.  The Expendables 2 looks like pretty solid B-movie action trash, and that's more-than-enough for me.  It drops August 17th.  As always, we'll see.  Thanks to IGN for the 'get'.

Scott Mendelson