August 18, 2014 -- There are a whole heap of mediocre movies in theaters these days, as is often the case this time of year, but it had been a while since I been to the local theater, so I decided to see “The Expendables 3,” the movie (other than “Guardians of the Galaxy”) most likely to give me some tolerable entertainment.

It was just about what I expected, a mediocre, but moderately entertaining movie. The characters in the film are somewhat engaging, but the action scenes are almost as incomprehensible as the plot. I stopped trying to figure out what was supposed to be going on and just followed the characters. It wasn't a hard movie to sit through, but it would have been more entertaining if the plot and the action scenes had made some sense.

This is a sequel that builds on the first two films. As in the second film, this film adds even more characters to the original core surrounding Sylvester Stallone, who plays Barney Ross, the leader of an elite team of mercenaries, who are all played by veteran action stars, such as Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Randy Couture and Terry Crews. Just for good measure, this film adds Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson into the mix. If that is not enough, a whole new generation of actors is added (call them “The Expendables: The Next Generation”). The younger actors are, Ronda Rousey, Kellan Lutz, Glen Powell (the computer expert) and Victor Ortiz.

The film opens with an incomprehensible action scene which has something to do with an assassination, or kidnapping or something which concerns Stonebanks (played by Mel Gibson) who is the bad guy in this film. Due to wrong-headed planning on the part of Barney Ross, the mission goes bad and a member of his team gets badly wounded. Ross feels bad about this, so he disbands his team of old friends and calls on an old friend, Bonaparte (played by a tough, grizzled-looking Kelsey grammar) to help him recruit a new team of mercenaries (played by the younger actors listed above).

The next mission goes bad too (more bad planning on the part of Ross) and the new, younger team gets captured by the evil Mel Gibson and his minions. Ross decides to go on a rescue mission to save his team. The rest of the plot is fairly predictable, borrowed, in part from action films like “The Raid” or “Dredd” about battles up and down the floors of big buildings. But instead of keeping it simple, like those films did, this film scatters the action all over the place. There is no plan of escape, no strategy (like fighting their way to the roof to grab the enemy helicopters so they can make a getaway) just a disconnected series of battles in different areas in and around the building.

One of the more intriguing characters is Luna (played by Ronda Rousey) a female nightclub bouncer who is recruited to Barney Ross' team. Unlike the tiny stick-figure fighting women seen in other action films, Rousey actually looks like she can handle herself in a fight. That's because she actually can handle herself in a real fight, just like Gina Carano (yet another fighter-turned-actor) can. Rousey is an Olympic medalist in Judo and UFC champ in mixed martial arts.

Another intriguing character is Doc (played by Wesley Snipes, a martial arts expert and star of the “Blade” movie series). As the film opens, Doc is being held prisoner in some foreign country. After being rescued by mercenaries, one of them asked him why he was in prison. Doc replies, “Tax evasion.” This is a reference to the fact that Snipes served over two years in prison on federal income tax law violations. He was released from prison last year. Another in-joke had Schwarzenegger repeating his “get to the chopper” line made famous in a viral video from TV's Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

This is a film that does not take itself seriously. That is a good thing. This film rates a C.

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