The Losers

From August 2003 to March 2006, 32 issues of a comic book series were published by DC Comics. They were titled “The Losers”. Now 32 issues is quite long in the life of a comic book. Surely there are a few that have crossed a much higher number but the number 32 and a couple of awards won were considered good enough by director Sylvain White to attempt getting the comic book to the silver screen. Or maybe Sylvain was just following the tracks of several graphic novels / comics / TV series that have been remade onto the big screen over the past few years. Some of them successfully and others not as lucky. Well, I am sure he tried his best to not land up like the title and maybe also emulate what the comic book got in terms of awards. Unfortunately, Sylvain has still to mature as a director and has probably lost an opportunity to build a solid franchise. The comic book had 32 issues and the concept of The Losers had tremendous potential of getting at least 2, maybe even 3 more sequels but I guess it will take a lot of courage and a crazy investor to have the courage to put the money onto the table now.

Lt. Col. Franklin Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the leader of a small strike team into Bolivia to seek and destroy an operation run by a local gangster / rebel called Fadhil (Peter Francis James). Clay is supported in his efforts by Capt. Jake Jensen (Chris Evans), Capt. William Roque (Idris Elba), Sgt. Lingwood “Pooch” Porteus (Columbus Short) and Sgt. Carlos “Cougar” Alvarez (Oscar Jaenada) – each one with his own set of responsibilities. As they are about to make the strike, they notice a whole bunch of kids being taken into the hamlet and Clay wants to call the operation off. But the CIA operative behind the mission, Max (Jason Patric) doesn’t allow it. Clay, however, decides to go right ahead and save the children in the under 8 minutes that they have for the air strike to take place. In the process, they also manage to kill Fadhil.

But the sinister Max, who the team hasn’t seen as of now, has other ideas. He blows up the chopper that picks up the kids. Disgusted by this, the strike team decides that they are not going to have anything to do with the army any more and junks their dog tags in the debris. All this works out conveniently for Max since no one is there to refute his sinister role in the entire activity. The team then moves on to take odd jobs in Bolivia / South America but desperately want to track down Max. Enter Aisha (Zoe Saldanah) who joins The Losers under the commitment that she will lead them to Max. The entire team but for Roque is excited at the prospect – of tracking down Max not Aisha (corrupt minded people I say) and so the adventure begins.

In a year that saw the release of the likes of A Team and Expendables (which in itself was not upto the mark), I am appalled at the courage that the makers of The Losers had to release the movie in the first place. A really badly made movie, it was no surprise that it lasted in India for less than a week. And I was wondering why all this while. Jeffrey Dean Morgan should restrict himself to the rugged romantic movies like Gerard Butler deals in. Just coz Gerard Butler can act in action movies and just because Morgan starred with Butler in PS I Love you doesn’t mean that Morgan can act in action movies. It’s a different league Jeffrey dear. Way out of yours. At least Jeffrey Morgan tries to act. The rest of the cast, regrettably, doesn’t even make a meek attempt. Quite a sad result from what could have been a successful trilogy or even a quadrology. 3 on 10

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi894043161/