The Losers (film)
Encyclopedia
The Losers is a 2010 American action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 based on the adaptation of the Vertigo comic book series of the same name
The Losers (Vertigo)
The Losers is a comic book series published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, written by Andy Diggle and illustrated, for the most part, by Jock...

 by Andy Diggle. Directed by Sylvain White
Sylvain White
Sylvain White is a film director.Son of an American professional basketball player and a French flight attendant, Sylvain White was born in France and grew up mostly in Paris. After attending La Sorbonne University for law, he earned a scholarship to Pomona College in California, where he...

, the film features an ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...

 that includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an American actor, best known to television and movie audiences as Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, patriarch John Winchester on Supernatural, and as The Comedian in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen....

, Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana , sometimes stylized Zoë Saldaña, is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and a starring role...

 and Chris Evans
Chris Evans (actor)
Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans is an American actor. He played Cary Baston on the television series Opposite Sex, and transitioned to a film career, starring in several hits, including Not Another Teen Movie , Fierce People , Fantastic Four, sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and...

.

The film received negative reviews from critics and drew comparisons to The A-Team
The A-Team (film)
The A-Team is an American action film based on the television series of the same name. It was released in cinemas in the United States on June 11, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Stephen J. Cannell and the Scott brothers Ridley and Tony...

, a remake of which was released shortly after The Losers premiered.

Plot

The Losers are an elite black-ops team of United States Special Forces operatives, led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an American actor, best known to television and movie audiences as Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, patriarch John Winchester on Supernatural, and as The Comedian in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen....

) and formed by Roque (Idris Elba
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba is a British television, theatre, and film actor. He has starred in both British and American productions. Elba grew up in Canning Town, East London. One of his first acting roles was in the soap opera Family Affairs. He has worked in a variety of TV roles including ...

), Pooch (Columbus Short
Columbus Short
Columbus Keith Short, Jr. is an American choreographer, actor, and singer. He choreographed Britney Spears's Onyx Hotel Tour and worked with Brian Friedman...

), Jensen (Chris Evans
Chris Evans
Christopher James "Chris" Evans is an English broadcaster, businessman and producer for radio & television.-Early life:Evans was born in 1966, in Warrington, Cheshire, England, the youngest child of bookmaker...

) and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada), who are sent to Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

 in a search-and-destroy mission on a compound run by a drug lord. While painting a target for an upcoming air strike, the Losers spot slave children in the compound and try to call off the attack, but their superior, codenamed "Max" (Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

), ignores their pleas.

With no other option, the Losers enter the compound, successfully rescue the children and kill the drug lord in the process. As a helicopter arrives to pick them up, Max, convinced that they know too much, orders it to be destroyed, unaware that they decided to rescue the children first. The Losers watch as a missile destroys the helicopter and kills 25 innocents. Knowing that the attack was meant to kill them, they fake their deaths and become stranded in Bolivia, determined to get revenge on the mysterious Max.

Four months later, Clay is approached by Aisha (Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana , sometimes stylized Zoë Saldaña, is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and a starring role...

), a mysterious woman who offers him the chance to kill Max, against whom she wants revenge. Clay accepts and Aisha arranges for the Losers to return to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where they proceed to attack a convoy supposedly carrying Max, only to discover that they were tricked by Aisha into stealing a hard drive with Max's secrets.

Unable to access the files, Jensen infiltrates the company that made the drive and steals an algorithm that allows him to crack the code, discovering that the drive contains credits for a $400 million transfer in Max's name, which he received for selling "Snukes" - eco-friendly bombs with the potency of a nuclear warhead, but no fall-out - to international terrorists. Tracing the money flow to the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 International Port Of Entry, which the Losers deduce is Max's base, a plan is formed to attack it and kill Max.

While studying the drive, Jensen discovers that their mission in Bolivia was a cover so Max could steal the drug lord's money, and that Aisha is the man's daughter, seeking to reclaim what Max stole from her. After her cover is blown, Aisha shoots Jensen and escapes. Believing that she might betray them, the Losers decide to speed up their attack on Max's base, only to be betrayed by Roque and captured by Max and his right-hand man and chief of security, Wade (Holt McCallany
Holt McCallany
Holt McCallany is an Irish American actor, writer, and producer working primarily in film and television.-Early life:...

).

As the Losers are lined up to be executed, Aisha returns and ambushes Max's team. In the ensuing fight, Clay confirms that he killed Aisha's father. Roque attempts to steal Max's plane, loaded with his money, and tries to escape. As Roque's jet heads down the runway, Wade takes a motorcycle and goes after him to retrieve Max's money. Cougar shoots the engine of a pursuing Wade's motorcycle, causing Wade to be hurled into the jet's engine and the flaming motorcycle to be hurled into the cockpit of the plane, which explodes, killing Roque.

As Jensen, Cougar and Aisha help Pooch, who has been shot in both legs by one of Max's security guards, Clay pursues Max to a crane, where Max says that he has activated a Snuke that'll destroy Los Angeles, and Clay will have to choose between de-activating it or killing Max. Clay choses the former and Max escapes, but Clay affirms that he now knows what Max looks like and will soon find him.

Shortly thereafter, the Losers help Pooch reach the hospital where his pregnant wife is giving birth to their son and attend Jensen's 8-year-old niece's soccer game.

Cast

  • Jeffrey Dean Morgan
    Jeffrey Dean Morgan
    Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an American actor, best known to television and movie audiences as Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, patriarch John Winchester on Supernatural, and as The Comedian in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen....

     as Colonel Franklin Clay
  • Idris Elba
    Idris Elba
    Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba is a British television, theatre, and film actor. He has starred in both British and American productions. Elba grew up in Canning Town, East London. One of his first acting roles was in the soap opera Family Affairs. He has worked in a variety of TV roles including ...

     as William Roque
  • Zoe Saldana
    Zoe Saldana
    Zoe Saldana , sometimes stylized Zoë Saldaña, is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and a starring role...

     as Aisha al-Fadhil
  • Chris Evans
    Chris Evans (actor)
    Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans is an American actor. He played Cary Baston on the television series Opposite Sex, and transitioned to a film career, starring in several hits, including Not Another Teen Movie , Fierce People , Fantastic Four, sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and...

     as Jake Jensen
  • Columbus Short
    Columbus Short
    Columbus Keith Short, Jr. is an American choreographer, actor, and singer. He choreographed Britney Spears's Onyx Hotel Tour and worked with Brian Friedman...

     as Linwood "Pooch" Porteous
  • Óscar Jaenada as Carlos "Cougar" Alvarez
  • Jason Patric
    Jason Patric
    Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

     as Max
  • Holt McCallany
    Holt McCallany
    Holt McCallany is an Irish American actor, writer, and producer working primarily in film and television.-Early life:...

     as Wade
  • Peter Macdissi
    Peter Macdissi
    Peter Macdissi is an actor who was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His filmography consists mostly of television work, most notably playing long-time recurring character Olivier Castro-Staal on Alan Ball's hit HBO series Six Feet Under. In 2007 and in 2008, he was seen in Towelhead, a feature film which...

     as Vikram

Development

In 2007 it was announced that a movie adaptation is in development with a screenplay by Peter Berg
Peter Berg
Peter Berg is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor...

 and James Vanderbilt, to be directed by Tim Story
Tim Story (film director)
Timothy Kevin Story is an African-American film director. Born in Los Angeles, California, he attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles with jazz pianist Eric Reed and actresses Regina King and Nia Long. He was senior class president at Westchester High. He graduated from the University of...

 for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 In October 2008 Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

reported that Sylvain White
Sylvain White
Sylvain White is a film director.Son of an American professional basketball player and a French flight attendant, Sylvain White was born in France and grew up mostly in Paris. After attending La Sorbonne University for law, he earned a scholarship to Pomona College in California, where he...

 had now taken the director's chair, with Dark Castle Entertainment
Dark Castle Entertainment
Dark Castle Entertainment is a division of Silver Pictures, a production house affiliated with Warner Bros. It was formed in 1999 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler...

 acting as the financiers.

In February 2009, it was reported that Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an American actor, best known to television and movie audiences as Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, patriarch John Winchester on Supernatural, and as The Comedian in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen....

 would headline the upcoming adaptation playing Clay. In March 2009, it was confirmed that Columbus Short
Columbus Short
Columbus Keith Short, Jr. is an American choreographer, actor, and singer. He choreographed Britney Spears's Onyx Hotel Tour and worked with Brian Friedman...

 will play Pooch, Idris Elba
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba is a British television, theatre, and film actor. He has starred in both British and American productions. Elba grew up in Canning Town, East London. One of his first acting roles was in the soap opera Family Affairs. He has worked in a variety of TV roles including ...

 will play Roque and Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana , sometimes stylized Zoë Saldaña, is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and a starring role...

 will play Aisha, Chris Evans
Chris Evans (actor)
Christopher Robert "Chris" Evans is an American actor. He played Cary Baston on the television series Opposite Sex, and transitioned to a film career, starring in several hits, including Not Another Teen Movie , Fierce People , Fantastic Four, sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and...

 playing Jensen, and Óscar Jaenada playing Cougar. In August 2009, it was announced that Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

 will play Max.
White explained how he worked closely with the creators of the comic book to recreate the visual tone of the story. The film adapts the first two volumes of the comic book, "Ante Up" and "Double Down" and tells the story in a more linear way than in the comic books. Elements of the story have been left out instead of trying to squeeze the whole story into one film and the director would like to tell the rest of the story if the film does well at the box office.

Filming

Jeffrey Dean Morgan took the role of leader very seriously and was on set every day, even if he was not in the scene.

Filming for The Losers began in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

 and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 in July 2009.

Many of the movie's scenes were filmed in many of Miami's neighborhoods such as Brickell
Brickell
Brickell is an urban neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States. A neighborhood of greater Downtown Miami, Brickell is Miami and South Florida's major financial district.-Background:...

, Downtown Miami
Downtown Miami
Downtown Miami is an urban residential neighborhood, and the central business district of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and South Florida in the United States...

, Midtown Miami
Midtown Miami
Midtown Miami is the collective term for the Wynwood and Edgewater neighborhoods of Miami, Florida, United States, north of Downtown and south of the Miami Design District. It is roughly bound by North 29th Street to the south, I-195 to the north, I-95 to the west and Biscayne Bay to the east.In...

 and South Beach
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It is the area south of Indian Creek and encompasses roughly the southernmost 23 blocks of the main barrier island that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.This area was the first...

. City scenes were shot in the Downtown Miami area, with driving scenes in the city filmed along Brickell Avenue
Brickell Avenue
Brickell Avenue is the name given to the stretch of U.S. Route 1 in Miami, Florida just south of the Miami River. North of the Brickell Avenue Bridge, US Route 1 is known as Biscayne Boulevard...

 and near the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, commonly called The Arsht Center, is Florida's largest performing arts center and is located on Biscayne Boulevard in the Omni neighborhood of Downtown, Miami, Florida, United States...

.

Filming in Puerto Rico included scenes at the Arecibo Observatory
Arecibo Observatory
The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope near the city of Arecibo in Puerto Rico. It is operated by SRI International under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation...

, Port of San Juan and the Milla de Oro area of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico
Hato Rey, Puerto Rico
Hato Rey is a former ward located in the northwest part of the dissolved municipality of Río Piedras. It now stretches over three wards of the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico:*Hato Rey Central*Hato Rey Norte*Hato Rey Sur...

.

Marketing

Promotional artwork for the film was released at Comic Con, the poster was drawn in the style of the comic book by series artist Jock, and was later recreated photographically with the cast from the film and used as the theatrical release poster.

A four minute preview of the film was shown at WonderCon
WonderCon
WonderCon is an annual comic book, science fiction, and motion picture convention, held in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1987.The convention was conceived by retailer John Barrett and originally held in the Oakland Convention Center, where it remained until 2003, when it moved to San...

.
A special "double volume" collected edition graphic novel was released to tie in with the film adaptation collecting including the volumes Ante Up and Double Down. A second book to collect the rest of the series was also released.

Release

In June 2009, Warner Bros. set a tentative release date of April 9, 2010 for the film.
The release date was then pushed back to June 4, 2010, to avoid going up against Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans (2010 film)
Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy and action remake of the 1981 film of the same name . The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010...

also from Warner Bros. The trailer for the film was released online January 29, 2010, and was shown in theaters with Edge of Darkness.
An official photo for the film was released online. The release date was subsequently moved up to April 23, 2010.

Critical response

The film has received mixed to negative reviews. It holds an approval rating of only 48% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 based on 152 reviews, with a consensus stating The Losers is loud, fast, and unrelentingly violent.

Review aggregation website Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 assigned the film a weighted average score of 44% based on 32 reviews from selected critics.

Peter Debruge of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

criticized the film as "the sort of pyro-heavy exercise parodied in Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 American action satire comedy film written, produced, and directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., and Jack Black. The main plot revolves around a group of prima donna actors who are making a Vietnam War film...

. He notes that casting against type helps make the team more memorable but complains that despite the polished production the film offers only a hollow junk-food high. John Anderson describes the film as a good idea pushed to excess, and with all the freshness of last week's salad bar. Scott Tobias of The AV Club complains about the lack of humility or self-deprecation in the heroes despite their title. He notes how the film tries so strenuously to be cool and describes the film as nothing more than style for its own sake. Kyle Smith of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

lambasts the film giving it half a star out of 4. He describes Zoe Saldana as a femme banale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...

, saying actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, deserved better and Chris Evans deserved worse. He dismisses the film as G.I. Joke, The D-Team
The A-Team (film)
The A-Team is an American action film based on the television series of the same name. It was released in cinemas in the United States on June 11, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Stephen J. Cannell and the Scott brothers Ridley and Tony...

, and says that even though the film tries to do so little, it still falls so short.

Phelim O'Neill of The Guardian newspaper gave the film 3 stars out of 5. He notes similarities to the A-Team and criticises the film for being full of action movie cliches. He praises the film for the lighter comedic touches, and overall describes it as big dumb fun.
His colleague Philip French of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

described the film as being in "A-Team territory" with the action sequences being well enough put together but that it was all done far better in Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice
Extreme Prejudice (film)
Extreme Prejudice is an American action film originally released in 1987.The film was directed by Walter Hill; it was written by John Milius, Fred Rexer and Deric Washburn...

.

Box office

The film played in 2,936 theaters and earned $9,406,348 on its opening weekend at the box office at #4.
The film went on to earn $23.5 million in the United States and more than $5 million internationally for a worldwide total of over $29 million. Added to this, it made over $8.2 million on DVD sales in the USA alone, giving it a minimum earning of $37.6 million - a profit of over $12.6 million before worldwide DVD sales.

Home media

In the United States, the DVD release date for the film was July 20, 2010.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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