100 Great Scenes In Not So Great Films - 20 - Tool's big scene in the Expendables

The Case For The Prosecution:

I feel a bit mean about putting the Expendables in here because the film does exactly what it says in the tin. It's an action movie that's basically an excuse to cast every old action star we love in one film. I think people were expecting more from it than it could ever actually deliver (probably where I fit), and then other people wanted something really OTT, which I think Stallone was trying to avoid, so they didn't get what they wanted either.

The excuse of a plot works solidly. The surrounding cast are decent, especially Sandra and General Garza. I personally find that there's too much CG but you know, nothing that can be complained about. Nothing that can be raved about either and I think that's why some people are down on it.

I'm also not sure every scene could be as good as Tool's scene, without the film becoming unwatchable in the sense of being too intense.

The scene itself:

Watch on YouTube

Why the scene is so good:

It's Mickey Rouke. Actually bothering. When he actually bothers, he's exceptional. He hits regret and the living with it, and that there is no living with it (when it's about something as serious as this).

Even at the time, I said one of the messages of the film was "these are cool guys but being a mercenary is a shitty thing to be", and this is the scene where that's really brought home. It's incredible. You know those scenes that will never get the credit they deserve, because of the film they're in. This is one of those.

Mo Money, No Problems - Or Mayweather is going to win Mayweather vs McGregor

Mayweather will win Mayweather vs McGregor. He was always going to. He won it the minute it was announced as a boxing match, not that he would have agreed to an MMA match (nor should he have been expected to). Mayweather is very proud of the 0 in his defeats column and, at this stage of his career, he’s not going to risk it. If he thought there was a chance of losing, Mayweather wouldn’t have agreed to the fight.

People keep saying that it just takes one punch to knock someone out, and that that’s the beauty of boxing. But Mayweather’s style of boxing has always been to avoid getting hit and he has faced far better boxers than McGregor. Mayweather’s counter-punching style is also going to frustrate the heck out of McGregor, making a wild haymaker from McGregor more likely, which opens him up to a body-shot from Mayweather. And Mayweather body-shots are a thing of vicious beauty.

McGregor went into this knowing all of that, and is making no bones about being in this for the money, so I don’t think even he thinks he’ll win. He’ll still try, bless him, but he’s not going to win.

McGregor has one chance - he can win if Mayweather turns up too old. There’s no way of telling when that will happen to an athlete (Bernard Hopkins was fine till he hit 50, other people are too old at 30.). I think this is unlikely to happen to Mayweather for 2 reasons.

1 - Mayweather keeps himself quite near to game shape in between fights. I suspect this causes less wear and tear and keeps him fresher than if he kept having to do big weight cuts before each bout.

2 - Like I said before, Mayweather is really proud of that 0. If he thinks he’s lost a step, he’s going to call the fight off.

I can see the match going a couple of rounds, because, weird match against Ortiz notwithstanding, Mayweather hasn’t gone less than 10 rounds since 2006. I don’t think it will reach 10 rounds, mind you, because I really do think McGregor’s going to go for a haymaker and get body-shot before then. I can see it going 4 rounds. That’s long enough that people are going to think they’ve got their money’s worth and won’t complain too much. Although, in the UK, I do not understand why you’d pay to watch this freakshow (let us call it what it is) when you could listen to it on the radio for free.