The Expendables 3 takes Sylvester Stallone's vintage action badass team-up franchise out for one last bullet and knife-flinging ride - hopefully more sound and polished on the cinematic level than any of the previous installments. Judging by the look of the latest Expendables 3 trailer, director Patrick Hughes has put together something here that could very well redeem a lot of the missteps of Expendables 1 & 2 - potentially fun enough to make those anxious about Hughes' upcoming American remake of The Raid: Redemption a little more intrigued about what he can do with that franchise.

If you didn't get the story form the trailer, in this third installment Barney (Sylvester Stallone) is plagued by an old friend, Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), co-founder of The Expendables. Conrad seeks to lure Barney out by targeting his old pal's young proteges (new kids played by the likes of Kellan Lutz and MMA star Ronda Rousey); Barney then responds in kind by rounding up some of the veteran Expendables (like Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, and Dolph Lundgren, to name a few) to bring the pain to Conrad.

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The Expendables 3 Cast

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The real talking points of this trailer are that 1. The film looks more like the sort of tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top, spectacle-driven action flick you'd expect from this franchise; 2. There are a LOT of famous faces in this film - and it looks like they'll be put to good use. Aside from seeing the above-mentioned lineup of stars kicking butt and making things blow up, this trailer reveals several fun moments of stars like Kelsey Grammer, Harrison Ford, and Arnold Schwarzenegger standing around providing banter that will make old-school action fans squeal with geeky delight. Even Jet Li is getting some sight gags in there.

In short (see what I did there?): this movie looks like it could be fun and competent - something that would arguably be a first-time boast for the franchise. Could the PG-13 installment ironically enough turn out to be the best? We shall see...

The Expendables 3 will be in theaters on August 15, 2014.

Source: Lionsgate.