Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
When The Losers came out in 2010, it wasn’t considered much of a winner. It neither soared at the box office nor earned love from the critics. However, it did snatch a fervent cult audience. The Losers featured tons of violence, fun visual gags, and pre-MCU comic book movie turns from Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, and Idris Elba. It was a fun action movie, perfect for watching with friends on the couch. Which is why it should come as no surprise that The Losers is now a huge hit on Netflix, more than ten years after it debuted. It is the antidote to Marvel movie supremacy some folks might need this summer…
The Losers is based on the comic book series of the same name by Andy Diggle and Jock. The film opens on the titular team, a tight-knit special ops group led by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Clay, on a mission that soon goes awry. Clay and his team soon find themselves on the run from their mysterious boss Max (Jason Patric) and run into Aisha (Zoe Saldana), a dangerous woman hellbent on killing Max for her own vengeful reasons. While the Losers run afoul of Max because they realize his nefarious designs, Aisha’s father happened to be the drug lord that the Losers themselves were sent to kill on their last mission. Needless to say, The Losers is full of gun fights, double crosses, and explosive action sequences.
But maybe the thing The Losers is best remembered for is how preternaturally subversive its legacy would be. The film stars some of the MCU’s brightest stars in roles that either echo or completely upend the images they would later become internationally known for. Saldana’s Aisha is a tough, gun-toting avenging angel with daddy issues. You know, like Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Gamora. But Chris Evans plays the team’s awkward, nerdy tech guy (who needs the back up of another Loser to escape danger in an…elevator bay). Captain America, he’s not.
In fact, the most memorable part of The Losers is likely that aforementioned scene. It’s a comedy tour de force from Evans who had to tamper down his penchant for wise-cracking as Cap. Evans’s character Jensen sneaks into a high security high rise with a variety of home spun disguises, all while Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” plays. The scene culminates in a “psychic” shootout where Jensen boasts of having been experimented upon, resulting in superpowers. For a beat, the film teases us into thinking that perhaps he is able to shoot psychic bullets before revealing the team’s sniper is behind the shots. One year later, Evans would star in the first Captain America movie, playing the earnest version of the tale Jensen spouted.
The Losers is a film that sort of feels like it’s a dime a dozen, but it’s special thanks to the wild chemistry of its cast. It’s just a fun, fiery action flick without earnest morals weighing it down (or an omnipresent cinematic universe pushing into every other frame). The Losers is just a banging good time, so bask in it now while it’s streaming on Netflix.
