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How you feel walking out Sylvain White’s ‘The Losers’ is going to depend a lot on what you went in expecting. A light-weight, energetic and cheerfully dumb action movie, it surges forward confidently down a well worn path of macho swagger, jarring explosions and snarky quipping. The plot is a model of simplicity and efficiency. Right off the bat, you get your super secret military squad betrayed by a mysterious superior, and a scene where innocents are demolished and the good guys have a vendetta, and finally there’s all that follows with the team in hiding, seeking out their revenge.

You know the drill, could jot down the finer points of the story during the opening credits, and you would be mostly right. Take one look at the roster for the team and you’ll see the usual lot of oddball characters being played by a game cast of second tier stars who have all the talent and then some of the A-list. What works with The Losers is that it understands exactly what it is, and has a firm and able grasp on the comic book origins of its story.

Last week’s Kick Ass was a slick and mean slice of cynical geek catering, always trying terribly hard to remind its numbed audience of its edgy graphic novel pedigree. The Losers is a far more cheerful affair and it doesn’t make any apologies or expect special privileges for being adapted from a funny book. The action is crisp and clear, with a welcome lack of dizzy camera work and seizure inducing editing that looks like an explosion at the Photoshop filters factory. To be sure, there’s some stylistic underpinning that works in the same way that some panels in a comic book do, livening up the action and the narrative with a little well placed, creative pizzazz.

There is an amazing amount of explosions in The Losers and I’m not sure I’ve seen as many automatic weapons or tracking shots of bullets since the late 90s. I enjoyed the action though, and while it dominates most of the movie, it feels perfectly appropriate for one with a title such as this. The revenge drama at the story’s center isn’t much, but when the bad guy is played by Jason Patric, there’s about as much reason as you need.  Patric, for his part, struts around the movie like some kind of odd hybrid of peacock, cobra and jackass.

The rest of the actors, led by the charming unmade bed that is Jeffrey Dean Morgan, give the picture much needed spice; they don’t try to retread 80’s movie action clichés as much as they seem to be performing the comic improv version of them.  Morgan’s Clay is the rascally, dare-devil leader of The Losers and it’s he who has moved them into exile after their alleged ‘death’. Morgan is a versatile and dependable actor and his turns on Supernatural and in last year’s Watchmen have the air of forethought and inspiration. In the latter case, he was easily the best thing about the movie. However, there’s no rich or nuanced shading to Clay.

This is Morgan on vacation, but not in a dead-eyed, ‘give me the paycheck’ Nic Cage sort of way. He’s having fun, fully relaxed, and as a result, we can see more of the latent charm that he buried under damaged men in those previously mentioned films. You can see his comic stand-up roots showing through, and he’s helped out with the funny by future Captain America, Chris Evans, who’s the most endearingly nerdy member of the team. It isn’t always immediately evident, but Evans has a real knack for adding flavor and variation to throwaway secondary roles. I’m looking forward to what he brings to the table as Steve Rodgers.

Zoe Saldana has been on a roll lately. In both Avatar and Star Trek, she showed she could hold her own in the deep dark geek jungle, and indeed she’s been playing strong, defiant and radiant females for years now. Off the top of my head, I remember her as a feisty lady pirate next to Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack in that first Pirates film. Here, she’s the mystery woman who beats up Morgan, burns down a hotel and reveals that she not only knows the identity of their mutual nemesis, but where he can be found. In the all guy ensemble of The Losers, she’s a welcome beauty who doesn’t need stubble or sneers to demonstrate that she’s not someone to be toyed with. There’s a kind of grace she brings to the film, whether it’s firing off a rocket launcher or sparring with Morgan, and I think she’s growing as a warm and likable presence with each new role. The Losers would be a less vibrant and endearing affair without her.

At the end of the day, this is what is. In a few months, we are getting The A Team and The Expendables, which look more or less like the same movie as this one. The former has the big budget and the latter the big muscles, but The Losers doesn’t seem too intimidated. After all, it made it out of the gate first, and as a prep for big summer fun, it does the job. There’s not much here, but the cast is all smiles and laughs and White’s direction has a no nonsense, workman’s charm. The Losers doesn’t want to assault you, or dramatically unhinge you, it just wants to hang out, catch a beer, and shoot the breeze, cinematically speaking. Everything about it suggests that all involved set out to make a good old fashioned, Friday night action flick. Mission accomplished.

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Previously seen on Atomic Popcorn