WHILE most pensioners are wondering how far they can travel on their free pass or browse through brochures for retirement homes, Sylvester Stallone is busy fighting and shooting and then fighting some more on screen – a real 68-year-old action man.

Every so often he calls up some pals in the same position and says, "Let's make a movie to show audiences we're not past it and let these young screen whippersnappers know that we can still kick some ass."

So Sly embarked on his third screen franchise (after Rocky and Rambo) The Expendables, in which a bunch of mainly ageing mercenaries take on the bad guys and, after much shooting, punching and thumping, emerge victorious.

The Expendables 3 is over-the-top nonsense of the highest order that doesn't allow logic, good taste or arthritis to stop the good(ish) guys defeating the bad guys, led on this occasion by Braveheart himself, Mel Gibson.

Sly's Barney Ross finds himself pitted against his former partner and Expendables co-founder Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who's become a ruthless arms dealer (is there any other kind?).

But plot, at least one that makes sense, is not a major consideration here. What people have come to see – and what they get by the bucketload – is tough guys (and a solitary tough gal) defying the odds and taking on the army enlisted by Stonebanks to protect his business interests.

Dialogue is kept to a minimum which is a good move as some of this wild bunch couldn't deliver a letter let alone lines. It's more a case of mastering the "my weapon is bigger and noisier than yours" look than emoting for Oscar consideration.

The twist this time is that Ross introduces fresh blood into the team, including Antonio Banderas for light relief, Twilight star Kellan Lutz for the teenage audience and Harrison Ford because Bruce Willis wouldn't do it.

British action star Jason Statham is on hand for some good-natured banter with Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger pops in for a cameo and there's fun at the expense of Wesley Snipes over his jail sentence for tax evasion.