"Never send a boy to do a man's job.". That's what the teaser poster for Expendables 3 says. It's a clear message that doesn't leave much room for interpretation. The young guns aren't ready yet for the big missions and the old, experienced veterans have to do it if it has to be done right. That fits perfectly to the thought behind the Expendables franchise so far. It is Sylvester Stallone's hommage to the action cinema of the 80's and 90's, a time where B action actors earned millions of Dollars for crude and violent movies, gained celebrity status and had regular cinema appearances. Stallone himself was an important player in that era and his project had charme and caused euphoria among the fans that cheered him on back in the day. Almost every new cast member of the two Expendables movies was met with pure joy or at least a topic of engaged discussions. But one thing was for certain: since Sly is on the driver's seat, everything seems to be in the right hands. He knows what fans want to see and he knows in which categories they think and with what he can satisfy them.

But now it looks like Stallone is willing to end that harmonic relationship on his part. While the first Expendables film carried the "R" rating without a single moment of a doubt and knew how to use the creative freedom for bloody, violent action scenes, there were some rumors before The Expendables 2 opened that it might be PG-13. But the bearer of that news was Chuck Norris and the shitstorm that followed in the process was eventually shut down when Stallone denied that info and said that the sequel would be "R". Before that, the fan community was understandably worried because they knew that a PG-13 rating would severely limit the possibilities of violence and dialogue explicity.

But Stallone doesn't get any younger and seems to develop some kind of kindness of old age as he states prior to the release of Expendables 3 that he has the younger folks in mind when it comes to the rating:

We want to reach as many people as possible. It’s very close to an R, believe me, it’s right there. But I think we owe it to the next generation. We thought we’d join that club for a while.

Well, there you have it. He thinks that it's time to get the younger crowds on board, as well. He now targets a generation of viewers that didn't grow up with most of the actors and their films. But fortunately his statement also hints at financial interests that fuel this decision. Despite all the euphoria, the two prior films performed only moderately at the box office and that just doesn't seem to cut it for Stallone and the studio. If that decision is indeed final, one should consider to counter the teaser poster's tag line with something. How about: "Never make a PG-13 to do an R rating's job."