as the cult pictorials they are based on.

Director Sylvain White continues the good work with The Losers, an explosive romp based on the potty-mouthed DC Comics series written by Andy Diggle and illustrated by Jock.

White’s film embraces a heightened reality with bold, colourful graphics and exaggerated violence, coupled with snappy dialogue lifted from the page by screenwriters Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt.

The Losers is a rollicking romp, which would be around 10 minutes leaner if director White was more judicious with slow motion in his action sequences.

Set pieces are breathlessly orchestrated, culminating in an overblown showdown at the dockyards, and the machine-gun banter is riddled with snappy one-liners.

Columbus Short and Chris Evans monopolise the belly laughs, the latter playing up to his image as a goofball in scenes such as the one when Jensen (Evans) performs a quick change in a lift and literally gets caught with his trousers down by four women.

Jason Patric is also hoot as the pantomime villain who is poorly versed in social niceties.

The door is left wide open for a sequel so if The Losers proves to be box-office winners, Clay and his team will be back, armed with even bigger guns and quips.

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