The fact that there’s no apparent intention to screen Sylvester Stallone‘s The Expendables (Lionsgate, 8.13) in tandem with a 6.23 L.A. Film Festival interview he’ll be doing with Elvis Mitchell is another indication (on top of that pompous trailer that posted three or four days ago) that this all-star actioner may have problems. The web page says only a “sneak peek” (a presumed reference to a product reel) will be shown.

If the film has issues (I say “if”), here’s a shot-in-the-dark guess as to why. It may be that The Expendables has too many aging-macho-guy egos to juggle, and in its struggle to give everyone a fair (or contracted) amount of studly screen time with cool dialogue and all, the rhythm of the story, as it might be or could have been, may have been been lost. Perhaps it doesn’t flow together and operate like a organic, integrated, well-oiled thing; perhaps it feels more like a kind of muscular, gun-totin’ fashion show on a runway in Milan. Again — a guess!

I’m not gunning for this film. I loved the last Rambo for its comically excessive violence and am still hoping that The Expendables will somehow work. But the notion that some kind of trouble may be afoot is definitely on the wall.