WORDS: Carol Davey
As an 80s baby and a fan of action movies, I was delighted to see Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger teaming up once again. Admittedly, if you have seen any of The Expendables series you may be skeptical of any flick involving the teaming up of these two heavyweights, but this movie actually has a plot and does not simply rest on the laurels of star power. Escape Plan delivers hard hitting action scenes, it has twist and turns, and above all else — Stallone actually performs better than he has in years.
Undoubtedly, you have to wrap your head around the improbability that Arnie and Sly are of genius level intelligence, and you have to be ready to see some blood and violence, but if you want a retro throwback action film this one is worth the price of admission. Ray Breslin (Stallone) is a world renowned escape artist, who voluntarily gets himself into prison just to try and break out. Breslin is pretty much a badass at what he does, so much so that he is paid millions by various institutions and has quite literally written the book on how to make a secure prison.
Growing up with films like Junior, Kindergarten Cop, and The Terminator, I know old Arnie is pretty dependable at laughing at himself while taking down as many bad guys as possible. So if you want the type of film Arnold is known for — token catch phrases, slow motion shooting scenes and intense facial expressions — Escape Plan is right up your alley. Stallone and Schwarzenegger meet on the inside and quickly become badass besties. Together they work to escape the prison that was built, ironically enough, by Breslin’s own manual. The film mostly takes place within the walls of a prison, but the well timed jokes, fast paced scenes, and twist and turns of the plot, make it so you do not feel like you are imprisoned.
Escape Plan, while delivering everything a decent action movie should also delivers a decent gangster/tech geek role portrayed by 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson), Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) and Vinnie Jones (Snatch) who are (respectively) the warden and guard you will love to hate. The film also gives the viewer something else beyond just your normal cuss and crush; it delves into the world of prisons for profit. As you are watching, you start to ask yourself just how badly should the worst men in the world be treated? For example, in a normal maximum security facility the segregated housing unit (SHU) usually entails a concrete 6 by 6 cell with no bed, no comforts, no human contact: just darkness and a bucket. In Escape Plan, the prison is populated by the “disappeared” (people not officially on any countries books), the SHU is a room barely tall enough to stand in, not large enough to lay down in, and has a wall made of bright lights that heat the room and cause the prisoner to dehydrate and overheat.
To be fair, the backstory is almost nonexistent, the love story only alluded to, and you can guess who the mole is in about three minutes. With all that being said, I really liked this film and if you are about to spend your dwindling dollars on an action movie — Escape Plan trumps Runner Runner any day of the week.
