Escape Plan
So Stallone and Schwarzenegger found out how to be in a movie together without being another Expedables, or at least it appears it's not. However, is the star power enough to make the film watchable? Let's find out.
The film opens up with Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) already in jail. Not much is really said, but he eventually picks a fight with someone on the prison courtyard and is sent to isolation. He then starts studying everything that goes on in this area before setting up a way to break out of jail. He succeeds at breaking out, only to be taken right back. Once back at the prison, Ray and his buddy reveal that he's a professional prison escape artist that goes into prisons undercover to found out how a prisoner could escape from the prison. Some time later, Ray is back at his office where a woman comes in to offer a job opportunity. A new prison has been built that they believe is escape proof, but they want Ray to make sure that it is. He agrees to the job and is taken to the prison the next day, undercover of course. Once there, he meets some interesting people, namely Hobbes (Jim Caviezel), the wardon, and Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a fellow prisoner that acts as the favor guy in the prison. However, Ray soon learns that things aren't what he was first told and begins to find the best way out of the prison with any help he can get.
For starters, the premise is a really interesting take on the breaking out type of films. I haven't seen many movies, if any, where the main character tries to break out because it's his job. The combo of Stallone and Schwarzenegger works well, to a point, but I'll get into that later. Their dialogue is well written also, full of the cheesy lines that most people would expect from these two. I also really liked seeing Stallone describe everything he knows about the prisons. It had sort of a Sherlock Holmes feel.
However, I do have quite a few problems for the film. My biggest problem is that the main draw, and presumably only draw, to this film is the star power. If it wasn't Stallone and Schwarzenegger in this film, then not many people would want to see it. Now, one could make the argument that that's good casting choices because no one else could play their roles better, but that's not it. There's many actors that could do these roles better, but those actors don't have the same draw as a combo of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Basically, people will watch this movie for the actors, not the characters. So if you take out these two stars, you're left with a lot more issues. Mainly that the prison that takes up most of the film is way too over-the-top and cartoony. All the guards wear masks, dressed completely in black, the warden is way too crazy, basically doing whatever he wants to get what he wants, and the location of the prison is almost too much for one person to really take in. Then there's Stallone's really heavy accent getting in the way of some of his dialogue. There's a few times where I caught myself wishing the movie had subtitles because I couldn't understand some of the important stuff he was saying.
So should you see Escape Plan? If there's nothing else at the theater that you want to see and you really want to go, then yeah. It's not a terrible movie, but it's not a must see either. It's just a fun time waster where you can turn your brain off and enjoy what's going on.
The film opens up with Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) already in jail. Not much is really said, but he eventually picks a fight with someone on the prison courtyard and is sent to isolation. He then starts studying everything that goes on in this area before setting up a way to break out of jail. He succeeds at breaking out, only to be taken right back. Once back at the prison, Ray and his buddy reveal that he's a professional prison escape artist that goes into prisons undercover to found out how a prisoner could escape from the prison. Some time later, Ray is back at his office where a woman comes in to offer a job opportunity. A new prison has been built that they believe is escape proof, but they want Ray to make sure that it is. He agrees to the job and is taken to the prison the next day, undercover of course. Once there, he meets some interesting people, namely Hobbes (Jim Caviezel), the wardon, and Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a fellow prisoner that acts as the favor guy in the prison. However, Ray soon learns that things aren't what he was first told and begins to find the best way out of the prison with any help he can get.
For starters, the premise is a really interesting take on the breaking out type of films. I haven't seen many movies, if any, where the main character tries to break out because it's his job. The combo of Stallone and Schwarzenegger works well, to a point, but I'll get into that later. Their dialogue is well written also, full of the cheesy lines that most people would expect from these two. I also really liked seeing Stallone describe everything he knows about the prisons. It had sort of a Sherlock Holmes feel.
However, I do have quite a few problems for the film. My biggest problem is that the main draw, and presumably only draw, to this film is the star power. If it wasn't Stallone and Schwarzenegger in this film, then not many people would want to see it. Now, one could make the argument that that's good casting choices because no one else could play their roles better, but that's not it. There's many actors that could do these roles better, but those actors don't have the same draw as a combo of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Basically, people will watch this movie for the actors, not the characters. So if you take out these two stars, you're left with a lot more issues. Mainly that the prison that takes up most of the film is way too over-the-top and cartoony. All the guards wear masks, dressed completely in black, the warden is way too crazy, basically doing whatever he wants to get what he wants, and the location of the prison is almost too much for one person to really take in. Then there's Stallone's really heavy accent getting in the way of some of his dialogue. There's a few times where I caught myself wishing the movie had subtitles because I couldn't understand some of the important stuff he was saying.
So should you see Escape Plan? If there's nothing else at the theater that you want to see and you really want to go, then yeah. It's not a terrible movie, but it's not a must see either. It's just a fun time waster where you can turn your brain off and enjoy what's going on.