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JT (287 KP) rated Escape Plan (2013) in Movies

Mar 23, 2020

Escape Plan (2013)

2013 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi

6.6

(21 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Arnie and Stallone (1 more)

Entertaining

80s action icons join forces

For those of us that grew up watching action films in the 80s, one can only stand by and admire that Stallone and Schwarzenegger were still going well into their 60s at the time of shooting. Clearly, they’re having fun, which is a good thing as we’re not expecting Oscar material here and those that are may as well leave now.

Escape Plan gives the two giants top billing opposite each other for the first time the whole way through a film (not counting The Expendables), but ultimately they’re on the same side. Ray Breslin (Stallone) breaks out of prisons for a living, making sure that those who are put behind bars have no way of ever getting out.

When a job comes up to test out a top-secret facility Breslin gleefully accepts despite his partners thinking otherwise, it leads him on to a collision course with Arnie who he needs to get onside in order to get out.

Of course once inside its clear that some people have no intention of letting him see the light of day, and Breslin is trapped behind a prison that encompasses everything he wrote the book on.

He teams up with fellow inmate Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger) in an attempt to break out and bring those responsible for setting him up, to justice, and that is where the fun begins. Schwarzenegger is enjoying himself even if the dialogue is not the best as we said, we’re not expecting Oscar material. He does, however, get the good lines and pretty much acts as the diversion as Breslin scampers around looking for breaks in the system.

Jim Caviezel is Hobbs, the warden of the facility, in what is actually quite a good turn as the classic pantomime villain, a throwback to the baddies of the mid-eighties. He plays it cold and calculating, which in some parts feels like he’s going a bit OTT. Beneath him is Vinnie Jones, typecast as the bog-standard henchmen who is not particularly needed and to make matters worse probably gets one of the worst henchmen deaths. We don’t regard that as a plot spoiler as most villain sidekicks end up biting the bullet as the stopgap between the hero and the classic ending battle.

There are no illusions going into this, you know exactly what you’re going to get right down to the obvious plot twist that you can see coming a mile off. A subplot is only touched on briefly but it’s a subplot that has been a staple part of any revenge plan. The film has a strong third act once everything has been set up and it unfolds in a pulsating twenty-minute finale which includes quite possibly the best slow motion shot for some time, nodding itself to most classic action films of the Arnie era.

It’s meat and two veg action of maybe not the highest order but certainly better than some of its more recent predecessors, Stallone and Schwarzenegger bring their action A-game and don’t disappoint for a second.