Review of Escape Plan (2013) by Alexproductions — 29 Oct 2013

Upon looking at the cast of Escape Plan, it seemed like another type of Expendables 2 or Red 2 type movie restating that "old guys are cool." We all have seen one these types of movies with no such plot or storyline, just 80ish minutes of action. Just seeing that the movie was 115 minutes and that Arnold Shwarzenegger was in it didn't seem right so I had to go see it.

Escape Plan is the story of Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) whose job is to test the security of prisons around the world. When asked to test a prison that makes criminals certain people "disappear" he accepts the offer and is taken to the prison. After soon learning that the whole thing was a setup, he meets Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Shwarzenegger), and together they attempt a breakout.

To me it seemed like another scheme just to get the two men back on screen together but it turned out to be much more. I enjoyed watching the chemistry on screen between characters and it seemed effortless (probably because they've been doing these roles for 35+ years).

The prison (picture one and two) was very unrealistic compared to the regular prison the movie started off with. The mix of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) and soundstage filming turned out nice, but the overall concept of the cells was a little too imaginary. The guards (picture two) were all dressed in these black suits and cheap party masks. Though it seemed unnecessary at first, I realized that this was done so that the prisoners couldn’t tell who the guards were, make friends with them, know their patterns or know when the guards were actually looking at them.

The movie felt like someone said "here's an idea, now make it a movie and release it next month." Don't get me wrong, the clever things Stallone did on screen must've taken some top writers to think up and wowed me. It was clear that they rushed the filming in some scenes though. For example, when a supposedly large helicopter was flying over the ocean, it actually looked like a toy helicopter on a wire over a lake.

Overall, it was easy to tell that Shwarzenegger and Stallone didn't make the movie for the money, but more to show that they're still making movies. I did enjoy Escape Plan for the 115 minutes it ran, but I probably won't remember it a few weeks from now.