Escape Plan

ESCAPE PLAN (15)

D: Mikael Håfström

Lionsgate/Summit (Mark Canton, Randall Emmett, Remington Chase, Robbie Brenner & Kevin King-Templeton)

USA 🇺🇸 2013

115 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Miles Chapman & Arnell Jesko

DP: Brendan Galvin

Ed: Elliot Greenberg

Mus: Alex Heffes

Sylvester Stallone (Ray Breslin / Anthony Portos), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Emil Rottmayer / Victor Mannheim), Jim Caviezel (Warden Hobbes), Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson (Hush), Amy Ryan (Abigail Ross), Vinnie Jones (Drake), Vincent D'Onofrio (Lester Clark)

Sylvester Stallone plays Ray Breslin, a structural engineer who makes his living breaking out of prison so security measures can be improved.

His new job, offered by top CIA agents, is to be incarcerated in a maximum security, unescapable prison for a bounty of a reward. He accepts, but soon learns he's been set up and faces the rest of his life in the brutal penitentiary.

With the help of political prisoner, under the guise Anthony Portos, he hatches an escape plan and seeks revenge on his former business associate who backstabbed him.

It's all a rather brainless spin on the usual prison breakout thriller, with the guilty pleasure of pairing two of Hollywood's biggest action stars Stallone and Schwarzenegger, albeit about two decades too late.

Enjoyable enough for the running time, but it doesn't match up to any of the events from the excellent TV show 'Prison Break'.

6/10

Sylvester Stallone & Arnold Schwarzenegger in Escape Plan

ESCAPE PLAN II (aka ESCAPE PLAN 2: HADES) (15)

D: Steven C. Miller

Lionsgate / Summit / Grindstone / Fyzz / Leomus / Ingenious (Robbie Brenner, Mark Canton, Randall Emmett, George Furla & Zack Schiller)

US 🇺🇸 2018

96 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Miles Chapman

DP: Brandon Cox

Ed: Vincent Tabaillon

Mus: The Newton Brothers

Sylvester Stallone (Ray Breslin), Dave Bautista (Trent DeRosa), Huang Xiaoming (Shu Ren), Jesse Metcalfe (Luke Graves), Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson (Hush)

The first Escape Plan movie was far from top tier entertainment, but it had enough action and thrills in it to make it fun at the very least throughout the running time.

This sequel on the other hand is an absolute bore, which probably explains why it was released direct-to-DVD.

There’s no Arnie this time, so it’s just Sylvester alone as he returns to prison to break out one of his task force members.

Nothing of note really happens and it all feels like a 90 minute+ marketing trailer for the third film.

This is one film to let elude you.

3/10