Escape Plan: Movie Review

I didn’t go into “Escape Plan” expecting high art.  I didn’t even expect anything original. However, I was hoping that after waiting nearly three decades for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger to headline a movie together,  I would at least be entertained.  Instead I felt like I was sitting through a zombie movie without any actual zombies.  The two former action-film giants finally came together just to sleepwalk though this poor excuse of a movie.  “Escape Plan” is a mind-numbing bore.

Ray Breslin (Stallone) is an expert in prison security. The government pays him big bucks to break out of prisons across the country.  Then he informs the prison where their flaws are.  When Breslin is offered double his usual fee to enter a privately run off-the-grid maximum security prison nicknamed “The Tomb”, he agrees to take the job. 

Once Breslin is inside the prison, he quickly realizes that he has been set up and whomever put him there, wants him there for good.  Breslin isn’t entirely alone though, he forms a friendship with another inmate named Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger).  One of the film’s biggest issues is how well the two men get along throughout.  Most decent buddy action flicks have a yin & yang relationship between the two leads, but when they get along without any arguments…it winds up being dull. Thankfully they keep the dialogue between the two stars short. Half the time I couldn’t understand what Stallone was saying.

As for the villain, Jim Caviezel is just as bland as everyone else in the cast.  Sam Neill is wasted as the prison doctor and surprises in “Escape Plan” were no surprise at all.

Die hard actions fans who have been clamoring for a Stallone and Schwarzenegger flick, are going to surely want to make an escape plan after entering “Escape Plan”.

By: Marc Ferman