My thoughts on seeing Stallone and Schwarzenegger finally team up were the same as my thoughts on seeing Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather… if it ever happened, it would be too late. To my surprise, I was wrong. The Escape Plan has everything needed to make a great ’90s action film: catch phrases, plot holes, and plenty of action. Stallone and Schwarzenegger are great together, making a perfect throwback movie to their heyday. Sure, there are some continuity issues, but who cares? We get to see two great action stars tear through a prison like it was guarded by elementary school safety guards.

The story revolves around security consultant Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) who is the go-to guy when it comes to making sure your prison is airtight. hell, he even wrote a tell all book about it. This instantly hooked me, because in every movie Stallone did in the ’90s, he was the best in his field: expert rescue climber (Cliffhanger, 1993) chief of emergency medical services (Daylight, 1996), and CIA bomb expert (The Specialist, 1994). So, seeing him as an expert escape artist is very believable to me, and consistent with all of the above movies, his expert abilities were about to be put to the test.

 

After being painted a clear picture of how prison escapes go down and of how Ray Breslin’s company works, we are immediately thrust into the toughest job Ray has every been asked to do: help make sure that the new CIA (AKA ‘we want you gone forever’) prison is escape-proof. Watching things go wrong for Ray, who always plans for everything during his prison stays, is quite entertaining. Waking up in the prison after getting beat down for what I assume is a few days by the guards was a great way to introduce the massive state-of-the-art prison. Then like it was meant to be, Mr Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) appears and not only wants to befriend Ray, but wants to help him. What are his motives behind this seemingly desperate need for Ray’s friendship? Why does he trust him so quickly? This is where the movie actually started to pay off for me.

 

Watching Stallone and Schwarzenegger trade fists and quips is by far the best part of the movie for me. They basically took Stallone out of Demolition Man (1993), Schwarzenegger out of True Lies (1994), and placed them in a prison, which in my book, is not a bad thing at all. The subtle nods to the trademark Stallone and Schwarzenegger films of the past were an excellent way to add some credibility to the characters. The head warden Hobbes (Jim Caviezel) made an excellent villain who really stole most of the best one liners from our aging heroes.  Add the perfectly cliched romance between Ray (Sylvester Stallone) and his assistant, Abigail (Amy Ryan), a conflicted prison doctor (Sam Neil) and a shady business partner (Vincent D’Onofrio) and you have yourself the perfect action movie recipe.

 

Toward the end was the only time I started to question the direction that the movie would go in. Would it try to pull off some crazy twist and turns? Would it try to set itself apart from the standard action movie? Well, let’s just say it tries. Does it work? Not really, because the twist we are taken on is unnecessary, but not to worry…just like most other ’90s action movies, the very last line of the movie redeems itself.

 

All in all, it was really nice to see the two action giants star together in something more than a “Hey Buddy” spot like The Expendables (2010). And if you loved mindless action films of the ’80s and ’90s, you will without a doubt enjoy The Escape Plan.

 

Grade: 3 out of 5.

AUTHOR: KEN LUKEN