Escape Plan (2013) At Least It's Better Than The Expendables

Escape Plan (2013) Summit

When I first saw the trailer, I thought about who was actually going to go see a Sylvester Stallone film. Every time one of these movies come out, you expect the worse and Stallone does not disappoint ever. He has not put out a good film since Cliffhanger, so I expected more of the same and I got more of the same, but I didn’t expect some of it.

During the beginning of the film you are expecting him to have a character that is better than everyone else in whatever he does. He will have inexplicable amounts of knowledge that make him the best protagonist ever conceived and a guy you don’t want to mess around with. Of course he gets into a job that is over his head and then has to MacGyver a way out of it. The situation is dire and the difficulty level is not difficult, but impossible because its Mission Impossible: Agent Stallone!!! Whoops wrong franchise. The dialogue in the film is horrendous but it could’ve been the Expendables. The worst part of the movie is the early relationship of Stallone and Arnold which is a constant measuring contest of who the tougher guy is. I can’t stand this garbage, they are both old and both of their characters made no sense as the tough guy due to their backgrounds (Stallone was a Lawyer and Arnold was a computer programmer?).

The thing that was weird about this movie is that I didn’t completely hate it as I was planning to. Some of it was actually good. I have to admit that I thought Jim Caviezel did a fantastic job in this film and nearly revived it from the oblivion of a film that will be found soon in the $5 dollar bin at your local Wal-Mart. For the most part the film is incredibly unbelievable as you expect, but the plot is not all that bad even though the prison is located in the most unconceivable location with the most ridiculous security ever conceived. It is so unnecessary that it begs the question of which people on the planet are bad enough to get sent to this place? Undoubtedly Stallone is left alone by the other inmates who get beat up by him as easily as a 16 yr old in skinny jeans, but in all fairness most of them seem like decent people running very friendly opium cartels and bringing down corrupt banks. I couldn’t believe that all these undesirables ended up being such friendly people.

I won’t ruin the plot by telling you what happens in the story, but I will mention that the ending is both bogus and not as bad as you expect. There is a TWIST… that is explained in one sentence and it honestly didn’t surprise me in any way. I was impressed because this movie followed its usual formula, but actually had the semblance of a plot. Sure it wasn’t the greatest film made in the last few months, but it was entertaining and I repeat, not as bad as expected. I think I may even watch this film again.