"Escape Plan" Review (1 Viewer)

Here's my full review: http://cinematicallyenigmatic.blogspot.ca/2013/10/EscapePlanReview.html

In short:

They don't make films like this anymore, but that may be the point. Escape Plan is a fun throwback to the action films of twenty years ago. It plays heavily on nostalgia, but take that away and it's a somewhat dated effort. Luckily, Stallone and Schwarzenegger exude enough charm to make the film entertaining enough; so if that's what you're up for, then you're in luck. It's not an all-out action-fest like The Expendables films, but it's a decent enough diversion for an afternoon matinee.

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

This is the second Arnold movie in a row where I've been the only one in the theater.

This here is without a doubt one of the dumbest most logically flawed movies that you will ever see but it's still a must see for fans of the two action legends. I thought they kept the film entertaining from start to finish and both are given some pretty good lines including Arnold getting a fight going after insulting a man's mother in a hilarious way. The action scenes are mostly good, although they're pretty much saved up for the finale. The action is certainly pure 80s cheese but the stuff inside the prison really isn't too different than what we saw back in those pictures from the 30s.

This film isn't doing too good at the box office so it looks like the two stars are going to need to remake GRUMPY OLD MEN in order to get a hit. It's really too bad because this (and especially THE LAST STAND) are fun throwbacks to a type of action film that is dead and clearly most people don't want to see.

***

Decent crowd at my matinee viewing today. It had its moments, and I loved Jim Caviezel as the warden, but the writing could have been better. And between Sly's mush-mouth delivery and Arnold's accent, it was kind of difficult to pick up some of the dialogue.

Also, at the end:

This film was better than..

[*]The Last Stand
[*]Bullet to the Head
[*]Expendables 2
[/list]
I enjoyed my time seeing these two do some non-action. Arnold spoke German!

7/10

Sly and Arnold will always stay my "heroes", but with this film the trailer kinda put me off. At first I thought that perhaps this is a bit more low key, like "Escape from Alcatraz meets Prison Break meets Sly/Arnie", but the trailer is full of shooting and explosions.

But yeah, I'll watch it eventually.