Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Escape Plan (2013)

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-13-2013, 10:22 PM:

Another movie screened at the Rocky Mountain Theatre Convention in Boise. This convention is becoming known for having a lot of screenings....it's had three for each of the past three years. Good movies, too. Best of all, the audience here is treated like actual humans: Nobody forcing you to turn off your cellphone in view of the security goons like at CinemaCon, and no "pirate eye." Of course there is security personnel watching the crowd for any signs of video-recorder use, but they were unobtrusive to the point of not even being noticeable. Too bad about the "unmasked" screens at the Regal/Edwards theater though.

Anyway, this one is about what you would expect for a Stallone/Schwarzenegger vehicle. A lot of gunplay and blood, a great "I'll be back"-type line by Arnold (near the end), a suitably growly performance by Sly, and a pretty good story with a couple of nice twists.

Stallone is a guy who tests prisons by breaking out of them. According to him, one of the requirements of successfully breaking out is, you have to find a confidant on the inside to help you. He winds up testing an "experimental" so-called unescapeable prison, but finds out too late that

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
basically, the whole thing is a plot by a bad guy to keep him imprisoned for real...so he teams up with fellow prisoner and bigtime bad-ass Ah-nold to come up with a plan to bust out and bring the bad guy to some kick-ass justice.

The acting was standard issue for the stars. They both stopped trying to stretch about 20 years ago, although they do seem to get a kick out of playing off each other in this movie. The bad guy is suitably bad and the supporting cast is OK too. The sound mix was unremarkable but that could have been the fault of the theater as much as the production.

The prison set was very cool and imaginative -- best thing in the movie, I thought. I was hoping there would be one of those scenes where somebody gives a "tour" of the place (thus helping the audience understand the layout of things) but outside of some quick onscreen graphics, that didn't happen.

So, it's no Oscar winner and no blockbuster but a passable way to spend a couple hours if you're into this type of movie. If you liked "The Expendables" you'll like this as well.

A solid 3 stars from me.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-20-2013, 06:24 PM:

Although The Expendables was the first time Schwarzenegger and Stallone both appeared in the same movie, this movie is the first in which they both play a lead role.

They actually fit together quite nicely, maybe they should've tried something similar a year or 25 ago.

Also, this must be the first time Arnie speaks some German, and not just one sentence. Interestingly, his German has acquired a slight American accent... Although I detest dubbed versions, I'm quite interested in how they solved this in the German dubbed version.

Furthermore, Mike perfectly summarized my thoughts about this movie. No blockbuster, no potential Oscar, but good enough for popcorn and a few hours of entertainment.

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 11-30-2013, 07:22 AM:

A much better movie than I thought, really good to see Stallone still making movies. Saw this movie last night and couldn't help think of how big of a movie this might of been if it was released in 1985.