Movie Review: Escape Plan

Escape Plan stars two of the world’s foremost action heroes – both of whom have turned into parodies of themselves – in Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The screen can barely contain so many muscles and so much Botox in one frame (let alone inflated egos), so to witness these two action giants together is always going to hold some interest for viewers.

A structural security officer is a man with plenty of muscles and a cement mixer voice who investigates and designs the world’s best security complexes (read: jails.) He is often incarcerated and then tries to escape so that the authorities can close the security gaps and oversights.

Understandably, the film opens with just such a daring escape. But (and there is always a “but” in these films), when Ray Breslin (Stallone) is framed and lands in one of his own escape-proof facilities, he has to use every inch of ingenuity to escape.

Still of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in Escape Plan (2013)

His muscled brother in arms, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, plans to escape with him. The film’s charm revolves around the chemistry between these two ageing superstars and the clever one-liners that ricochet from their mouths. There is one particular scene which will probably make it onto YouTube in which Schwarzenegger puts on a fake performance to distract the prison authorities from Breslin’s attempt to escape. This is the highlight in an otherwise lightweight but entertaining film.

This is nudge-nudge-wink-wink fun for fans of Stallone and Schwarzenegger who might have thought the pairs’ careers were over.