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Escape Plan (2013)
Escape Plan (2013)
During the 80s and 90s, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were action movie kings. However, up until recent years, they had never made a movie together.
I watched Stallone being interviewed by David Letterman the other day, and Stallone revealed that he and Schwarzenegger used to absolutely hate each other. They would always have to one-up each other. Now, I’m thinking, wouldn’t it have been great if at some point when the two actors were enemies, they actually played enemies on screen. People definitely would have paid to see that. I know I would have.
Something must have helped Stallone and Schwarzenegger resolve their differences because Escape Plan is the third movie that they have made together in the last three years, and the fourth one is on the way in 2014.
Escape Plan is about a prison escape artist (Sylvester Stallone) who has made a career breaking out of maximum security prisons all over the US. One day, he gets a job offer that he cannot refuse that lands him in a prison that was built using a book that he had written as a guide to building escape-proof prisons.
The film was directed by Mikael Hafstrom and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, Matt Gerald, Faran Tahir, Sam Neill, Caitriona Balfe, and 50 Cent.
Earlier this year, Stallone and Schwarzenegger both proved that they can still be action heroes, even in their upper 60s. Stallone did it in Bullet to the Head (2012) and Schwarzenegger did it in The Last Stand (2013). Escape Plan was better than each of those movies. Each actor looked better physically, and they both carried themselves very well. Maybe it was because they were both in the film together and they continued to try to outdo each other again. Whatever it was, it worked.
Escape Plan exceeded my expectations. The movie was a welcome, unpredictable surprise. It had a lot of original ideas mixed with a few classics, for old time sake.
Caviezel and Jones had very fun supporting roles. 50 Cent somehow manages to keep weaseling his way into films, and I swear that he is always trying to ruin them. He was terrible, as usual.
It was delightful to see Sly and Ahnuld cracking skulls in the same movie. If you were ever a fan of their movies in the past, you won’t be able to help but like this movie.
I rate this movie an 8.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
Trailer for Escape Plan (2013)
Escape Plan (2013) (click on the title for my full review.)
Grandpa Stallone and Grandpa Schwarzenegger are both at it again. This time Sylvester plays a prison escape artist. After finding a way to break out of a number of prisons, he designed a new prison where escaping is near impossible. Of course, eventually he finds himself framed and locked up in the very prison that he created. Arnold is on the inside with him. Now Stallone must breakout in order to track down the party responsible for getting him locked up.
The film is directed by Mikael Hafstrom and the cast includes Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, Sam Neill, 50 Cent (lol), and Amy Ryan.
The movie reminds me a bit of Face/Off (1997) simply because in that film John Travolta‘s character (with Nicolas Cage‘s face) agrees to go under cover and be locked up in a high-tech prison. Eventually the only people that know he is undercover find themselves dead and he is forced to try to escape if he wants to get back to his real life.
How does 50 Cent keep getting parts in movies?
Although Stallone and Schwarzenegger are both maybe a little too ancient to be making this type of movie, I think that somehow they will pull it off. Either way, I will be there to give you my take on it.
The film is set to release on 10/18/13.
Fire with Fire (2012)
Fire with Fire (2012)
The whole movie was a little too convenient and pretty predictable. Watching this movie is almost like doing a puzzle where the pieces are numbered and you know exactly where each piece goes. The filmmakers took the guess work out of the film and therefore they took the fun with it.
It was all too formulaic. When you know what is going to happen next because it is so obvious, what is the point of watching anymore? You already know the story. There is no point. I felt like basically everything in the entire movie had already been done before in so many other movies.
I had low expectations about the movie before I watched it, but I was hoping that it would surprise me. It didn’t. Not one bit.
Josh Duhamel plays the main character in the movie. The guy is not capable of carrying a film on his own. He is not believable enough and just not a talented enough to lead a movie by himself.
Bruce Willis would have done a better job as the main character. At least he would have been able to make the obvious outcome of every scene a little more interesting with his trademark Bruce Willis tough guy charm. Unfortunately he chose instead to take on a supporting role. It felt like the guy just showed up to collect a paycheck. They gave him one good scene in the whole movie and the rest of the time he was just there.
I found it funny that 50 Cent was on the cover of the movie because he was only on screen for about a minute.
Vincent D’Onofrio hardly entertained as a bad guy. Vinnie Jones was a far superior and more believable tough guy (as he always is), but he gets disposed of way to early in the film and much too easily. Would you believe that Josh Duhamel would not have much trouble taking out Vinnie Jones, but would struggle against Vincent D’Onofrio? I don’t think so.
Rosario Dawson was Rosario Dawson. Good enough to be an actress, but just barely. Not a memorable performance. I forgot about it already.
Do not waste your time watching this movie. Definitely do not waste your money.
I rate this movie a 3 out of 10.
Buy, rent, or run? Run.
Here is a list of 13 other Bruce Willis movies that are better than this one:
- Die Hard 1 (1988), 2 (1990), 3 (1995), and 4 (2007) (we will count those as 1)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Twelve Monkeys (1995)
- The Sixth Sense (1999)
- The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
- Unbreakable (2000)
- Bandits (2001)
- Hart’s War (2002)
- Tears of the Sun (2003)
- SinCity (2005)
- Surrogates (2009)
- Red (2010)
- Looper (2012)
Let’s face it, Vincent D’Onofrio has not been in 13 movies that were better than this one, but here are a few:
- Sinister (2012)
- The Newton Boys (1998)
- Men in Black (1997)
- Ed Wood (1994)
- JFK (1991)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The same goes for Rosario Dawson, but here is her list:
- Kids (1995)
- He Got Game (1998)
- Men in Black II (2002)
- 25th Hour (2002)
- Sin City (2005)
- Clerks II (2006)
- Death Proof (2007)
- Eagle Eye (2008)
- Seven Pounds (2008)
Josh Duhamel has not made any good movies. He is probably most known for the Transformer movies.
This list belongs to Vinnie Jones:
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
- Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
- Snatch (2000)
- Swordfish (2001)
50 Cent. Really? Okay he was alright in Righteous Kill (2008).