North Texas Daily

Cole Clay / Intern Writer

Review: 3/5

The latest Sylvester Stallone (“Rocky”) vehicle “Escape Plan” is a call back to the Golden Age of action films from the 1990s. It was a time when our favorite heroes would demolish three arbitrarily chosen bad guys with one punch. Back then, we wouldn’t question Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (“Terminator 2:Judgement Day”) prowess and the great lengths he would go to infiltrate an evil terrorist organization hell bent on world domination.

Fast forward 20 years later, vampires and super heroes rule the silver screen, which leaves little room for iron-clad beefcakes to show off their bulging biceps for cheering fans. However, Stallone has made room for these aging stars with his film series “The Expendables.”

With the help of Schwarzenegger, the duo possess an affable on-screen chemistry, complete with a few laughs and a decent amount of no-holds-barred action.

This go around, Stallone stars as Ray Breslin, an expert escape artist known for being able to break out of any man-made prison. With a $2.5 million payday up for grabs, Breslin is recruited for one last big break out. As with any adrenaline fueled thrill ride, our hero is double-crossed and left to fend for himself. While in prison, Breslin meets Emil Rottmayer, played by a towering Schwarzenegger, and together they attempt an epic break out that will bring the state of the art prison to its knees.

Breslin is the brains of the operation (this is a stretch for any film starring Stallone) and Rottmayer brings the brawn. The duo’s tongue-in-cheek banter let the film coast from one line of cliché dialogue to the next. It is visible Schwarzenegger is having a blast being back in the saddle, with lines of cheesy dialogue such as “you hit like a vegetarian.”

Stallone plays the straight man yet again. He is none too amused with Schwarzenegger’s banter, mainly because he is being shown “extra attention” by the sadistic Warden Hobbes, played by an icy Jim Caviezel (“The Passion Of The Christ”). But his apprehension to Rottmayer’s attempted humor only heightens their chemistry.

“Escape Plan” is relatively calm through the first two-thirds; all we see is a few skull-cracks here and there. Most of our time is spent witnessing Breslin concocting an elaborate plan where he “MacGyvers” common objects into tools that aid his escape. Then, all this complexity is abandoned and substituted for a 30-minute long prison riot.

By the standards of the two stars’ filmographies, “Escape Plan” is fairly typical. You get some laughs here and there and the action doesn’t really break any new ground. However, this is a fairly entertaining genre-film that is at least moderately coherent.

“Escape Plan” hits theaters Nationwide Friday.