TheReviewAwakens

One of Amazon’s primes intelligent free action films, Escape Plan gets a quick rundown.

With the Escape Plan trilogy complete, lets take a look at the best one, being the original with Arnie and Sly that totally delivered.

After several decades of the two struggling to get a script on the table, Escape Plan caught the eye of the two stars because of its thought provoking and dramatic premise. All you need are two action legends who can really act.

Stallone and Arnold took a cinematic comeback in the 2010 period with films such as Bullet to the Head, The Last Stand, and The Expendables franchise. Then came 2013, where the two decided to star in a film together, with a more specific screen focus on their performances with a narrative written around the iconography of the two stars and what the fans want, this being Escape Plan directed by Mikael Håfström. A film made for action audiences, leaving critics at the front door of the screening room.

The film is showing on Amazon Prime for free UK and let’s discuss why the film is still their best film to date, with solid direction and a premise that delivers with intelligence. The film is a slow burner but we get a lot of scenes with real meaning, making the action count for something rather than mindless shoot em ups.

The action scenes have a needed purpose to the story, serving as real plot progression. There is a real reason for these two stars coming together in the film because they both need each other and that’s compelling.

Critically, Escape Plan is one of the better works from Stallone and Arnie and together their chemistry is pretty fun. The film overall has a more serious tone because the plot this time around actually counts for much more than some of their previous narratives.

You have to pay attention to how the plot unfolds because as the title suggests, there is actual planning and preparing for the two escaping the prison and it turns out that prison escapes aren’t easy, especially when you have Jim Caviezel as the villain.

After starring in their separate films in the 2010’s, Escape Plan saw the two finally team up and the premise on paper was perfect. Prison escape concepts are always exciting to watch. A prison break isn’t a genre-specific concept, it can work across all genres, making it dramatic, exciting, comedic, and tense. Therefore, the concept alone I think can appeal to a wider audience because it combines both the action, star status, and an intelligent plot and those three components are exciting on screen.

The film really gets going when the two have to plan their actual escape, there is a conflict and rivalry between the two that’s fun to watch and admire. Two action legends that have done it all in the genre other than star in a film alongside each other with a lengthy runtime.

The actual prison itself is hybrid of modern and old prison concepts. The prison looks modern but its breakout execution is old-school retro break outs, similar to what we have seen in other prison escape films.

ESCAPE PLAN Ph: Steve Dietl © 2013 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.

One of the best elements going for Escape Plan is that we root for Stallone’s character. His character is likable as he is thrown into this situation against his own will and even with a lot of intelligence he struggles to work in this high-tech facility and clashes with Arnold at the start, its that understated competitiveness between the two that work and I think this even shows in the film’s marketing including interviews, which really builds the films anticipation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D7mr4ebfgM

The actual action scenes are cool because they are’nt too over the top or goofy, they are pretty solid and competent. Fairly realistic gun play and fist fights, which is always undermined by a tense plot. The best action scenes can be found towards the end with a thrilling finale where we see the two fight together.

This film really shows how good Stallone is as an actor. In this film, he isn’t playing a version of himself or referencing his persona, he is his own character who in this case is very intelligent and understated.

Its a film that came straight out of the 80’s in the 2010 period, a throwback but its own piece works perfectly for a Stallone and Arnie movie marathon, throw Escape Plan in there to get the whole experience.

My only real complaint about Escape Plan is that it could have used a lot more energy, I think some of the scenes had a very serious and grey look and feel to them, the film could have really gone for it in some scenes but chose to hold back to give off a more dramatic tone.

One of the writers, Jason Keller who wrote Gerard Butler’s Machine Gun Preacher and one of 2019’s best films, Ford vs Ferrari and gave Escape Plan a serious tone with moments of charm sprinkled in some scenes. It was the right approach, where you don’t want to go the other way with a goofy tone like The Expendables 2.

Escape Plan provides audiences with a more realistic example of how these two can act on screen where we see the two sit down and discuss each other’s personalities, the film takes its time to get the most out of their talents and the two can act beyond their cultural annotations. The clip below is the perfect scene to sizzle the bacon, to give away the essence of these two stars without giving away too much, take a peak.

The direction is very solid for the concept. The tone is consistent and you can tell exactly what the director wanted from the cast and story. In that sense, it’s very focused and direct. The film was successful enough to spawn two more sequels that were straight to DVD, both failed in comparison to the original.

Escape Plan may not blow you away with its spectacle and thrills, but it serves as a nice and intelligent outing that fits nicely in the marathon of Sly and Arnie’s body of work, acting as probably their last piece together, but we will see what happens in the future.

You can buy the neat Escape Plan steelbook here, showcasing fabulous artwork.

Author Bio

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Sam is a content writer. He loves all elements connected with film and writes with passion, always. You can find him on Linkedin, where you will be able to read more articles. When he is not writing, you can find him practicing football.

One of Netflix’s most enjoyable action films, The Last Stand gets a quick review

Upon establishing an impressive screen presence, creating the charismatic action hero status, Arnie’s comeback flick in 2013 has flown straight under the radar and it turns out the film has plenty to offer in its abundance of comedy, action, and drama, making it the perfect viewing experience for both action genre and Arnold fans.

The year of 2013 saw the much needed and deserved solo comeback of cinemas most cherished action hero of all time, Arnold Schwarzengger. His return and absence from cinema left fans aching for him to comeback on the screen, despite his brief role in Sly’s Expendables.

This time, Arnold chose to do a separate film from his franchises, including Terminator, with The Last Stand with a different story written around Arnie’s experience, background and iconography. He is not as young as he used to be, but his old age is worked in the story and there is some charm there, a different kind of self-aware charm that we haven’t seen from him, apart from his little screen time in the Expendables films. Get ready to root for the action hero in The Last Stand.

However, the star of the film, in my opinion, is the director, Jee-woon Kim who brings a lot of creative western genre blending style to the film, the action is very stylized in some scenes, with great use of location and the environment surrounding the action scenes. The director comes from a background outside of Hollywood, so he is bringing something new to the film, that never damages his auteur traits. Arnold wanted to make that clear when in pre-production for the film.

Another fun aspect of the film is the humour, Johnny Knoxville is very funny and we know he is funny because unlike quite a few comedians, Johnny’s humour works better when he is acting alongside other actors and actresses, that way, we really see his charisma come through and he shares some valuable screen time with Arnie and the team.

However, another notable cast member is the oscar winner Forest Whittaker, who is one of Hollywood’s most intelligent actors who seems to have worked in hollywood’s most golden years of filmmaking, dating back to the 80’s with Platoon being one of my favorites. Now, he is very reliable considering his screen experience and he is the films best aspects because he really can act and can give of drama when the film needs him to.

For a film like this, the tone needs to be just right, blend comedy with action. However, as an audience member we need to get a sense of the threat that Arnold and his team are facing and to be fair to the film, we get that throughout. The enemies have some tough resources of vans, cars and explosives and they are all relentless, but the film never gets too brutal and violent, which is good, it keeps the fun.

We see this in the opening scene of the film, with a lovely country song in the background, it was a nice setup for the bad guys to come destroying the scene in madness and decay.

The characters themselves are all generic, we have seen this plot done before a thousand times, but Arnold himself is pretty cool as he plays this retired sheriff, where all he wants to do is to grab breakfast. His veteran experience helps aid the at times goofy tone of the picture.

Arnold is goofy yes, but his charm is believable on screen as soon as he grabs hold of a big gun, showcasing his now undeniable visual iconography. However, I can take Arnold more seriously because he is beginning to resemble the makings of a Clint Eastwood and you can’t get better than that.

The Last Stand – Sheriff Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) lets rip © 2012 Lions Gate Entertainmen

I think this film really shows how intelligent Arnold is in terms of picking the right story and director. He wanted to make a comeback, with a film that he thought was perfect for his fans. A film that would make use of his experience but also appeal to the modern audience.

The Last Stand is a fun action western with dashes of comedy throughout, with one of Hollywood biggest action stars. Therefore, it doesn’t just have one element going for it and its a collaborative effort full of wonderfully fun ideas.

We don’t often see films like this in Hollywood, which has that creative edge that separates it from other generic action flicks. The camera work feels very modern, with montages of close ups in the action scenes and uses of modern equipment of cars and weapons, with an ensemble cast of witty individuals including the wicked Luis Guzman.

The action is actually very impressive when you consider Arnold’s age. I am not saying that Arnold is old, but what I mean is that after all of these years, he still brings it very consistently in the ridiculous action set pieces in this film. Some of them are very creative in the pre-production, including a car chase towards the end, taking place in a cornfield. Of course, Arnold delivers some iconic one-liners in the film that are’nt related to his previous work which is refreshing to see as most of his appearances in the 2010’s were mostly references of his previous work, Arnold has his own character this time.

Whereas Stallone’s work could be seen as more hard hit and dramatic, Arnold’s work has more comedic elements, which I think means that The Last Stand can appeal to a wider audience with different tastes and interests. The addition of Jackass’s Knoxville certainly helps that as most audiences know of his humour and if you don’t, I certainly recommend checking out some of his gigs. Just like most Arnold films, The Last Stand is violent, very violent with shots of bullets firing into hopeless enemies, resulting in outbursts of blood and guts.

The film on the whole received mostly positive to mixed reviews with a 61% on rotten tomatoes, that being his second best film, right behind 2019’s Terminator Dark Fate. Obviously, The Last Stand is not Arnold’s best work, when we consider his career hits of Predator and Terminator 2, where the narrative context had more intensity and dramatic stakes, The Last Stand resembles the nostalgia of Commando, which really is a ball of laughs and elements of True Lies with the sense of smart humour.

Arnold would return in the further Expendables films, Escape Plan and the Terminator films, with Dark Fate being one of his best performances to date. He is set to star in an upcoming Conan film.

You can buy The Last Stand on steelbook here, featuring some classic retro artwork.

The Last Stand is showing on Netflix UK

TheReviewAwakens

Re-watch Escape Plan (2013)

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The Last Stand Review

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