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Escape Plan (2013)

Director:
Mikael Håfström
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Action/Crime
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Escape Plan
RUNNING TIME
115 minutes
Producer:
Mark Canton
Randall Emmett
Remington Chase
Robbie Brenner
Kevin King Templeton
Screenwriter:
Miles Chapman
Arnell Jesko


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Ray Breslin Sylvester Stallone
Emil Rottmayer Arnold Schwarzenegger ½
Willard Hobbes Jim Caviezel
Hush Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson
Dr. Kyrie Sam Neill
Drake Vinnie Jones
Javed Faran Tahir
Lester Clark Vincent D'Onofrio
Abigail Ross Amy Ryan

 

Review

If 40 is the new 30, then 70 is the new action-hero. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have come out of action-retirement with a bang lately, and as long as they don't have to pick themselves up from the floor, they are still in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, two action-heroes in pretty good shape don't quite make a movie, and although Swedish director Michael Håfström tries to make this fairly standard script into a crisp and decent film, it still treads one too many familiar paths for it to be really successful. Because at heart Escape Plan is really just a standard 1980s action flick. This means that the bad guys are just a little slower, dafter and worse shots than our protagonists, although we don't quite know why that is, seeing as they are presented to us as just about the "baddest" guys in the world and our heroes are 70-year-olds disguised as 40-year-old versions of themselves. What was nice to see, however, was that Sly and Arnold are more talkative than in a long time, which means we're spared the old-fashioned action-hero who was so tough that talking was beneath him. I especially liked the scene where Schwarzenegger rambled on in German. Strange how intelligent that made him sound...

Copyright © 12.5.2014 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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