Escape Plan
Escape Plan stars Sylvester Stallone as Ray Breslin, a technical author who along with his business partner Lester Clark (Vincent D'Onofrio) pursues a unique vocation. Abigail (Amy Ryan) shares Ray’s work space (with a hint of sleeping quarters) and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Hush rounds out the office staff. Their business is jail security and to test the soundness of each employer’s facility Ray has to spend much quality time in stir trying to break out. One day the CIA comes calling anxious to know how solid their newest Gitmo installation is and faster than you can pluck a tracking device from just below skin level (FYI them spooks can do it really fast) Ray is off the grid. His new digs are in a maximum security prison where Dr. Kyrie (Sam Neill) is the only source of compassion and very much in control is Warden Hobbs (Jim Caviezel, ironically star of TV’s 2009 reboot of The Prisoner). While plotting his escape Breslin develops a symbiotic relationship with fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Yeah Sly and Arnold, so you know what to expect – droll one liners in the face of brutality and torture climaxing in heavy ordinance with action being the only thing not under arrest. Congrats to the two aging actors who manage to hold in their stomachs for pretty much the entire 116 minutes. Fans of their past work will definitely not be disappointed. We even get the Governator doing an extended soliloquy in his native German giving him the unique distinction of finding acting a challenge in multiple languages. So does Ray break out? You betcha. And then he has to turn right around and break back in! Can’t tell you why, it’s complicated. As a matter of fact things really get convoluted which makes one wonder how two monosyllabic actors pull off such a poly-faceted plot.