Escape Plan - Rocky and Terminator come together!

Do you need any more incentive to get into a theater other than the fact that Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are in it together. Well, if you have seen Expendables 2, then you might be a bit apprehensive because you know that such star-stuffed spectacles can be a bit of a drag after the initial excitement wears out. And, these two men are past their sell-by date, working hard to push the limits. So, can it work, at least 20 years past their prime?

It is a highly imaginative and improbable plot; that is expected in such a movie. Syl is Ray Breslin, a

man with the most bizarre of job descriptions – he checks the quality of prisons. We are given a glimpse of his expertise in the beginning, a low-key affair, no big action, but a look at his tactical acumen in breaking out of prisons. Then comes the real deal, the toughest assignment that he has been offered as yet. This time his clients want to dictate terms. His gut tells him something’s wrong, but the challenge tempts him.

As the trailers would have told you, ‘the most secure prison ever built’, and the man is bang in the middle of it, the middle of nowhere. He wants to get out, but its not as easy as it looks. He needs an ally, and guess who he finds on the ship – ‘he’s back’.

First, the good thing about Escape Plan is that it does not get carried away by the casting coup it has managed. The focus is definitely on the plot and not on the stars. You realize that around 30 minutes into the movie and heave a sigh of relief that the same mistakes of the Expendables are not being repeated. They work to a definite plan, and though you know who’s going to win in the end, you are not quite sure how. And, a big surprise awaits you around the mid point, concerning the location of the prison, and no one will see it coming. In hindsight, it does look a bit too implausible, but we can overlook that. The plan is not ingenuous, but it is not plain dumb action either. All said and done, a bit more of effort in the script could have made this a much more enjoyable experience.

Talking about the leading men, Sylvester and Arnold. Well, time has had its effects on them. They

definitely have slowed down, Arnold more so. But, they still have the attitude that made them global stars in the 80s, and you can sit back and enjoy when they turn it on once in a while. They work well together, match each other. They share the screen a lot of the time and have done well to cover their stardom and get into the characters

It is definitely more Sylvester’s movie than Arnold’s, but the Terminator does have a couple of scenes reserved at the end; if you are a fan, you will definitely enjoy it when he picks up the machine gun, and there is also a wicked ‘say cheese’ moment, Arnold really rocks in that moment. Sylvester doesn’t have that tailor-made moments for himself, but he is the main protagonist and brain, and he sure doesn’t look 66. As it is said in Rocky Balboa, ‘the last thing to leave a man is his punch’.

Escape Plan does try to overawe you with the immense nature of its setting, but sorry, we have seen bigger things and it does not quite have that effect on us. There’s nothing much to say here, just that, you don’t have to be afraid that this is just another version of the Expendables. This is not all hollow shooting and punching, it has got some stuff, although not a whole lot of it. If you are a fan of Rocky or Terminator, you will walk away with a smile. Yes, the script could have done with a bit more work, but no use complaining now.

And, in the theater, at the end of the movie, someone suggested that this is the cheesy version o

f Shawshank Redemption. No way, Shawshank Redemption is one of the greatest jailbreak movies ever made, Escape Plan is not even in that league, a comparison is sacrilege. This is just a happy Saturday outing for all fans who don’t mind seeing the old men flexing their muscles once again.  One is just left wondering, that if this duo can be fun even 66 and 67, what it would have been like if they had come together in their pomp.

The Expendables 2

 

A barrage of bullets!

What do you expect when all the men who have ever thrown a punch or held a gun in Hollywood are assembled for one film? Mayhem, from the first frame to the last. That’s what the Expendables 2 is all about. If you have seen the first part of this franchise, you might know exactly what to expect. If not, you can still have a fair idea of the kind of things that will happen on screen, because the makers have not really stretched their imagination as much as the budget. The only thing different in Expendables 2 from its predecessor is that two men who had just one scene, Bruce and Arnold, have around 4 scenes here, and there is double the number of bullets, bombs, planes and tailor-made entry scenes. Otherwise, the formula remains intact.

The plot is as simple and straight as the plan that Sylvester stylishly puts it in his one liner: ‘Track them, find them, kill them’. The script too seems to have been written along those lines, ‘get all the actors in one frame, give them guns and ask them to fire’. The first few minutes sets the pace and the mood of the film. ‘Bang bang bang’, that’s the only thing you can hear as bullets fly at astounding rates with our men moving around in heavily armoured trucks. Its one easy operation to start with as they rescue the most unlikely of people from a hellhole in Nepal; that is a surprise, even though it is connected to the plot in only the most tangential of ways. Then comes the usual bonding part followed by the real mission which forms the plot. Good thing that the writers have chosen an unsettled score from the first part and used it to form the reason behind the job in the second, gives a minimum credibility to a script that doesn’t seem to care about anything except action set pieces.

The plot is as simple as this: a job that was supposed to be a ‘walk in the park’ goes wrong; apparently because the team was not fully aware of what they were walking into. Now, they want vengeance against the adversary who messed up their mission and killed on of them. That’s how the ‘track them, find them, kill them’ stuff begins. It is all straight shooting from then on; not just straight, but in all directions. Of course, to make the plot thicker – they throw in some plutonium deposits which was left behind by the USSR after the Cold War (about time Hollywood movies stopped having a ‘USSR weapons of mass destruction’ angle) that gives a ‘saving the world’ color to the movie. Also, liberating a village happens in the midst of all this. You have shooting from trucks, from treetops, houses, churches, airports and conceivably every place you can think of. You also have the customary set-up action sequence for Jason Statham who does his stylish stuff with the knives – of course you have to overlook the fact that he could have used guns and saved a lot of trouble. And, in Expendables 2, you have an almost Bollywoodish climax where Sylvester and van Damme man-up against each other. The punches that Sylvester throws in this encounter remind us of someone known as Rocky Balboa; especially when he works it to the body of van Damme. Also, watch out for the ‘crash course’ in crashing a plane into a building without scratching yourself.

And, you cannot forget the dialogues in an Expendables movie! You have Stallone and Statham exchanging their usual round of statements; sometimes about girlfriends, sometimes about fighting and sometimes about things they call ‘classics’. Some of them are funny, some fall flat. With Arnold in the fray, you cannot help but have lines like ‘Terminated’ and ‘I’ll be back’. If you’re an Arnie fan, you’ll enjoy them. Bruce joins in with a few wisecraks. These lines pep up the mood when you are tired of all the bangs and blasts that have been going on.

There is nothing much to say about the cast here. Simply put; this is the most complete action ensemble you could have asked for. That is the biggest advantage of the movie and perhaps also its biggest liability; because, with so many stars around, you just cannot pack enough action for all of them. But, in spite of all the stars, the movie remains the property of Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham who get all the big chunks of action.

Don’t look for sense, sensibility or credibility here. This is all about knives, bullets and bombs. If you are the kind that just cannot get enough of them, then Expendables 2 is your cup of tea. But, if you are the kind who looks for reasons behind the action on screen, if you want intelligence and credibility, then chances are that you will be tired by the time the movie enters its second hour. This one is for those who never get tired of firing away.

Verdict: Biff, bang, blast – nothing else!!