Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone
IMDB: 6.8
RT: 49
Box Office: $137.3 Million (Worldwide)
Summary-
Ray Breslin (Stallone) is an expert at breaking out of prisons. He has a company that is usually hired by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to test their security. He gets an offer to test a secret prison called The Tomb that contains the worlds most dangerous people captured by the CIA (Terrorists etc.). He is framed and trapped in this prison that was designed based on his ideas of how to make prisons more secure and must work with Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger) in order to escape.
Review (SPOILERS!)-
This was a film that I missed in the theaters but was initially very excited about. Unfortunately after some lackluster reviews I put it on the back burner in terms of movies I needed to watch. I wish I hadn't because I really dig this film!
The story starts with Ray Breslin as an inmate in a Prison. He gets himself put into the isolation cell after he starts a fight in the prison yard and begins to work out how to escape. It doesn't take long for him to get out and meet up with his employees Abigal (Amy Ryan) and Hush (50 Cent). After his business partner Lester Clark (Vincent D'Onofrio) explains to the police and the Warden of the Prison what happened, Breslin explains how he escaped. This whole sequence is pretty well paced and quickly establishes everything you need to know about the characters and the situation. I really liked the concept right off the bat even if the actors where a bit stiff.
After everything is established Breslin is offered a very lucrative job to test out a special prison that's privately funded to house some of the worlds most dangerous people. It immediately seems like a bad idea but Breslin goes for it anyway. When he meets the employers things go bad very quickly and he is drugged and wakes up inside the prison. This prison seems very intimidating as all the cells are glass and its in the middle of a large warehouse type room with tons of guards.
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| Kind of like Magneto's Prison in X-Men |
The guards at this prison are brutal as you immediately see them beating the fuck out of people. I guess this is what Guantanamo Bay is like cause it seems like their are no rules for the guards. He then meets Hobbes (Jim Caviezel) who is the soft spoken, clean cut but harsh Warden. Once he gets released into the common area you see all of the typical prison movie tropes (different gangs etc). This is when we get introduced to Rottmayer who immediately takes interest in Breslin. This is where the film really starts to get interesting as Breslin has to figure out the layout of the prison and how it operates. Initially it seems like Rottmayer is to willing to be Breslin's friend which bothered me but there is a reason for it that is revealed at the end. Warden Hobbes realizes that it is Breslin who has brought into the prison and is exited because he based the designs of the prison on the book thathe wrote about prison security. This adds another challenge on top of simply breaking out of the prison.
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| Action Legends conversing |
The middle act of the film is mostly about Breslin trying to figure out where this prison is which becomes another complication to the story. Then the usual tropes of a prison film of planing the escape which Breslin says there are three important factors to; knowing the layout, knowing the routine and having help from the outside. Throughout the course of this middle act they figure out all three of those which sets the film up for a big finale. The main issue I had with this part of the film is that they have another plotline about Warden Hobbes wanting information about some CIA target that Rottmayer worked for. I didn't really care about that aspect of the story and simply wanted them to focus on the prison escape. That being said at the end of the film you realize that the plot point about this CIA target is pretty important.
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| Warden Hobbes |
The final act where they escape is where all of the action is in the movie. While I think the overall escape plan is murky and not particularly creative it is still pretty exciting. There is a short but brutal fight that I liked between Breslin and the Warden's Henchman who gets thrown down a flight of metal stairs. There is also some shoot out scenes throughout out the prison as they are trying to make their escape. Once they get to the outside of the prison Rottmayer has some friends who come to rescue them in a helicopter which provides Schwarzenegger and opportunity to mow down some bad guys with a machine gun. If your into these types of movies these are the moments that you are waiting for. Then of course you have to have the moment where they kill the bad guy and say one liners. (Schwarzenegger "Have a lovely day asshole!") Once they escape the prison they quickly tie up all the lose ends although I think that is the most forced part of the whole film.
Final Thoughts-
This is clearly not the most original film or even a particularly well written one but the script is good enough to keep you interested. The characters are pretty flat but luckily when you have Stallone and Schwarzenegger you don't need dynamic characters, they just play themselves and we love them for it. The two of them carry this film and make it fun enough to be memorable. I think this is equal to if not better than either of their last solo films (Bullet to the Head, The Last Stand) and is worth watching for all action film fans!
MY RATING-
3 out of 5
-Chris "Da Franchize" Hart
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