'Escape Plan' DVD Review: Stallone And Schwarzenegger Make A Fun Team In This Entertaining Prison Break Movie

Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is the authority on high-security prisons. Breslin published a book on the principles of keeping a prison, which is considered the holy book of prison security. In the subsequent years, Breslin’s organization including his partners Lester (Vincent D’Onofrio), Abigail (Amy Ryan), and Hush (50 Cent) work with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to test their measure of security. Over the course of their work Breslin had tested and successfully broken out of 14 prisons. When a CIA agent shows up to Breslin’s office she offers a job that is unlike any other. The prison is not government-sponsored and as far as policing agencies go, doesn’t even exist. However, the job pays more than double the normal rate. Despite pleas from his associates, Breslin decides to take the job, hopeful that it will go smoothly like all of the others. That’s when things go wrong.

From the beginning of the job, all protocol and procedures that Breslin and his team test are broken. Breslin is taken by surprise and has his remote tracker removed. His team was not given the location of the prison and has no way of knowing where to find him. After witnessing a man get murdered by a prison guard on the transport, Breslin questions the legitimacy of this assignment. His suspicions are confirmed when he arrives at the prison.

Breslin finds himself in a situation that provides challenges that he has never before had to face. However, with the help of his new prison comrades including Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Javed (Faran Tahir), Breslin is able to defy the odds and even persuade the prison doctor, Dr. Kyrie (Sam Neill), to help him find out the nature of this unusual facility and defeat the warden (Jim Caviezel) to make his escape.

This movie is an action-packed, high-velocity prison drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the movie. With a host of familiar faces in the cast, including action veterans, Stallone and Schwarzenegger, the audience is sure to remain entertained.

While the movie begins in rather predictable prison break genre fashion, the movie takes on its own persona when the twist of why Breslin is actually in the prison is revealed. Stallone plays his usual cool-guy, mild-mannered character who is tough but doesn’t say much, and plays off Schwarzenegger’s more high-strung, zany character. The movie can get dark at times with the torturous methods used in the prison and the cold-blooded murders, but not to the point of feeling uncomfortable.

The DVD special features include a special audio commentary to the movie with Director Mikael Håfström and Co-Writer Miles Chapman, as well as a bonus look at the making of the movie in a feature called “Executing the Plan: the Making of Escape Plan.”