Released: June 2019
Director: John Herzfeld
Rated R
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Distributor: LionsGate Studios/Summit Entertainment
Genre: Action/Thriller
Cast:
Sylvester Stallone: Ray Breslin
Dave Bautista: Trent DeRosa
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson: Hush
Devon Sawa: Lester Clark, Jr.
Max Zhang: Shen
Jamie King: Abigail Ross
Melise: Daya Zhang
Daniel Bernhardt: Silva
It’s really bizarre that certain movies and certain kinds of movies that get sequels these days. It’s especially bizarre to see sequels to movies that didn’t do very well at the box office. To be fair, a good number of these films end up getting released directly to video. The Dragonheart and Scorpion King sequels come readily to mind. Obviously, some sequels are pretty much guaranteed to be made considering the success of their films: Star Wars, Fast and Furious, Saw, X-Men and Star Trek just to name a few. But for some movies like I Spit On Your Grave, seeing a sequel to something like that has people going, “Where the hell did that come from?” These days, I’m less concerned about where a sequel comes from. I’m more interested in whether or not it’s any good. So, today I am bringing my review of Escape Plan: The Extractors, the second sequel to 2013’s Escape Plan starring Sylvester Stallone.
Security expert Ray Breslin runs a company that determines how secure a prison really is. One day, he’s approached by a Chinese gentleman, Shen, who tells him that the daughter of a billionaire tycoon has been kidnapped by the son of his former business partner. While determining how best to rescue the hostage, Ray’s girlfriend, Abigail is also kidnapped and taken to a brutal and notorious prison in Latvia. Calling on the services of his friend and partner, Trent, Ray and company head to Latvia to rescue the hostages. Simplicity is the name of the game in movies like this, and I really do appreciate that. It means the film doesn’t dick around playing with extravagant plot twists and conspiracies. It gets right to the point. That being said, we’ve all seen this movie before. The original Escape Plan had a very interesting set-up involving Sly’s character busting out of prisons to prove how they are not entirely secure. It was not a half bad film, but it wasn’t that great. I haven’t seen Escape Plan 2: Hades, but from all accounts, it’s a terrible film. For the third and final film, it plays out nearly exactly how you would expect it to, barring a minor twist or two. The problem is, is that the story in The Extractors is about as far from the original story as you can possibly get. The original film didn’t need a sequel, let alone two, but how this whole thing plays out is surprisingly underwhelming and not very compelling.
As far as acting is concerned, it’s not bad. I’ll be honest: I’m a huge fan of Sylvester Stallone. I’ve been a big fan for years. Whether he’s playing Rocky Balboa, Rambo, or hell, even Judge Dredd, the guy is incredibly fun to watch. As an actor, I think he’s definitely gotten better over the years as his performances in Rambo and Creed have proven. Dave Bautista has always been an actor to watch these days. Aside from Dwayne Johnson, Bautista is the only other former wrestler that I know of that has successfully managed to transition from wrestling to acting. He’s actually a really good actor. Most people will know him as Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s put in some really strong performances in films like Final Score. Max Zhang, who has become a huge star in his own right, plays Shen. When it comes to Kung-Fu movies, Max Zhang is definitely one to keep an out for, as he’s done some really impressive stuff in films like Ip Man 3 and Kill Zone 2. Devon Sawa…now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. A long time. The last time I saw him in a movie was 2000’s Final Destination. While I’m not going to say that he’s a terrible actor, he hasn’t been in anything noteworthy since Final Destination. He plays Lester Clark, Jr., the son of Breslin’s former partner, and seeks revenge for his father’s death. I’m sorry, Sawa has too much of a “nice guy” vibe to him to really come across as a threatening villain. Not really his fault, though. Daniel Bernhardt, however, makes a pretty intimidating villain. He’s an expert martial artist, and that always makes a villain intimidating. He relishes being a bad guy, and he’s fun to watch. Honestly, I would have made Bernhardt the main villain instead of Sawa. Jamie King plays Abigail Ross, Breslin’s girlfriend and one of two damsels in distress. Eh….? She’s alright. She’s certainly got more screen-time than 50 Cent, by at least 10 minutes. Curtis Jackson, in my opinion, was a surprise from the original film. I thought he was pretty good there, but he’s nothing more than an extended cameo in this film, despite the fact that he’s featured on the poster and DVD cover.
It takes a little bit to get to the action, but when it hits, it’s non-stop, and I really enjoyed the action here. There’s no wire-fu going on. This is good old-fashioned action in a lot of ways. The fight sequences are really good. Max Zhang, as far as I’m concerned, is the real star of the show. Not only does have the charisma to carry a movie, has talents as a martial artist are on full display here. His best fight and arguably the best one of the film is Zhang’s fight with Daniel Bernhardt. David Bautista even gets to face off against his stunt double in the film, which makes for a pretty fun display. The real interesting fight, though, is between Breslin and Clark. Evidently it wasn’t choreographed at all. They just winged it and it’s brutal. While the fight sequences are pretty damn good and some of the kills are very satisfying, there are some issues with the action. There’s a lot of poorly CGI effects that populate some of the more explosive sequences. The blood is mostly CGI and the explosions are definitely CG, and it’s pretty obvious. One thing you should note about the film is that it’s ugly. Not just in tone, but in the way that it was filmed. Don’t get me wrong, you can see what’s going with the fights. The framing is good, but the picture quality is dog-shit. I picked this up on Blu-Ray and the picture is awful. I get that this was a very low-budget film, but couldn’t they have used better cameras?
There are a couple of other issues that I want to bring up. For one, there’s a degree of logical inconsistencies going on here. For one, Abigail and Daya are both captured from the United States and flown to Latvia. How exactly does that happen, in this day and age? Even if you’re flying in a private airplane from a private runway, there’s a lot of security involved in dealing with really important people. You would expect that the security guys that they used would have been thoroughly vetted and investigated. Also, the logistics of flying kidnapped people OUT of the United States isn’t exactly kosher. With security around airports these days, you would figure that somebody would have suspected SOMETHING. Ultimately, though, those are just some quibbles that I have. As an action movie, Escape Plan: The Extractors isn’t an awful movie. It’s got some pretty good things going for it, but it’s hampered by a low budget, poor picture quality and an overly generic story-line. The action is damned good though, and it hits hard. I have to give props for that. Honestly, though, it’s just not that great of a movie. It’s far from the worst that I’ve seen, but it’s nowhere near the best. It’s strictly middle-of-the-road for me.
My Final Recommendation: You’ll want an escape plan to get away from this franchise. 6/10