Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Well, anyone who's seen a Sylvester Stallone movie lately. Stallone, even as he enters retirement age, is determined to hang onto his action-movie star status, and to his credit, he still comes equipped with biceps capable of busting someone's spine.
After duly noting the box-office success of his two "Expendables" movies — which featured a flock of 1980s action heroes — Stallone continues to milk the two-for-the-price-of-one approach with "Escape Plan," teaming up with his former A-list rival Arnold Schwarzenegger for a prison-break flick. This would have been a coup de grace in the early '90s, but if it seems a bit past its sell-by date in 2013, well, think again; although the film opened weakly in the United States, recouping only half its $50 million budget, it has picked up steam internationally, to the tune of $100 million and counting.
"Escape Plan" has one good plot twist that comes fairly early on in the movie, so I won't spoil it here, but will say only that Stallone plays a guy who is an expert at busting out of jail, repeatedly tweaking his nose at the authorities until someone decides to disappear him to an off-the-books CIA black prison. This one seems more or less inescapable: Each prisoner is contained in a small cell built on stilts with glass walls, video surveillance and 24-7 floodlighting. The warden (Jim Caviezel) is a fastidious sadist, and you know the prisoners are in for a rough time when Vinnie Jones heads a security force that looks like the "THX 1138" robo-cops. Amy Ryan and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson turn up as Sly's cronies, Schwarzenegger as another CIA prisoner, Sam Neill plays a possibly sympathetic prison doctor and Vincent D'Onofrio a crooked contractor.