The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

There are some movies that are almost unwatchable, even for horror film lovers, as they just contain too much bloodshed and torture scenes, like the Saw series. In that sense, Escape Plan 2 was unwatchable. That being said, the true torture was having to sit through the entire mind-numbing 90 minutes. Never been so happy to see the end credits.   

The sequel kicks off when Shu (Xiaoming Huang), a member of Ray Breslin’s (Silvester Stallone) security team, is kidnapped along with his cousin and taken to a high-security prison called Hades. Maverick, Luke (Jesse Metcalfe), tries to help out, but ends up being kidnapped. Luke is also taken to Hades and that is when Ray asks for help from his muscly friend Trent DeRosa (Dave Bautista). With the rest of the team working together, they all attempt to save their kidnapped mates from the torturous insides of Hades and its vindictive master.

The plot’s concept seems simple enough to not allow for mess ups, just a simple save and extract. Add a fight scene here, a danger scene there, and a celebrity or two and you’ve got it, right? Wrong.

This film was just lazy, relying on the presence of Stallone and Bautista to make a movie out of a mess. In the film’s trailer, it seems like Stallone and Bautista are the main leads, but their effect in the film, as well as their actual on-screen time, is limited to the point where they could be labeled part of the supporting cast. Instead the “hero” was Xiaoming, who had almost no on-screen charisma and whose speech was barely comprehendible most of the time. Yes, he can punch and kick like a ninja in an animated film but, if he is front and centre, that just doesn’t cut it.

What made the film even worse is the fact that the script is made up entirely of cliché lines; it is as if the scriptwriters gathered up the most beaten-to-death clichés and mashed them together. Most of these clichés were lines used in voice overs by Stallone as a form of telepathic advice to Xiaoming, and that tool made the entire film seem completely ridiculous and cartoon like.

The acting as a whole was mediocre, if not well below average; Stallone looked as old and tired as ever and, since he had only one fight scene, there wasn’t much he could offer. Xiaoming, again, did not have enough on-screen charisma and needed to work on his enunciation.  Bautista was same old Bautista with the one bad ass looking face that goes well with his muscular body, and Metcalf seemed like he was trying too hard.

This series seems to be sliding down a slippery slope. Ironically, the ending of the film paved way for a third sequel. That is why film critics need to speak up, and call for an end to the torture that is the Escape Plan series.