I was a bit hesitant to give this movie a try, especially since the previous movie sucked. But when I saw the trailer, there was the appearance of Max Zhang which quite interest me. So I decided to see this movie yesterday when it premiered. I did not ask my wife to accompany me as I doubt she would enjoy this anyway. And how was it? Well I'll tell you more below.
Brief Story Line
When Daya Zhang (Malese Jow - Unfabulous TV series etc), the daughter of a rich Chinese businessman Wu Zhang (Russel Wong - Vanishing Son TV series etc) was kidnapped and put in an Eastern Europe prison by a mysterious person (Devon Sawa - Final Destination, Idle Hands etc), the experienced security consultant Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone - Creed 2, The Expandables series etc) was somehow dragged into a rescue mission.
Still supported by his team Abby (Jaime King - Bulletproof Monk, My Bloody Valentine 3D etc) and Hush (Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent), this time the mission felt personal for Breslin. In addition, they were also assisted by ex Zhang enterprise head of security Shen Lo (Max Zhang - Master Z: Ip Man Legacy, Pacific Rim: Uprising etc) and Daya's bodyguard Bao Yung (Harry Shum, Jr - Glee TV series, Shadowhunters TV series etc) who wanted to rescue her as well.
As the prison was in Europe, Breslin once again enlisted the help from Trent DeRosa (Dave Bautista - Stuber, Hotel Artemis etc) who had better knowledge of the area. So what would happen to Breslin and team? Find them all in this action thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Hmmm this one I thought was slightly better than Escape Plan: Hades. Few factors that supported my views were Stallone had a lot more screen time and he was quite hands on from the start. Another one was the action sequence were much better with more involvement by the 3 male leads. Even Bautista had more part compared to the previous film. And at least this time Max Zhang was respected enough as his name was put into the poster, even if his face was not. Oh and another surprise performance was by Harry Shum, Jr who showed wonderful fight moves.
In term of story though, this one sadly did not improve. It was a bit too complicated at first, but as it progressed, it became easier to understand although the intelligently done prison break was not the main focus. And there were a lot of scenes that did not make sense either, especially in the early parts like how Shen Lo could so easily be working together with Breslin (and few others). I am usually not that particular about this kind of thing, but when it was too much, it became too annoying for me.
With a duration of only 87 minutes, the movie did not leave room for too much drama or plot or character development, as the director John Herzfeld (who had directed movies like 15 Minutes, The Death and Life of Bobby Z etc) wanted to focus on the action. Since the prison was an old fashioned type, there was not a lot of technology and visual effects. There were some explosion effects which were so so, but the most memorable ones would definitely be the hand to hand combat & fight scenes. However, due to its short duration which already included quite long closing credits (and did not have any mid or post end credit scenes), I thought the amount of action was not sufficient. Plus there was no major combined finale fight scene, though the one involving Stallone was pretty satisfying.
Overall this was a little improvement from the second movie, but still not able to emulate or even equal the best one in the series, the first 2013 movie Escape Plan. I would not say that this one is a really terrible movie as I did enjoy a bit especially the action, but it might be wise to just wait for the film to be shown on cable TV or available via online streaming. From what I understood, this one was not even released in US theaters as it went straight to DVD. However, if you are still interested in watching Stallone, Bautista and Max Zhang fight in 1 movie on a large cinema screen, then you could give this a try. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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