Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a really busy guy since leaving office, he’s in a few movies every year. They’ve been pretty good too! No real stinkers. Escape Plan with Sylvester Stallone continues that streak.

Sly plays Ray Breslin, a prison security expert who’s so good at his job that the feds hire him to break out of their highest security prisons across the country. If he can’t break out, no one can. After a job, Ray and his team get an offer (at double his standard rate) to break out of a brand new facility that is off the grid. So far off the grid that it’s existence isn’t acknowledged to any one. It was made to keep the world’s most undesirable people off the streets for good. After accepting the job, Ray is yanked away from society and quickly realizes that this isn’t a job. Someone wanted him out of the way.

Prison break movies are fun and you don’t see many of them these days. It’s a twist on the spy/action movie formula that always keeps you guessing. How someone gets in is the easy part, how they get out is the real question. The prison in Escape Plan is a doozy of a facility. It was built using Ray’s own notes so it pushes him farther and harder than any prison before it. It takes his knowledge and some new inside friends to come up with a plan that even has the smallest chance of working.

One of those friends is Rottmayer, played by Schwarzenegger. Being the ultimate 80’s action star team up that is really only teased in The Expendables franchise, the two quickly meet and team up (hmmm…). They work well together, it’s a lot of fun to see them co-star and they both get their time to shine in various action scenes. The set piece where Rottmayer gets his hands on a mounted automatic gun was clearly pulled out of the Arnold cinematic rulebook. It was probably the first scene that was written.

While the set up and execution work well enough, the obvious question always came up as things unfolded. Why was all the effort and expense put into this crazy prison when an assassination would be doing the same thing, but easier? The guys being thrown into this crazy prison are supposed to be really bad news, but you never hear why any of them are in there (it looks like there’s close to 200 inmates). It’s mentioned that people/groups pay this company a fortune to get and keep these prisoners, so why do that instead of a hit? Seems like a drive by or explosion would be the most permanent solution if you are going to pay millions to make someone disappear.

Despite that, Escape Plan is a fun, well made movie that’s great for a weekend rental.