The buddy cop genre has fallen to the way side, but The Heat brings it back in fine form. Co-headlined by Melissa McCarthy (bad cop) and Sandra Bullock (good cop), The Heat sticks to the formula closely, but with two female leads, gives an enjoyable goose to the premise.

Ashburn is an uptight FBI agent who’s assigned to a drug case in Boston as a final test to see if she’s right for a major promotion. Arriving on the scene she steps on the toes of Mullins who more or less runs the precinct with her foul mouth and in your face method of law enforcement. Turns out the a drug lord is running amok on Mullins’ turf and when she sees the clown that the FBI sent for the job, she’s not having any of it and forces herself on the case. Hilarious hijinks ensue.

The movie gets funnier as it goes a long with some creative scenarios and cursing from Mullins’ mouth that would make Kenny Powers proud. They are two different people who end up rubbing off on each other in just the right ways. Again, this is a genre mold we’ve all seen before but it works thanks to McCarthy and Bullock’s great chemistry. It’s got a similar attitude that Bridesmaids had, so if you liked that check this one out for sure.

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a Jackie Chan adventure so sitting down with Chinese Zodiac, I was hoping for that good old JC action feeling wash over me. I got about half of that.

First, the first half or so of this movie is a mess. I’m wondering if stuff got lost in translation, but a lot of ‘plot’ points and character ‘development’ is dropped in seemingly at random with no context. The movie is about Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) who steals art by making replicas to dupe his marks and then selling them at auction. This brings forth the main theme, that cultures all over the world are being robbed of their history by crooks with few morals. Cue Jackie’s conscience for the final act of the movie.

With that out of the way, there’s half heated effort to give some characters a back story which amounts to little more than having an argument over the telephone. You have no idea who they are talking to and then they pop up at the end of the movie to wrap up the mystery that no one cares about. There’s one character who comes out of no where to help Jackie and then she somehow gets shoehorned into making the entire rest of the movie happen. It was the weirdest character introduction ever.

The directing and editing is really amateur for most of the movie too which is weird since Chan has spent more time behind the camera than many people have been alive. Abrupt and confusing cuts, sudden fast pans and dolly shots are all over the place that can be very disorienting.  It feels really rushed and haphazard and it doesn’t settle down until the hand to hand fight scenes occur. Here, at least, Jackie Chan’s work shines as it should. It’s well thought out and blocked with nice wide shots and cuts that make sense. It’s generally easy to follow and fun to watch. It’s got all his trademarks with extensive prop and environment work with dashes of wirework for the more over the top ideas.

The action is a mixed bag though. The opening scene is creative, but really goofy and hard to swallow with Jackie rolling around in a skate suit. At one point he takes a 20 foot vertical leap on his stomach to a street below that probably would have left any human being cracked in two. As I mentioned the hand to hand fights are great (most notable is the one in the counterfeit art warehouse), but the movie wears out it’s welcome by adding one more action scene after that. Everything is in position to end but they went ahead with a ridiculous sky diving finale that was better left on the page. One more knock for Chinese Zodiac. Most of the special effects look terrible.

Thinking back to Jackie Chan’s catalog, Chinese Zodiac reminds me a lot of Project A. They share the same type of world travel and comedic stylings, but Chinese Zodiac is worse in almost every way. In fact, I’d recommend checking out Project A and Project A 2 long before seeing this. Even better, watch Armour of God, where this Asian Hawk character first appears! Nearly 30 years apart and a much better movie from start to finish.

In the past week, two of my shows got dropped like a bad habit. First was Community. After a murky season 4, show runner and creator Dan Harmon was hired back to his show. Season 5 turned out great. NBC must have been pretty iffy about it anyway (high critical acclaim, average ratings at best) so they ordered a shorter season. With the car running again, Dan Harmon got to park the show in a better spot. Part series finale, part set up, NBC decided to end it. It’d be a great show for a place like Netflix to pick up, but it sounds like Harmon is ready to just move on. So much for “six seasons and a movie.” Never say never I guess.

More of a bummer is the loss of Legit. Moved to FXX for it’s second season (I’m still completely against this spin off decision. It just pointlessly diluted the FX stable), it just wasn’t able to catch on. FX is pretty high on the dial already, FXX is even higher with an even smaller install base, so it was a tough challenge for any show regardless of quality. I like Jim Jeffries  a lot and he made a much stronger season this year. Some great stories with a great cast. The best was yet to come, hopefully Jim can roll his season 3 ideas into a different project. A shame that’s it, I’d love for Showtime to pick it up. It’d be a great fit with Californication finishing in a few weeks.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge also finished this week. Robert won (I think he earned it), and at just 8 episodes it was a short but sweet season. No word on if it’s coming back, but I’d be down for more. It’s a good side piece to Face Off.

Following The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, Director David O. Russell scores a hat trick with American Hustle. Russell finds and executes some of the best and most eccentric character driven dramas released in the past 10 years. He’s found these amazing stories and brings them to life with a gentle but sharp eye and a cast that is a studios dream come true.

American Hustle brings us to New Jersey in the late 1970’s where a con man named Irving and his mistress Sydney get dragged into a FBI investigation lead by the bull headed Richie DiMaso. Irving and Sydney had a pretty good thing going until having the unfortunate timing of crossing Richie’s path. They kept things clean and simple…manageable scenarios for conning money out of people. When Richie smells blood in the water, he leverages the two into helping him nab crooked politicians of New Jersey. With each minor win he gets with Irv and Sydney, Richie casts the net larger and larger pulling in all sorts of heat towards them. Mayors, congressmen, the mob and Irving’s wife, Rosalyn, are all dragged into the chop. Relationships are tested and twisted as Richie keeps fanning the flames.

Much like how Martin Scorsese loves working with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell has his favorites too. Christian Bale (Irving), Jennifer Lawrence (Rosalyn), Bradley Cooper (Richard), Amy Adams (Sydney)  and Robert De Niro (mobster Victor Tellegio) show up and deliver award quality acting for him again. This is a hell of a cast of characters. The introduction of Irving and his girl Sydney is great. They exist on a taboo plane of existence. They work together by scamming people and their personal life is sneaky too as Irving is cheating on his wife Rosayln with Sydney.  There’s a  gleeful playfulness when they’re together. But Sydney, oh Sydney! Brilliantly played by Jennifer Lawrence, Sydney is a real nutter with a rambling mind and mouth to match. Irving does love her deeply, but his relationship with Sydney is different. When the two women cross paths, sparks fly and the boundaries of their relationships are stressed to the breaking point. It’s actually pretty sad to see Irving pulled apart from the two he loves most. The movie pivots on these three mostly, with Richie being the antagonist of it all. Their plans and their fights are a thing to behold. It’s a wacky movie, but it’s held together by the actors. I can’t really do their work justice. It all comes together in a brilliant and satisfying ending. Roles are changed, lives are changed and remorse and amends are reached. Characters at odds come together and break apart. When it’s all over it feels like something really substantial has happened. Those still standing at the end are changed forever.

With three amazing movies back to back, I can’t wait to see what David O. Russell has up next. It seems like he just hits the ground running after each production ends. The characters in his movies are some of the most memorable and his actors put out their best work. Everyone should be jumping at the chance to work with him and see what he does next. I think he’s one of the best working in filmmaking today. He knows how to surround himself in brilliance.

When Rush came out in theatres back in September, I made a mark to see it as it’s something up my alley, but never made it out to do so. I regret that now as I think the only way I could have liked Rush more would have been to have seen it up on the big screen.

First things first, no Canadian bands are involved in this film. Rush is about the 1970’s Formula 1 rivalry between James Hunt from Great Britain and Niki Lauda from Austria. The story spans about 6 years, starting in 1970 when the two meet in the F3 driving league as young talent looking to make a name for themselves. Almost from the second they see each other, they butt heads, making one of the biggest rivalries in the sports’ history. James Hunt represented the more playboy lifestyle. Boisterous, a hard partier and a ladies man, it isn’t hard for Hunt to steal a spotlight. Niki Lauda is the other side of the coin. Much more serious with a much more logical and clinical thinking mind. He was also brutally honest, he could never make friends like Hunt could. Where Hunt is the wild child, Niki is the straight laced, rule oriented man. The things they did share was the love of the race track, a natural talent behind the wheel and the unrelenting drive to be in first place.

I can’t think of another race movie like this that I’ve seen other than Days of Thunder and that was a generation ago and a fictitious story. If you see racing cars in todays cinema, it’s going to be on the Fast & Furious angle, not professional racing. Rush is a surprisingly compelling tale and the race scenes are truly thrilling. Great direction by Ron Howard, bolstered by a fantastic sound mix and soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

Chris Hemsworth plays the ever charming James Hunt with Daniel Brühl as the intense Niki Lauda. They have brilliant chemistry, really selling how different but oddly alike these two men were. They goaded each other on season after season, pushing each other as far as they could go professionally. They both annoyed the hell out of each other, but there was a also a clear line of respect (which the movie really tries to show in it’s storytelling). From the outside it could easily seem like they were enemies, but the right word is rivals. They were each shooting to be better than the other, where being better also meant becoming the champion of the F1 circuit. These two were constantly battling each other for first place finishes.

If you are a fan of the Top Gear show, you have to see this. It’ll feed right into that part of the brain that makes you smile. Intense on the track with great moments of humanity and life off of it. I’ll leave it with one of my favorite scenes that gives the best insight on Niki’s mentality. Shortly after Niki first meets Marlene (who he will later marry), he asks her for a ride to the train station from someone’s house. They’re bouncing along a country road in Italy when Niki turns off the car radio after hearing a noise whenever she accelerates.

Niki: Your fan belt is loose.

Marlene: My what?

Niki: And when you brake your foot goes all the way down, which means there’s air in the system.

Marlene: Anything else?

Niki: No… Apart from the rear brakes are worn out, the front right tire’s a bit soft, which explains why you’re weaving so much.

Marlene: How can you tell?

Niki: My ass.

Marlene: Sorry?

Niki: God gave me an okay mind, but a really good ass, which can feel everything in a car.

Marlene then calls Niki crazy, saying her “very expensive” mechanic just looked at the car and it’s in like new condition. The car breaks down a short while later.

Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card and published as a book in 1985, is a military science fiction story featuring a young man named Ender Wiggins. Prior to hearing about this movie being in production, I had never heard of the author or this series and went into watching the movie blind about the story.

Set in the not to distant future, Earth is invaded by an alien race named the “Formics”. They closely resemble bugs in appearance and nearly succeeded in taking over the world. Every military resources on Earth was put to use and in the end it was a man named Mazer Rockham who was able to take down the main ship, ending the war. Tens of millions of people died in the attack and for the next 50 years, Earth has prepared itself for the return of the Formics.

The invasion scared the remaining populace to death. Caught completely off guard, many felt that it was luck that the human race survived. Such an attack could never happen again (hmm, that sounds familiar). With the fear of a seemingly guaranteed second invasion attack to come, the International Military is formed and tasked with making a defense plan. Seeing the youth of the world as it’s best chance, they comb every nation to find the best and brightest, training them to be the military and tactical force that will shut down the Formics for good. Ender Wiggin is the youngest of his siblings and the last to go through training. His sister is let out of the program because she is seen as too compassionate and his brother was let go because he resorted to violence too quickly. Ender is quickly noticed by Colonel Graff as the perfect mix of the two personalities, but he must be groomed and tested to be Earth’s best chance for victory.

I really enjoyed Ender’s Game. A terrific and interesting look into the future of our society, of military life and methodology. Asa Butterfield plays Ender beautifully and Harrison Ford gets a great role as Colonel Graff. Ender’s journey is a fascinating one, as we see a very smart young kid change as he learns from the experiences in this extreme space boot camp. Ender and the other cadets go through rigorous classroom and physical training, learning large scale war tactics and battlefield skills. Seeing Ender testing his superiors and subtlety maneuvering himself into a position of leadership consciously and sub-consciously is a lot of fun. There’s always a layer of mystery surrounding this operation and Ender slowly picks away at it as he feels himself being squeezed by the hand of his superiors. There are cracks in what he is told and the constant stress of being a completely dominating force exhausts his senses and humanity. He doesn’t like what he’s becoming and it scares him that he’s so good at it.

Ender’s Game was released at just about the same time as Gravity, which completely overshadowed it. It’s a very compelling story, much like Gravity and it also has special effects that rival the work in Gravity as well. The zero-G training room is brilliantly executed, the whole aesthetic of the world is really well visualized. It all looks very well thought out and real, making this future scenario seem that much more plausible.

I don’t know what was omitted or change from the book, but I really liked the movie I saw. It kept me engaged the whole time, it’s a smart story and the acting is great from newcomers and veterans alike. I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

I thought the first Thor movie was average at best. Never read his books, never cared for the character. He’s in a similar boat as Superman; having god like powers makes it hard to be concerned about his or her well being. The Dark World is a significant improvement over the first, but still has its faults.

The best part for me is that a small part of the movie takes place on Earth. There’s much more of Asgard and a few of the other realms that Thor watches over. This makes for a much more visually interesting (and often beautiful) and unique movie with the wild colors, landscapes and technology. There’s a much better sense of where Thor comes from and how his culture operates. Also, since this happens after the events of The Avengers, there’s a solid jumping off point of change in Thor and Loki. Loki is locked up for his tyrannical run for Earth and Thor is busy settling things down from Loki’s actions.

The hook of the movie arrives when a great ancient power awakens that threatens all nine realms. After barely fending off the first attack by the Dark Elf Malekith, Thor and Loki must team up in order to stop him from destroying everything. It’s Loki’s chance for some kind of redemption, but can he really be trusted? This is easily the best and most thought out part of the movie. The story arc with the brothers and their parents works really well and gives great motivation and reason for the rest of the movie (and the cool ending).

They lucked out finding Tom Hiddleston to play Loki as he’s the perfect fit for such a role. He’s been great from the start, but now he really owns the character, it’ll be hard to imagine anyone else playing Loki (he pulls off that silly helmet somehow too). He’s got depth, his reasons for being the way he is and that all combines into being a great foil to his brother Thor. Chris Hemsworth continues to fill Thor’s boots well, I can’t think of anything negative to say about him.

I’m very take it or leave it on Natalie Portman as Jane Foster though. She’s just kind of there with her stupid red boots and it’s hard to believe she’s a scientist. Using a couple of big words in rapid succession and spinning a few dials on a machine doesn’t make you a scientist. This folds into my main problem with the movie: there’s a lot of convenient solutions at just the right time. There’s way too many moments of “just go with us on this one” from the writers. Characters get marooned in another realm only to walk into a cave and find the other end of a worm hole that they were playing with at the beginning of the movie. It brings them right where they need to be. Science is used as the solution for The Big Problem of the movie, but it’s theoretical science written on paper at best. Jane and Erik are doing some Einstein level mathamatics and engineering in a matter of minutes and it all works right out of the gate. Did I mention they are sticks? Sure we see them first used in The Avengers, but they quickly reverse engineer them for this new problem and then toss them around like outlet sale bocce balls. You can really just fling those things around in energy storms and god only knows what else and they work perfectly? Sure the results look cool and Thor gets some serious punching done, but come on. Even if it’s easy to sweep aside being in the Summer Blockbuster genre, it’s still dumb. Speaking of dumb, the jokes! They really tried making this movie funny with quick quips, but gad zooks are they bad. Most of them hit the dirt like a big mouth bass.

As far as comic book movies go, The Dark World is one of the better ones. They do a lot with a rather average character and that’s commendable (almost forgot to mention, the soundtrack is terrific). It moves the Marvel Universe in the right direction and they are making these movies better with each one so I can’t complain much.

The Wolf Of Wall Street is the fifth Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese team up. This time they bring us the true story of Jordan Belfort, a stock broker who was gladly swallowed up by the sins of greed and excessive living.

The Wolf is a story of unbridled debauchery, a ride that sucked in hundreds of people and came to an end only because of obnoxiously stepping over the lines of the law.

Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) was (or is, really) a self made man who kept his eye on the prize: making money. Once shown the way of selling nonsense at the first Wall Street firm he was hired at in his early twenties, it became a race of how much money he could make and spend for the next decade or so.

It’s almost cartoonish in nature the way it’s shown. In the beginning, Jordan is shown as a nice average guy. Young, innocent (naïve), polite and ambitious. But once he gets a taste of the high life, it’s a quick decent into madness. He starts his own company, pulling in some friends with questionable morals into the fold. Jordan was only 26 when he left reality behind. Taking advantage of people left and right, more sex and drugs than a person should be able to imagine let alone experience. The addiction, lies and deceit stack up until the tower can’t get any higher and collapses on everyone.

DiCaprio really loved this role, you can see him revel in the chance to play such a character. Jonah Hill as Jordan’s main partner in crime, Donnie Azoff is absolutely perfect. The way they play off of each other is on screen chemistry that can’t be made up, they just frolic hand in hand in every scene they do.

While money can’t buy happiness, it sure does by fun. The movie shows this rollercoaster ride at it’s core, giving you a seat at what it was like to live a life like this. The build up of the lift hill (entering the industry) and then the exhilaration of gravity taking over for the rest (the success and everything it let them do). These guys had a blast doing what they did. Are drugs bad? Sure, but the bad comes at the end of the awesome parts. Is the sex with everyone in sight bad? Yes! Just ignore the relationships it ruins. Is money bad? Only if you don’t have enough to buy your way out of a pickle! Besides, if I don’t pull it in by the truckload some other jerk will!

Jordan could talk to his sales force like an emperor, his subjects hanging on his every word. You sell these stocks, this IPO, we will live on top of the hill forever! Their work day basically became a party with no rules or restrictions. They ran wild like college kids until they made so much noise that it drew attention from the Feds. The drug addiction just moved in along with the money, using one to start the day and the others to regulate that feeling until sleep eventually won out. Buying the drugs was as normal as buying food. Once entrenched, none of them even thought about getting out.

Jordan even had a chance to get out under reasonable circumstances after he draws too much heat to shake. No jail time and some fines that were more or less be a slap on the wrist. He throws the deal out of the window for his astronomical pride and obsession with money. The draw of his lifestyle was too much for him to turn his back on. Turns out when the Feds have proof of you breaking a laundry list of laws and you tell them to jump off the highest cliff they can find, they really come after you.

At just under 3 hours long, the movie shows a lifestyle of hilarious excess that matches the likes of drug king pins. It really uses that R rating to the fullest. The good times lasted for years but were cyclical in nature, much like coming on and off a drug high. Actually, it’s exactly like that as you constantly see these guys running around gacked out of their gourds at one instance and then crashing hard only to rally and do it again. When a problem came up, find a loophole to bring it back to “normal”. A life where a problem was more or less a pot hole in the street paved with gold until the hubris of the seemingly invincible could protect them no longer. The punishment comes at the end, but it’s questionable how punishment it really was (Jordan did very little time when he ultimately cooperates).

The Wolf Of Wall Street is a hell of a time that rides fast on the shoulders of it’s fantastic cast. While it shows an attitude and system born of the 1980’s and played into the 1990’s, it still fits today. Financial inequality has never been higher and the corruption of Wall Street has only strengthened its bond with the banking industry. You don’t need to look at a Hollywood movie to reflect on the troubled times we live in. You just need to see what’s in the news everyday.

The greatest compliment and easiest assessment is that Winter Soldier is a much better movie than the first Captain America. A much more interesting plot and the feeling that everything isn’t going to be Okay just because Cap is around. There are serious, world changing events going on (for regular citizens and those sworn to protect them).

First and foremost, Chris Evans is much more comfortable wearing Captain America’s boots. Much like how Robert Downey Jr. is synonymous with Tony Stark, Evens is Steve Rogers. Well written dialog between characters (if rather blunt and in your face at times) develops a tangible bond between the good guys and makes their struggle seem more believable. I really like the idea of HYDRA having it’s tentacles wrapped around seemingly everything come to light and what it takes to really stop them. It parallels todays corruption and unease going on today, but frames it in comic book trappings.

HYDRA is evil and devious, going to crazy over the top feats to mold the world in a way they see fit. There’s some great action scenes from start to finish which range from infiltration missions, cat and mouse chases on foot and in vehicles, some surprisingly great hand to hand fighting (even if some of it is way too shaky and disorienting) topped off with screen filling explosions and destruction. Captain America’s super abilities let him do some really interesting and creative stuff action wise. With great speed and strength he’s got that cool superhuman “crash through stuff” navigation, he can take a serious beating and still get up which let’s him get away with more fantastic stuff (huge falls, general punishment) and his shield work is something no one else really does. There’s some really cool offensive and defensive weapon work in each fight he uses it in. Since he can’t shoot energy around and really doesn’t rely on guns much, they exploit his hand to hand strength to great affect (tip of the hat to the sound guys for really selling the hits). Plus, the characters supporting CA are really great too. Everyone else is just a human, but really good at what they do so they are able to smartly back him up. Captain America may be running point, but he wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the team he trusts.

I think I like The Winter Soldier so much because it’s a great division of Good vs Evil. The good guys are fun to be around and easy to root for. The bad guys are really bad and offer a real challenge to over come. The Winter Soldier is a great foil from Steve Roger’s past and an equal match in terms of strength and ability. The string pullers of HYDRA are real dirty suits and give a different level of challenge to over come (Black Widow really gets to shine and Nick Fury gets to be much more than a guy barking orders). I really appreciated seeing the regular people, the ones who are just cogs in the wheel of the machine stand up for themselves when evil shows it’s face. They didn’t need to be convinced or otherwise cajoled to put their foot down and try and stop awful things from happening right in front of them.

This is probably my favorite Marvel movie so far, even if it runs a bit long. They drop seeds to continue the universe all over the place and the entire cast gets to shine. This production team manage to successfully balance a lot of spinning plates, it’s some impressive stuff. There’s a few more comic book movies this year, let’s hope the quality is the same!

Awesome movie. The story of Captain Richard Phillips and his crew of the MV Maersk Alabama, a huge cargo ship that got hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009.

Tom Hanks plays Captain Phillips, so you know what kind of performance you can expect (the end is truly breathtaking stuff). He plays against Muse (new comer Barkhad Abdi who plays his part just as well as Hanks) who is the leader of the hijacking. The event plays through an intense few days and knowing too much will dull the sense of emergency and suspense on your first watch. It’s a well paced 2 hour experience that’ll leave you tingling.

With Paul Greengrass directing a movie on the ocean I was concerned Captain Phillips would be a free-for-all camera pitch and roll fest. He reeled it in though and comes through with what I think might be his best work to date.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! Not the Perron family, they have a demon infestation (ghosts are apparently a different kind of annoyance). The Conjuring is the latest haunting (with a dash of possession) film that has scared the pants off of a whole lot of people (huge opening weekend, almost 140 million domestic total).

It seems like most of these movies are based on “true events” which is always a good hook to have in promotion. This one is from the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren who are authorities on contact from the other side. Through the late 60’s and into the 70’s they made dozens of trips to investigate paranormal activity (even a full blown possession before this case apparently). The Warren’s are contacted by the Perron family who have just moved into a farm house and there is some really shady stuff going on. As soon as the Warren’s enter the home, they know that this isn’t a hoax or the family hearing things that can be explained away. There is a evil presence that has attached itself to the Perron’s and won’t let go of them easily.

It’s an effective horror movie. The easiest comparison is to the Paranormal Activity franchise, but this isn’t a found footage movie. This follows the more tried and true cinema take and evens mimics the 70’s style film aesthetic to match the time period of the movie. The Conjuring relies on a lot of jump scares/orchestra hits, but there is a heavy sense of foreboding and dread as soon as the boarded up basement is found in the house. The cast is great, the story of the house is a neat one and the haunting set pieces work up well. Misdirection, stuff in the shadows, physical manifestations, right up to ‘drag em around by the hair’ and demonic possession.

Director James Wan has made his bones in the horror genre (Saw, Insidious) and I like his work here. Interesting shots and production design with solid FX work. He knows how to set a scene and follow through. But there’s so much competition in this genre now that they all step on each others toes. The ‘hair dragging’ bit has been done to death, it’s hard to show something new. While I did like the movie, you can’t ignore how it checks every box down the haunted house list which makes it feel redundant. Speaking of showing, The Conjuring avoids almost any gore. Some scratches, bruises, a bit of ‘evil vomit’ and a bite wound are the extent of it.

The end was a real cop out too. It seemed too easy and simple. The movie is a huge build up until the last 10 minutes and then it’s suddenly over. For a demonic entity with a real mission, it sure gave up without much of a fight. It was almost like it knew it was on 100th page of the script and it was time to wrap it up quick. An otherwise strong horror movie left me disappointed at the end. You don’t want that to be your audiences’ last feeling.

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.