There’s nothing like an unexpected trilogy…

With foreign markets being so important these days there’s no surprise that a movie like Escape Plan back in 2013 could now spark not one, but TWO sequels given what a big hit it was over in China.  While this third installment; Escape Plan: The Extractors is still a pretty basic affair, it actually does a handful of things really well…just enough to distract us from things where they were just being a little too cheap with it all.

Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) and his crew find themselves breaking into a new high tech security prison know in most circle’s as the ‘Devil’s Station’ in an effort to find the missing daughter of a high profile Hong Kong tech executive.  However, as they dig deeper into the case things get a lot personal as someone is out for vengeance against Breslin and they’re playing for keeps in a game that is about to get very personal for Breslin and his crew.

It will never be accused of being high art, but Escape Plan: The Extractors has a genuine look about it with some solid set action pieces and in spite of some cheap moments where mediocre set design and subpar visuals come through and make the occasionally clunky dialogue all the more obvious.

A clear step up from pt 2, Writer/Director John Herzfeld comes in and allows for a genuine sense of scale to the movie making it feel a little bigger than initially expected.  With some very solid fight sequences and an overall improved visual feel to it all, it makes it easier to over look some of the clunky plot machinations and mediocre dialogue.  It flows and still has a fair bit efficiency between fight scenes, which to be fair is the only reason we’re probably watching this anyway.  It’s a decent little action distraction and a good little movie to turn your brain off too.  In hindsight if the powers that be could have cut Pt.2 & Pt.3 into one big move then it would have worked a lot better.

Stallone carries the bulk of the movie as Ray Breslin still with a bone to pick after the events of the last film.  You can easily tell that he knew how much of a narrative mess the last one was and in this instance we can actually feel Stallone trying too hard to elevate all this back to the level he thinks it should be at.  He’s unsuccessful but you can’t really ever contend that the man doesn’t at least try when he knows he’s been saddled with a dud.

Seeing Ray Zheng opposite him to cater to foreign markets is actually kind of fun here, simply kicking ass and delivering quips across the room from Stallone which had to have been a thrill.

Devon Sawa as our bad guy is a half decent choice and plays his role well enough while the likes of Russell Wong, Daniel Bernhardt, Harry Shum Jr and Jamie King round out the supporting players well enough.  Ironically both Dave Bautista and Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson probably have less than 20 minutes screen time combined, it’s not shocker to see then sharing the poster either.

Picture and sound quality on the Blu-Ray are first rate as expected and the special features include a brief behind the scenes making of featurette.

At the end of the day, Escape Plan: The Extractors is a decent enough little film for those who just want to see some action thrown up on the screen and turn their brains off for a minute or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1SzWnyosyY&feature=youtu.be