If it does not involve pro-wrestling, this is Russ Stevens's effort to create the one stop blog for movies that are cut to the ideal run-time, 90 minutes. This blog may feature films that may range from 71 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes, but 101 minutes and up are too long. An hour and a half can justify cutting a film into two chapters and a book into three. Hobbits and Katniss have too many ending, consider this an effort to stop that.
Showing posts with label Sylvester Stallone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sylvester Stallone. Show all posts
I am doing my best to enjoy these slow times at the bank. With Republicans threatening to let this country default on its debts me technically being a government contractor, it is more important than ever to enjoy every moment.
That is definitely tricky when your mom has to be COVID-free to head to London this weekend. It is bad enough that I have not heard any news on what the bank will do about the unvaccinated who surround me for nine hours a day. My visit this past weekend had hopes of checking out the Peoria bar scene, but that kind of exposure could ruin my mom's next three weeks. I would never here the end of that.
Which is why I need help from my readers and friends. "NinetyForChill.com - The Podcast" needs guests and I need something to keep me inside. For October, the natural thing to do is to focus on horror movies and I will acknowledge, my experience with many of the slasher franchises is lacking. Almost all the franchises have at least one feature that clocks in between 74 and 99 minutes. If you want to be my expert, send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com and we can set up a time for a Zoom meeting. Each episode needs to be recorded by Sunday before the Tuesday that it is to be released. Thanks.
If you cannot be a guest, I am still in need of suggestions for horror features to watch. Which Jason and Freddy flicks are worth the time. Are there any good "Halloween" sequels beyond "2", "H2O" and "2018"? Are "Child's Play" and "Seed of Chucky" all I need to know where the cool doll-based gore is because last night, I went for a "Video Nasty". Unfortunately, it sure felt like the UK cut of "Don't Go in the House".
Don't Go in the House (1979)
Donny has an obsession with fire. This stems from his father abandoning the family when he was five. Deeming that man as evil, thus anyone spawned from him must be the same, Donny's mother was determined to burn the evil out of her son, literally. The fear instilled into Donny has lead to him never having the nerve to leave her, so he has essentially been her live-in nurse his entire life. His only relief is being mesmerized by the flames at the incinerator he works at.
One night, he returns from work to find that his mother has died. When he is about to call the authorities, voices manifest telling him to celebrate the new found freedom instead. Unfortunately for Donny, these are not the only voices that he hears. His mother is still demanding that he be an obedient and good child. The new found friends suggest that the answer is purifying his mother's corpse with flames.
Of course, when your only relationship with any women is your mom, you may rationalize that all women are the same as her. With a flamethrower and his newly installed steel-walled room, he will bring purity to this world, one woman at a time.
"Don't Go in the House" lays some great groundwork for eventually banned by Great Britain films like "Maniac" when it comes to the story. Unfortunately, it is all suggestions of imagery instead of actually delivering the brutality. Just because it had been associated with the video nasties, I was kind of disappointed that there is only one scene of genuine terror and no spectacular gore.
The overbearing mother trope obviously dates back to "Psycho", but late 70s' early 80s' horror elevated the psychopathic notions. I think there are well written scenes in this feature that explore how a nutcase would handle living around corpses with a need for interactions. Much of the time, this film comes across as a one-man show. Dan Grimaldi does not quite have the charisma or chops to carry those scenes. Without people to interact with, his performance appears lost.
The lack of an outstanding performance without a large amount of gore results in a lot of real-time research temptations. There are great odes to Italian horror movies with some sequences of the charred corpses coming to life, but it just reminds you that this is not a messed up giallo film. I liked the ending proving that Proud Boys are not hard to make, but it is not enough a reward for the time that has passed.
"Don't Go in the House" has a strong enough script for an interesting movie, but the lack of actual horror holds this feature back. It is not a waste of time because it lays out a nice prototype for what the genre was to become, but this lacks the bells and whistles to be regarded as ready to be released to the public. If you want to see the history that leads up to over the top mayhem, you may get something from this feature. Otherwise, just skip to "Maniac's" uber misogyny.
*Blog post started on August 13, 2020.
Medical appointments have passed, but with a one month follow up scheduled. Yes, I am still stressed about that. And yes, I am too honest to just cancel an appointment because it would not work with my schedule and wait till my next health scare.
Any other stress is probably undue bullshit. The Snapchat girl is sending mixed messages, going from work focus to "why can't a man satisfy me?" mode. Why do you not tell me to get over there and take care of you?
To make matters work, I at least got girls talking on three other platforms. This leaves me with three other conversations to worry about. Should I message them just to make sure they know I am still interested? Did I cross the line with some political commentary? Do they only chat from nine to five?
And there are of course the blog posts that I need to all have prepared before my vacation. Because I got to justify my Netflix DVD subscription, my most recent disc had to get back to Carol Stream before the next billing period. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is next up which is good because I got to slow down my output for NinetyForChill.com. But until we get to the way I should be handling my Terry Gilliam collection (To my credit, my copies of "Brazil" and "12 Monkeys" were both purchased at heavily discounted prices.), we must tread through another post 2015 action movie starring Sylvester Stallone.
"Escape Plan" was an amusing enough movie that may have taken itself a little too seriously. With two sequels being shot back-to-back, one would suspect any other franchise to be taking itself way too seriously. Fortunately, when you realize these flicks are solely for the Chinese mainland (Free Hong Kong!), it is easy enough to relax and enjoy "Escape Plan 2: Hades" for the braid dead trash that I hoped "Rambo: Last Blood" would have been.
Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018, 1 hour 36 minutes)
Breslin Security has expanded from prison breaks to encompass rescue missions. With Ray Breslin tired of doing the physical work required in testing the effectiveness of prison security, Shu serves as his top agent. Unfortunately, the last bout with terrorists only allowed for half the assets to make it back home. If fellow agent Kimbral had skipped trying to further promote Breslin by blowing up the terrorists' weapons cache and arrived at the rendezvous on time, the results would probably have been different.
Ray fires Kimbral and puts Shu on leave to work on his team leadership skills. Shu decides to head back to Shanghai to visit his family, and make sure nothing happens to his satellite genius cousin, Yusheng, at a Bangkok bachelor party. At least being at his cousin's side means he will not have be alone when they are kidnapped to soon awake in a black op prison site called H.A.D.E.S.
The Zookeeper has been hired by a Swiss competitor to Yusheng. Shu and his cousin are there to be tortured until they give up the patent information for Yusheng's new satellite communication technology. HADES is far more complex than the last prison Ray broke out of and with the Zookeeper having inmates fight for luxuries, how long can our protagonists last?
We know Ray is going to do anything he can to get Shu out, including recruiting the towering DeRosa to give them some extra firepower, but will not make a move until he is certain of success. It is all a matter of figuring out the location and layout of the prison. Time is one thing Shu has and with Kimbral being a fellow inmate, what he has learned from Ray gives him all he needs to win the day. But after all the damage that Breslin has done to the private prison industry, things seem far too easy.
"Escape Plan 2: Hades" starts out like any silly 80's action movie, but it makes a sudden turn to attempt and capture "The Matrix" cool aesthetic that exposes all of its weaknesses. It is kind of like "Tron" without the teleporting laser and smooth incorporation of effects. With punching and kicking being your primary means of action, our characters are not in the right movie. Especially Stallone who I do not believe knows how to kick.
I suppose the concept of a computer controlled prison allows for twists to constantly occur, but the narrative is far too predicable. The idea is to make the audience to try and figure out the puzzle as they go along. Its mistake is the constant twists to mock us just when the nerds develop a theory on how the protagonist can escape. This leads the audience to just quit caring, so only the stupidity of villain(s) can the film get them reinvested. That is a whole lot of stupid.
Director Steven C. Miller is accustomed to making stupid films. He directed a fun remake of "Silent Night, Deadly Night" ("Silent Night), but that film featured a script that does not necessarily make sense as it works to a big reveal. What made the film fun was a cast of screen chewers and shocking violence. The film chewer in "Escape Plan 2" is Stallone who is essentially there only for his brand value. He is not the lead, so he cannot chew the fat off of this film.
As for the violence, you get one great fight scene, otherwise the film is too quick to resolve its scenes. This leaves the flick with nothing for Miller to catch and over expose. If it left us with graphic scenes to linger on, it would play towards Miller's strengths. It also lacks a sense of humor or clever wit that can save an action movie. All of that is reserved for Dave Bautista's screen time. Since the third film in the franchise also features him, you have to admire the writer, Miles Chapman, doing the bare minimum to leave the audience wanting more.
"Escape Plan 2: Hades" might have figured out how to make a Chinese-funded trilogy work, leaving the audience just interested enough for a third film. In this case, I think this interest stems from wanting justification for putting up with a quickly produced sequel that lacks heart. It has some fun moments, but it also wants to prove itself smarter than its audience.
"HADES" might show up the audience with its twists to indicate intelligence, but it does not change the fact that it is built on a metaphoric swamp. How smart can you be if you are still sinking? Hopefully the wreckage of this castle will be enough to serve as a sturdy base for "Escape Plan: The Extractors".
Episode 179: Stallone 6-Pack: The 90-Minute Traumas & Feels
The king of action movies that run between 70-100 minutes is Sylvester Stallone. If the feature was focused on action over drama in the 80s, they were brief affairs. Some were good, some were bad, but they all benefit from their sleek runtimes.
Russ goes through the entire range of emotions though out this episode. He pities the fans of Stallone's attempts to connect with kids, tears up for the relatable heroes, loves all of the outrageous moments, and experiences PTSD with the director's latest decisions. This podcast may be the emotional roller coaster that the icon has tried to deliver since the original "Rocky".
Episode 180: Unspooling $200 Million Art/Gambles with ThePoeticCritic
After “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s” failure to succeed financially at the box office, CatBusRuss wonders “Why did it get made?” ThePoeticCritc states that it is IP and is happy that the funds were not put towards a super hero movie. Amy Nicholson from the “Unspooled” surprised Paul Scheer with how George Miller’s previous installment in his series lost $40 million for Warner Bros. The two still admired Miller’s 2015 film (as did the Academy and our host) and emphasized how great an artist he is. BUT, how can anyone justify spending nine figures on something that DaVinci only needed a literal canvas and paint for? ThePoeticCritic tries to explain the math.
Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.
I need to go to a Family Video at some point to check out what it costs to rent a DVD. $3.99 being a special rental rate for a movie on iTunes seems a bit high. It is especially high when you take into consideration that iTunes has a $4.99 for purchase section.
Yes, you can buy $4.99 DVDs and Blu-Rays at a video store, but those titles are far from new. A skip or two in "Suicide Girls Must Die" did not affect that film too much (as I predicted), but the stakes should be higher for "Rambo: Last Blood". On sale for $9.99 for a week (I would not be surprised if longer.), I thought purchasing it to ensure quality was a worthwhile gamble.
It has been 10 years since John Rambo had returned to the United States from Thailand, and the ranching life seems to suit him. He is now medicated, but old habits are hard to kick as he maintains a tunnel network under the family home. If anything, his paranoia allows him to be the perfect uncle to the orphaned Gabrielle who he has groomed into an equestrian ace and a scholar.
Despite having a loving family, Gabrielle cannot shake the feeling of being unwanted. This leads her to keep in contact with her delinquent friend Gizelle in Mexico. Her hopes are that her friend maybe able to locate the father who abandoned her. Gizelle succeeds and Gabrielle heads to confront him. Of course Rambo's niece does not know that Gizelle survives by working for a human trafficking's ring. When she does not return, Rambo throws his meds away and crosses the border with bringing along a hammer and a handgun.
Will the arms Rambo brought be enough to take her back? If you are the kingpins who took her, you better hope it is. He is only trying to be a hero. If anything happens to his family, you will be the target of his wrath.
Rambo is one of the first action heroes I was aware of. Or I should say, he seemed to work the most. Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones and Han Solo played a greater part in my development, but Sylvester Stallone seemed to relish playing this role more. My first true action movie going experience was "007: The Living Daylights", but when you grow up around kids whose parents did not care what they put into the VCR, you heard from everyone else how badass Rambo was. Sorry David Morrell, but this is the Rambo I gravitated to.
I have never actually watched "First Blood" from beginning to end. Rambo not trying to kill a small town (Directly at least, fuck their economy.) meant he was a really deep character, and his speech at the end of the film told me there was an important message behind the film. It was not until my teens that I saw any of the films, and frankly, the first film felt above my comprehension (Teens do include 11, right?). When you throw this guy back into Vietnam or land him in Afghanistan to win a war, that was easy for me to understand. No unnecessary drama, just action and a sense of a man trying to find redemption is what I watched these films for. As I grew to love ridiculous effects, the more gore an installment had, the better it was.
"Rambo: Last Blood" was not as much as a hit when compared to the fourth installment. This left me wondering if it was just a bad movie. After comparing the Rotten Tomatoes scores and not seeing much of a difference, I determined this film deserves a chance to be viewed. This just shows that we need an action movie equivalent to the Tomatoes scale to better serve us fans of gratuitous violence. Too bad "Bloody Elbows" was already taken.
"Last Blood" is a revenge film, but it makes the mistake of having the instigating issue occur until the 45-minute mark. This is not the film I was hoping for. I was not interested in Stallone replacing Neeson in terms of using their particular set of skills. Because Sylvester Stallone wants to show that Rambo is finally civilized, he does not use his special traits when he comes to the rescue. The results only further humanize him, and that is not want I want from this legend.
Also, the action is reserved for the last 15 minutes of the film. Once Rambo finally kills/brutalizes someone in the bastardized predecessors (two through four), the action feels constant. The screenplay allows us to thoroughly enjoy the climax because we want his vengeance to be obtained, but it is not the journey we wanted to take to get there. Being a member of "The Last Jedi" is, at worst, the third best "Star Wars" film camp, I appreciate that Stallone and Matthew Cirulnic tried something new with the formula by attempting to rip our hearts out emotionally, but the past formula cannot be abandoned.
A part from the story missteps, the film suffers from having few opportunities for director Adrian Grunberg to shine. Perhaps he did not have the ability to shine, but I enjoyed his previous theatrical release, "Get the Gringo", so I know he was not talentless. Again, the finale is great, but with everything beyond the Rambo Ranch scenes being shot at night with no environmental effects (rain, dust, etc.), it just feels cheap. There are some scenes that could work in Grindhouse features, but he is making a "Rambo" movie, not a "Machete" sequel, so the efforts are lost on the typical filmgoer.
To get to the goretastic finale, you must love the character of Rambo to enjoy "Last Blood". I fall into that category, but I could see a lot of people being bored with this flick and skip to the literal heart-wrenching conclusion. If only we still had FlixMix ("Boogeymen: The Killer Compilation" and "Ultimate Fights") around to remedy this situation. Could you imagine a compilation film composed of the best scenes from films that might not be worth your time? Now "That's Entertainment."
Cool Movies Darth addresses Sony's most important feature of Winter 2021, "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City". You may dispute this claim, but "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was really a Disney movie. Reimagining narrative video games and creating an action-packed, minimal scare versions of Universal Picture's horror icons has been Sony's bread and butter since 2002. After 20 years of this, it is time to start repainting their established IP.
Allow me to get out of third-person. Happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CM Darth) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective.
From what I had gathered from YouTube channels, the general consensus is that this feature was a disappointment. Many "critics"/video game fans felt that most of the actors were miscast, primarily for not looking enough like the video game's characters. There were also complaints about how the feature decided to shove the first three video games into one feature. Then you have Leon S. Kennedy serving as comic relief which seemed blasphemous to the video game fans.
The first issue, I guess I can see, but we recently had Mark Walberg and Tom Holland portraying the leads of "Uncharted". As for shoving three games into one film, two of the games take place at the same time (2 and 3). As for Resi 1, is a haunted house movie going to impress anyone?
Leon being a klutz might insult fans of "Resident Evil 4", but some character in this film needs a hero's journey arc. Every other character being a bad ass works for a video game with little exposition, but everyone being the same in a film can be dull. If you do not have unique gimmicks for each character (Like "Street Fighter"), why would we care about any character's fate.
In the end, I am hoping for a sequel. This flick is competent enough and a nice change from the in your face 3D action that Paul W.S. Anderson's "Resident Evil" series overly relied on. "Welcome to Raccoon City" is a faithful game adaptation. How often do we get that?
Time has seemingly been hard to manage for me recently. As of this post, I have yet to watch a movie this month. I really wanted to return to Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue with "Gothika", but living constantly exhausted is something I got to quit? Anyhow, there seems to be a loyal fanbase for the Halle Berry feature. Want to chat about it? Send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.
I
happen to be a fan of director Paul W.S. Anderson, but he has a horrid
tendency of missing the point. That is apparent with the direction of
the "Resident Evil" franchise (Why would anyone write a film that brings
out the worst from Russell Mulcahy?). There was his good "AVP" film
that should have targeted an R-Rating just to prevent its bad and overly
violent sequel.
Anderson's
most recent flawed tale is "Death Race", an action drama without the
camp/best elements of the film it was based on "Death Race 2000". It
also lacked the dark humor and dead pedestrians. Since Uwe Boll has not
obtained the rights to "Carmageddon", why would one abandon the
grindhouse feel of this David Carradine/Sylvester Stallone classic?
The
American way is to embrace violence, so say the president of the
totalitarian United American Provinces. What better way to do so than by
hosting an annual transcontinental rally known as the Death Race?
The
nation's five best racers: Calamity Jane, Nero the Hero, Matilda the
Hun, Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, and the rebuilt Frankenstein, will race
across the country, from New York to New Los Angeles. Of course with so
many miles to cover, the race would be pretty boring if they did not
encourage running down the poor saps who happen to be on or near the
routes. It is the first true sport that it is not about winning or
losing, but how you choose to maim.
"Death
Race 2000" shows how America has lost its sense of fun and imagination.
Everything today is bleak as if we have given up because there is no
threat of Russian Imperialism or American Fascism (The first draft of
this review was written in 2010.). Our governments are stable and
anarchy has no chance of changing the landscape of things to come.
Marshall law or the kill or be killed mindset is just too impractical. It
make me wonder how the "Escape From New York" remake will be worthwhile.
"Death
Race 2000" is a vintage B-movie that may feature the only truly
villainous Sylvester Stallone. Most of the budget must have went into
designing the cars because the sets are beyond cheesy.
For
the most part, the film delivers on action but we are kind of let down
by anti-climatic deaths of the drivers. There is plenty of collateral
damage, but no true car on car violence. This is a film where you want
to joyfully cringe at the carnage. There is no room for a funny ha ha
kill of our primary cast.
Aside
from that, you cannot help but enjoy the premise and the tacky Roger
Corman nature. It holds nothing back in terms of being gratuitous making
it a brilliant grindhouse picture.
"Death
Race 2000" is a prime example of the freedom cinema once had. A film
for video game fans and anyone else with an American dark...black sense
of humor. Nothing is tame about this film and the filmmakers need to
start embracing that attitude once again.
It
does not seem like I could have made it as a wrestling promoter. I
appreciate that people are inquiring about coming on the podcast, but
none have committed to finalizing an appearance. My problem is, how do
you be the right kind of pushy?
This
is something that I need to figure out because Sylvester Stallone is no
David Cronenberg or Stuart Gordon. There may be some weaker features in
those two's filmography, but none feel like the gut punchess that
are bad Sly films.
To his credit, Stallone has a greater deal of features that fit into the NinetyForChill.com
parameters. He is very aware of what films he is doing for a paycheck,
and which one he is trying to be an artist with. When it comes to the
art, he is usually involved with the script or is helmming the feature.
Of the movies I watched, "Cobra" was the only one which he penned, but
it was produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In other words,
it is a Cannon feature and you need to listen to the Screen Drafts CANNON podcast to find the art they offered.
I
will acknowledge that I did not get to binge as much as I intended.
"Over the Top" may have been too much for me to handle. When I visited
my dad yesterday (Three hours in a car after 13 days of working may
have depleted my energy to rewatch "Judge Dredd".), the apology I
offered
him for taking us to see Nintendo's "The Wizard" was rescinded. He was
no longer a martyr, but a hero. He did the right thing by taking the hit
that was taking us to see theflick about bonding over 8-bit video games
instead
of introducing us to a "misguided" arm wrestling feature about coming
together as a family.
My
selling of this idea may have been off. A
thanks was definitely deserved for putting up with "Super Mario Bros"
and perhaps reiterated. When the week started with his birthday that I
missed, he deserved so
much more.
All
of the Stallone films I watched with the exception of me closing the
"Escape Plan" Universe are from the 1980's. When the 90's came along,
action movies got bloated. This really makes me regret not rewatching
"Judge Dredd". It was a comic book movie from the 90's that did not try
to push the two-hour mark. All rarities are gems, right?
What we get this week is my visceral takes on the following Sylvester Stallone features:
"Nighthawks" from 1981: This is Rutger Hauer's introduction to the podcast.
"Cobra"
from 1986: This was originally suppose to be "Beverly Hills Cop", and
you can kind of tell, if you look pass the subtle fascism.
"Over the Top" from 1987: Menahem Golan gets behind the camera to make you ponder the trauma of his childhood and how arm wrestling is suppose to fix it.
"Escape
Plan: The Extractors" from 2019: Stallone probably did it with an
assurance that everyone would keep their voices' volume down to his
level.
This
is being typed up at the day job before I finalized the audio, so there
may be an additional feature thrown in their. I am looking at "Judge
Dredd" or the letter H addition to Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Review.
I hope you enjoy this briefer episode. More importantly, I hope that you would like to become part of the podcast.
If you want to "Be Our Guest" (Oh when Disney kept the cartoons
brief.), send your theme, director or actor that you want to discuss to russthebus07@gmail.com. Just keep the movies between 74 and 99 minutes. Thanks.
There are of course the blog posts that I need to all have prepared
before my vacation. Because I got to justify my Netflix DVD
subscription, my most recent disc had to get back to Carol Stream before
the next billing period. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is next up
which is good because I got to slow down my output for NinetyForChill.com.
But until we get to the way I should be handling my Terry Gilliam
collection (To my credit, my copies of "Brazil" and "12 Monkeys" were
both purchased at heavily discounted prices.), we must tread through
another post 2015 action movie starring Sylvester Stallone.
"Escape
Plan" was an amusing enough movie that may have taken itself a little
too seriously. With two sequels being shot back-to-back, one would
suspect any other franchise to be taking itself way too seriously.
Fortunately, when you realize these flicks are solely for the Chinese
mainland (Free Hong Kong!), it is easy enough to relax and enjoy "Escape
Plan 2: Hades" for the braid dead trash that I hoped "Rambo: Last Blood" would have been.
Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018, 1 hour 36 minutes)
Breslin Security has expanded from prison breaks to encompass rescue missions. With
Ray Breslin tired of doing the physical work required in testing the
effectiveness of prison security, Shu serves as his top agent.
Unfortunately, the last bout with terrorists only allowed for half the
assets to make it back home. If fellow agent Kimbral had skipped trying
to further promote Breslin by blowing up the terrorists' weapons cache
and arrived at the rendezvous on time, the results would probably have
been different.
Ray
fires Kimbral and puts Shu on leave to work on his team leadership
skills. Shu decides to head back to Shanghai to visit his family, and
make sure nothing happens to his satellite genius cousin, Yusheng, at a
Bangkok bachelor party. At least being at his cousin's side means he
will not have be alone when they are kidnapped to soon awake in a black
op prison site called H.A.D.E.S.
The
Zookeeper has been hired by a Swiss competitor to Yusheng. Shu and his
cousin are there to be tortured until they give up the patent
information for Yusheng's new satellite communication technology. HADES
is far more complex than the last prison Ray broke out of and with the
Zookeeper having inmates fight for luxuries, how long can our
protagonists last?
We
know Ray is going to do anything he can to get Shu out, including
recruiting the towering DeRosa to give them some extra firepower, but
will not make a move until he is certain of success. It is all a matter
of figuring out the location and layout of the prison. Time is one thing
Shu has and with Kimbral being a fellow inmate, what he has learned
from Ray gives him all he needs to win the day. But after all the damage
that Breslin has done to the private prison industry, things seem far
too easy.
"Escape
Plan 2: Hades" starts out like any silly 80's action movie, but it
makes a sudden turn to attempt and capture "The Matrix" cool aesthetic
that exposes all of its weaknesses. It is kind of like "Tron" without
the teleporting laser and smooth incorporation of effects. With punching
and kicking being your primary means of action, our characters are not
in the right movie. Especially Stallone who I do not believe knows how
to kick.
I
suppose the concept of a computer controlled prison allows for twists
to constantly occur, but the narrative is far too predicable. The idea
is to make the audience to try and figure out the puzzle as they go
along. Its mistake is the constant twists to mock us just when the nerds
develop a theory on how the protagonist can escape. This leads the
audience to just quit caring, so only the stupidity of villain(s) can
the film get them reinvested. That is a whole lot of stupid.
Director
Steven C. Miller is accustomed to making stupid films. He directed a
fun remake of "Silent Night, Deadly Night" ("Silent Night), but that
film featured a script that does not necessarily make sense as it works
to a big reveal. What made the film fun was a cast of screen chewers and
shocking violence. The film chewer in "Escape Plan 2" is Stallone who
is essentially there only for his brand value. He is not the lead, so he
cannot chew the fat off of this film.
As
for the violence, you get one great fight scene, otherwise the film is
too quick to resolve its scenes. This leaves the flick with nothing for
Miller to catch and over expose. If it left us with graphic scenes to linger on, it would play towards Miller's strengths. It
also lacks a sense of humor or clever wit that can save an action
movie. All of that is reserved for Dave Bautista's screen time. Since
the third film in the franchise also features him, you have to admire
the writer, Miles Chapman, doing the bare minimum to leave the audience
wanting more.
"Escape
Plan 2: Hades" might have figured out how to make a Chinese-funded
trilogy work, leaving the audience just interested enough for a third
film. In this case, I think this interest stems from wanting
justification for putting up with a quickly produced sequel that lacks
heart. It has some fun moments, but it also wants to prove itself
smarter than its audience.
"HADES"
might show up the audience with its twists to indicate intelligence,
but it does not change the fact that it is built on a metaphoric swamp.
How smart can you be if you are still sinking? Hopefully the wreckage of
this castle will be enough to serve as a sturdy base for "Escape Plan:
The Extractors".
