Escape Plan: The Extractors

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Dave Bautista, 50 Cent, Jin Zhang, Harry Shun Jr., Devon Sawa, Jamie King, Lydia Hull
Directed by: John Herzfeld
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Thriller
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) seeks revenge and to free someone who was kidnapped for some reason.

Review:

Tim: In my review of Escape Plan 2: Hades, I started off by saying I wasn't sure why I watched that movie. It was terrible and I knew it was going to be terrible. That sentiment is multiplied by a thousand here. I honestly cannot explain why I bothered watching Escape Plan: The Extractors. It's just as terrible as the second movie. I've actually thought a lot about me overrating this movie, because even with a low score, it's probably worse than that.

To be honest, I was looking at my phone for long stretches of this movie. I actively tried to put the phone down and pay attention, I seriously did. It would work for a few moments, but what I saw was so bad that I'd slip and after some unknown period of time, I'd notice I was on my phone again. It was a subconscious move, possibly as a defense mechanism against the terribleness of this film. It's so bad.

One of the worst things about this movie is the bait and switch with Sylvester Stallone. It looks like he's the main star, but he's really a glorified supporting character. His impact on the film is minimal, as it spends far too much time on other, less important characters. It felt like he signed up knowing full well he'd have minimal screen time (and thus, minimum effort), but could capitalize on poor saps like me checking the movie out because he was in it. And, collect a decent paycheck in the end. It felt disingenuous and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Do you know what else about this movie left a bad taste in my mouth? Nearly the entire movie. It was so low budget, so uninspired, so insipid that it was a complete waste of time from beginning to end. This is why I so actively avoid VOD or direct-to-DVD movies. Most of them are godawful, made by people with little to no talent, or people with talent seeking an easy paycheck without much effort involved. That's what this movie felt like. The original movie was solid, but the next two barely registered on the effort scale.

I couldn't even really tell you what this movie was about. Someone gets kidnapped and someone dies, and the "good guys" combine forces to stop the bad guys, or something like that. It doesn't really involve escaping as it does breaking in. The whole thing just reeks of low talent and low ambition.

I have to admit I'm pretty frustrated at Stallone for this. The guy has been around forever and he knows better. He knew exactly what he was doing when he signed up for this. I'm a little less frustrated with Dave Bautista, but the dude has to make better choices if he wants to continue his career. I get Stallone cashing in during the twilight of his career, but Bautista needs to make better choices. 50 Cent's presence felt appropriate. I suspect we'll see many more movies like this from him (by "we" I don't mean me, because I'll be avoiding them). It was a little sad to see Devon Sawa here. His presence was welcome, but his performance needed more restraint. The whole affair just made me sad.

Escape Plan: The Extractors continues the downward slide of these movies. As a whole, this is a trilogy with one good movie and two really bad ones. I'm not going to continue on this slide- if they make a fourth movie, you can count me out.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4.5


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Escape Plan, Escape Plan 2: Hades