Escape Plan
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: October 18, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
18
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 17, 2013
So chalk Escape Plan up as a pretty good action movie given an extra edge by the intelligent use of its two main actors. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 16, 2013
Though this movie can’t match the formal qualities that made the pair’s most iconic films work, it goes a long way toward recapturing their sense of cheesy fun. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChris PackhamOct 29, 2013
With its fun script and cheap visuals, Escape Plan evokes the halfwit cheesiness of 1980s-era Cannon films, but it also recalls the deft pacing and legibility of their action sequences. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 20, 2013
Here are two action stars having fun; watching them work together as a team is a lot more entertaining than you might have expected. Try not to think too hard about it, and Escape Plan is stupid, stupid fun. Read full review
68
Film.comLaremy LegelOct 17, 2013
A Stallone / Schwarzenegger film that isn't completely beneath them. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 17, 2013
Escape Plan is so dumb it's adorable, as any movie pitting Sylvester Stallone's grunt against Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent should be. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereOct 20, 2013
A display of old-school muscle-buddy connivance that’s as flatly preposterous as it is shamelessly entertaining. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 20, 2013
The heist-inspired elements aren't well thought through and it becomes a question of which is harder to swallow: the mechanics of the story or the idea that a couple of sixtysomethings can kick this much ass. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 20, 2013
Stupid but fun. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithOct 17, 2013
Any prison-break yarn that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger delivering the line “You hit like a vegetarian” is OK by me. Read full review
60
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerOct 17, 2013
The script never gives them the kind of memorable exchange that makes fans howl with delight. But all in all, Escape Plan does what it sets out to do. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 17, 2013
Escape Plan is mostly a gray, thudding metal machine of throwback exploitation, but the goateed, goofy Ah-nold is so happy to be in the thick of an old-school bruiser again that he makes it feel like the dumb-fun flashback party it is. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 17, 2013
No new ground is broken, and viewers will, not unpleasantly, get everything they expect. It’s apparently morning in America again. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanOct 17, 2013
As the unpredictable, mischievous inmate with the unlikely name of Emil Rottmayer, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sidekick role in Escape Plan may make audiences weep for the films we missed out on while he made speeches in Sacramento. Read full review
60
The DissolveKeith PhippsOct 17, 2013
Stallone and Schwarzenegger have all the gravity here, and keep pulling Escape Plan in the direction of an old-fashioned tough-guy action film, one filled with nods to their onscreen pasts and offscreen exploits. Read full review
60
VarietyAndrew BarkerOct 16, 2013
Mercifully free of tongue-in-cheek meta-humor, Escape Plan is a likably lunkheaded meat-and-potatoes brawler that never pretends to be more sophisticated than it is. Read full review
60
Total FilmAndrew LowryOct 15, 2013
A highly enjoyable slice of in-one-eye, out-the-other nonsense. It may coast on the charisma of its leads at times, and it’s hardly deep, but there’s a Friday night to be had. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 18, 2013
Schwarzenegger, for one, seems to be having a hoot. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 17, 2013
The plot itself is predictably divorced from reality, containing more holes — and smelling staler — than month-old Swiss cheese. All of which means that Stallone and Schwarzenegger end up having to do all the heavy lifting. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramOct 17, 2013
Sure, it’s fun to see the Governator and the Italian Stallion he-manning it up together feature-length for the first time — the screen is barely big enough to contain the two of them — but the prison-break movie Escape Plan is unworthy of the momentous occasion. Read full review
50
USA TodayScott BowlesOct 17, 2013
Action fans -- particularly devotees of brainless '80s shoot-em-ups -- may find enough to like here, particularly the preposterous mayhem of the third act. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoOct 17, 2013
In one amusing bit of dialogue, Stallone and Schwarze-negger kid each other about being smarter than they look. For a little while at least, we thought we might be able to say the same about Escape Plan. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 16, 2013
The tempered violence, the nature of the villains, the easy bonhomie of our leads and a cast peppered with great supporting players make Escape Plan go down easier than the other “Rambo/Last Man Standing/Expendables” pictures that brought these two aged action stars back from the dead. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 18, 2013
It won't stick to your ribs in the way, say, a shank will -- but it probably won't leave you looking for a way to escape the theater, either. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 17, 2013
It’s not fair to either of these actors to want to see Rocky and the Terminator over and over again. But it is fair to want to see them in something better than this. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 17, 2013
With a tighter plot and slightly more knowing craftsmanship, this might have worked, but Swedish director Mikael Hafström (1408, The Rite) isn’t really the man to poke fun with any sophistication at his stars’ well-established personas. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonOct 15, 2013
Escape Pla’ would have made a perfect vehicle for, say, a Chuck Norris or even a Jean-Claude Van Damme. But these two redoubtable, enormously watchable old-school heroes deserve better. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraOct 14, 2013
For a long stretch of the second act the film feels like doing a long stretch, but Schwarzenegger’s having a ball as Stallone goes through the motions. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comSteven BooneOct 18, 2013
Yeah, it's a mishmash of good, strange ideas and generic nonsense, barely held together by Sly and Arnie. Read full review
33
The PlaylistGabe ToroOct 17, 2013
Escape Plan deserves some credit for gradually rising from abysmal to almost-mediocre, though it’s needlessly complicated in every step of the way. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackOct 23, 2013
The film is eventful and full of suspense, but also obvious and completely contrived. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 16, 2013
They just don't make 'em like this anymore, and it's a good thing, too. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinOct 17, 2013
A dim anti-privatization parable that preaches a familiar strain of cynical, unchallenged self-righteousness in the face of widespread abuse of civil liberties. Read full review
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