6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Ray Breslin, the world's foremost authority on structural security, agrees to take on one last job: breaking out of an ultra-secret, high-tech facility called "The Tomb.” But when he is wrongly imprisoned, he must recruit fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer to help devise a daring, nearly impossible plan to escape from the most protected and fortified prison ever built.
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Faran Tahir, Amy RyanAction | 100% |
Thriller | 47% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
UV digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: The text below was originally published in our original Escape Plan Blu-ray review from several years ago, and therefore some references (e.g., President Obama) are now
outdated.
The so-called War on Terror has had one extremely problematic element which continues to nag at social libertarians and
strict Constitutionalists alike, two groups who tend not to agree on all that much otherwise: what do we do with the
terrorists after we’ve caught them? As recently as this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama was once
again raising his long expressed desire to close the “detainee” prison at Guantanamo, though that is still a highly charged
issue that evidently has little chance of making it through Congress. The 2013 thriller Escape Plan has a really
interesting subtext dealing with this very subject, which is not to say that the film is all that concerned with really delving
into it. Instead we’re offered a sort of Black Ops situation where a super secret prison houses all sorts of nefarious bad
guys who are under the thumb of a martinet warden. These prisoners have all (in the somewhat ungrammatical parlance
of the day) been “disappeared”, simply removed from their previous lives and transported to the facility, where supposedly
they will spend the rest of their lives in high tech confinement. It’s interesting to note that the real life Guantanamo Bay
prison only houses a few hundred inmates, while the institution depicted in Escape Plan seems to hold several
times that number, which might lead some to believe either the worldwide terrorist threat is considerably more dangerous
than even the most alarmist among us believes, or at least that whoever is rounding up these bad guys is a lot more
successfully active than even our (also hotly debated) drone program.
Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.
Escape Plan is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. As is mentioned in our original Escape Plan Blu-ray review, the Arri Alexa was utilized, with the
IMDb reporting a 2K DI (as well as release prints done both on film and as DCPs, which probably accounts for the Kodak logo adorning the final
credits). I gave solid if not totally exceptional marks
to Escape Plan's 1080p presentation, but I have to say this 4K version of the film offers a rather nice uptick in detail levels, as well as some
new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision. This is another outing that is regularly bathed in slate grays and ice cool blues,
especially in the many interior prison scenes, but there are some interesting new highlights that can be spotted now, with some sudden bright pops of
color, like the bright blue lights inside the prison, really resonating with new force in this version. Some of the yellow graded material (notably some
scenes with the doctor portrayed by Sam Elliott) have a kind of honeyed amber appearance now that is interesting and at least a little different from
the 1080p Blu-ray accounting. But it was in detail levels, especially fine detail, that I found this new version the most satisfying. Even "little" items
like the brickwork that is regularly seen both in terms of exterior locations but also one of the main meeting places early in the film have much better
definition now, and other items, like some of the text Stallone reads, looks at least marginally more precise now. A number of extreme close-ups of
both Stallone and Schwarzenegger also provide ample opportunity to do things like count skin pores. Some of the green screen material
does tend to look a bit more artificial now, one of the arguably minor deficits to this presentation.
I gave top marks to Escape Plan's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix on the 1080p Blu-ray, so there's no way I can "up" the score, but suffice it to say the engagement of the Atmos channels in the Atmos mix is evident as early as the thundering midair effect that accompanies the EFF masthead. Once the film itself kicks into high gear, there is excellently designed surround activity, both in terms of "natural" sounds like ambient noise in "normal" environments, but perhaps more impressively in terms of the cavernous ambience that accompanies the main prison set scenes. Surround channels are regularly engaged for discrete effects, which can be as subtle as the clink of metal in a side channel or as overpowering as the roar of an out of control prison populace which overruns several channels simultaneously. Fidelity is spot on throughout the presentation, and dynamic range is extremely wide on this very enjoyable track.
Lionsgate is most likely trotting out this film on 4K UHD to cross promote the upcoming Escape Plan 2: Hades. This is a rather unexpected "franchise", and I'm not sure even the star pairing of Schwarzenegger and Stallone requires a "double dip" for anyone aside from the film's most ardent fans. However, for those ardent fans and for anyone who didn't pick up the original Blu-ray release of the film and may be interested, technical merits on this release are excellent, and Lionsgate continues to grease the consumer wheels by also including all of the supplements from the 1080p Blu-ray on the 4K UHD disc as well.
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Extended Cut
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Unrated Edition
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