Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Escape Plan: The Extractors Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 14, 2019

Well, it seems to be official: we do indeed have a “franchise” here, as evidenced by Escape Plan, Escape Plan 2: Hades and now this third film featuring Sylvester Stallone as security expert Ray Breslin. What’s also becoming apparent is that Escape Plan seems to be morphing into a low (lower?) rent version of Stallone’s “other” franchise, The Expendables: 3-Film Collection, since Ray is no longer trying to get out of maximum security (not to mention submerged) prisons, but is, rather like Stallone’s character of Barney Ross in those films, tasked with getting someone else out of some kind of predicament. It’s relentlessly predictable just about every step of the way, but this film at least has some interesting bursts of action in the martial arts arena which may recommend it to some viewers.

Kind of hilariously and/or sadly given a lot of “trade war” news that has filled the airwaves in the United States recently, Escape Plan: The Extractors begins with a Chinese woman named Daya Zhang (Malese Jow) promising to bring Chinese industry to Mansfield, Ohio (a real place, and where the film was shot in part, evidently), something that doesn’t seem to sit well with her entrepreneur father Wu (Russell Wong), whose company is passingly identified as having been involved in constructing the prison Ray extracated himself from in the first film. Probably predictably, Daya is soon threatened and abducted by bad guys, but Escape Plan: The Extractors ups the kidnapping ante by having Ray’s main squeeze Abigail (Jaime King) suffer the same fate. Of course Ray and his team are on the hunt to set damsels in distress free.

Obviously shot on a miniscule budget, and content to have other performers like Max Zhang take on the bulk of the action (i.e., fighting) sequences, Escape Plan: The Extractors delivers a few isolated jolts of adrenaline but ultimately kind of comes off as a desperate cash grab by a creative team that perhaps realized it had a "marketable franchise" name. That said, I half expect the next film in this series to have two titles followed by colons, i.e., Escape Plan: The Extractors:, and then whatever "new, improved" subtitle follow that "rebranding".

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was perhaps at least slightly more favorably inclined toward Escape Plan: The Extractors than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Escape Plan: The Extractors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Escape Plan: The Extractors is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The IMDb has zero technical data on the shoot, but since this outing was evidently shot more or less in conjunction with Escape Plan 2: Hades, I'm assuming that it, too, perhaps utilized Arri Alexa cameras and was finished at a 2K DI. One way or the other, this transfer has a few issues which may be discernable via the screenshots accompanying this review. The film is very dark a lot of the time, and almost completely graded toward either yellow or blue, with some of the yellow grading having slight green tinges as well. Both choices tend to strip or mask fine detail levels, especially some of the yellow shots, where fine detail in admittedly mundane things like facial pores can almost disappear. But either due to low light capture or compression issues, large swaths of the presentation are littered with yellow splotches (see screenshots 4 and 6 for two examples). What's a little odd about this is there are other low light scenes that look rather good, with generally excellent fine detail levels and no issues whatsoever (see screenshot 7).

Escape Plan: The Extractors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Escape Plan: The Extractors features a robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that bursts into some good immersive moments in some of the hand to hand combat scenes, as well as the expected sequences featuring things that go boom (there are some nice, floorboard rattling explosions in the film). Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and there are some nice, realistic changes in ambient environmental sounds when the film ventures into claustrophobic "prison" locales.

Escape Plan: The Extractors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director John Herzfeld and Actors Sylvester Stallone, Devon Sawa and Daniel Bernhardt


• The Making of Escape Plan: The Extractors (1080p; 10:03) is the requisite EPK featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and snippets from the finished film.

Escape Plan: The Extractors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Escape Plan: The Extractors will probably fulfill the expectations of action adventure junkies who aren't too demanding about things, but this sequel frankly could have just as easily been called The Expendables: The Extractors, with a few character names reassigned. It's occasionally energetic, but Sly is left largely on the battle sidelines. Video has some issues that may bother some fans, but audio is robust, for those considering a purchase.