March is a busy month for releases at 101 Films, with a Blu-ray release for a recent horror that was a big hit on the 2019 festival circuit, blu-ray debuts for a pair of under-seen early ’80s sci-fi movies with strong pedigree, and the early ’70s coming-of-age drama that gave Sylvester Stallone his break.
Austin-based cinema-eatery Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is celebrating one of America’s greatest cultural icons and cinema’s greatest action franchises with an explosive Rambo five-film marathon event at twenty-three locations across the United States. Audiences will go from First Blood to Last Blood, beginning with 1982’s First Blood, then continuing with Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988), Rambo (2008), and then concluding with the new Lionsgate/Millennium Media blockbuster finale, Rambo: Last Blood.
Do you want to get your hands on all three Escape Plan prison break thrillers? Attack from Planet B and Signature Entertainment have a copy of Escape Plan: The Ultimate Trilogy available on DVD to giveaway (UK only).
The Escape Plan franchise offers the same sort of excessive, over-the-top action that we have come to expect from Sylvester Stallone, with enough hand-to-hand combat to satisfy fans of 1980s action fare. Directed by John Herzfeld, Escape Plan 3 sees Stallone return as security expert Ray Breslin.
Unlike Escape Plan or its sequel, Escape Plan 3 strips away all elements of science fiction and instead injects realism into this dramatic tale of revenge. And whilst Escape Plan 2 left us with certain expectations as to where the third installment was headed, the organisation responsible for “The Tomb” and “Hades” – now known to be Zhang Innovations – is not central to the plot of Escape Plan 3. That distinction is instead given to Devon Sawa’s character, Lester Clark Jr. Because of this, its likely that Escape Plan 3 – previously marketed as the final installment – will receive a fourth outing.
Five years after the nostalgia trip that was Escape Plan – a dream team of 80s action muscle; specifically Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – its sequel, imaginatively titled Escape Plan 2, replaces Schwarzenegger with former professional wrestler, Dave Bautista and Xiaoming Huang. Escape Plan 2 is a sequel that Stallone himself has called “beyond awful”, and yet I have to admit that I actually quite enjoyed watching it for the same reasons I enjoyed its predecessor: its excessive, over-the-top action; although this time there is a lot more martial artistry, courtesy of Xiaoming Huang.
Directed by Mikael Håfström, and written by Miles Chapman and Jason Keller, Escape Plan is a prison break thriller starring Sylvester Stallone as Ray Breslin; a former criminal prosecutor turned prison security expert. As co-owner of Breslin-Clark, Breslin specialises in testing the reliability of maximum security prisons. The weaknesses that are uncovered by Breslin-Clark can then be eliminated. Straight away Escape Plan presents Ray Breslin as a sort of quagmire; a former prosecutor turned security expert AND businessman, with expert knowledge of structural engineering.
The third and final instalment of the unstoppable franchise, Escape Plan 3 – directed by John Herzfeld – sees screen legend Sylvester Stallone kick this explosive action tale into high gear.
After security expert Ray Breslin is hired to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Hong Kong tech mogul from a formidable Latvian prison, Breslin’s girlfriend is also captured. Now he and his team, including Trent Derosa and Hush, must pull off a deadly rescue mission to confront their sadistic foe and save the hostages before time runs out.
“Why do you wanna fight?” Comet TV, Charge! and Attack from Planet B can’t sing or dance, so we are gonna give one randomly chosen person the strength to win Space 1999, Godzilla and Rocky merchandise instead. “You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and you’re gonna crap thunder!”
