I never saw the first film, "Escape Plan", and only saw the sequel because it's apparently awful. How do I know this? It has made its way onto IMDB's infamous Bottom 100 List--a list of the lowest rated 100 films with at least 10,000 ratings. It now is number 97...but by the time you read this it might have changed position or might no longer be on the list.

I should point out that I have little interest in most action films...particularly Sylvester Stallone's. He's made a few very good movies, but, for the most part, I just don't enjoy the sorts of pictures he makes. So why did I watch it? Well, the answer is above...it's supposed to be a horrible film and sometimes I enjoy watching one of these to see if it's really as bad as its IMDB score would indicate.

Stallone is the head of some private group of 'good' mercenaries. They specialize in extricating prisoners from their evil captors around the world. As for Stallone, he is the boss and doesn't work in the field any more--and considering his age, it makes sense that he sends younger folks to run these missions. However, when one of his best men is kidnapped and sent to a 'super-duper prison', Stallone himself is going back to the field.

I felt mad when the film explained why the team member was kidnapped. Why? Because if the writers had even done some BASIC research, they would have learned that the plot was impossible. Let me explain: to receive a patent for an idea or product, you need to register it. When you do so, you describe the exact formula. The film supposedly has kidnapped the team member and his family member because this family member patented a secret plan which can disable the world's computers....but that plan should all described in the patent! What they really meant is that whatever he'd developed was top secret or the like...not a patented product. My wife have has a few patents and I understand this part of the process...apparently the writers did not!

What I also hated about the film is the prison the two are being kept in because it's like something out of a sci-fi movie. The prison supposedly is all automated and can rearrange and change...thus making it hard to plan on how to break into it. The idea is just dumb...let alone impossible with modern technology. It also is dumb that within this silly prison there are no holds barred fights...almost constantly. Just a lot of mindless macho theatrics if you ask me.

So is the rest of this badly written film any good? Well, for those who want punching, kicking, explosions and killing, the film will fit the goods...though this alone doesn't make a movie...or at least a good one. It's also slickly made...and it's obvious they spent a lot of money on the picture to make it look and sound good. But again, this doesn't mean the story is any good. And that brings me to the final thing I didn't like about the film....if you are going to spend $45,000,000 to make it, why is the weakest thing about the thing the writing/plot??

Overall, a slick but dopey film. I cannot see, however, anyone putting it in the Bottom 100...not because it's good but because there are hundreds of stupider and worse pictures. I assume this one made the list less because it's really among the very worst but was mostly a big disappointment to Stallone's fans.

While the first ESCAPE PLAN was nothing special, it still succeeded as a mildly enjoyable B-movie action flick; sadly this sequel is nothing like. Instead it's a hastily-made, sloppily-produced effort in which Stallone feels like a guest actor in his own movie and various familiar faces are wasted in nothing roles. The main actors are nondescript Chinese stars who take part in regular and regularly disappointing martial arts fights which are randomly shoehorned into the story to make little thematic sense; even worse the choppy choreography renders all of them unappealing. Dave Bautista is particularly wasted here and the awful screenplay is all over the place, throwing in sci-fi elements and repeats from the first film to little effect.

Chechen terrorists threaten to kill their hostages. The team manages to stage a rescue but one of the hostages is killed due to an algorithm error. Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) has his security firm with Hush (50 Cent) and Abigail Ross (Jaime King). He fires Jaspar Kimbral for the failure. One year later, Breslin's associate Shu (Huang Xiaoming) is protecting his family from business competitors. He is kidnapped and wakes up in high tech prison Hades where prisoners battle in the Zoo. Among the prisoners are his cousin struggling to keep a patent secret which could endanger the world and Kimbral who claims to have been kidnapped a couple of months earlier. Breslin recruits Trent DeRosa (Dave Bautista) to locate the secret Hades prison and stage a rescue.

When I see Sly and Bautista in an Escape Plan sequel, I assume that they're in prison planning an escape. This should not be complicated. It should be a simple exploitation B-movie franchise. This movie opens with terrorists demanding the release of a prisoner and I thought Sly is going into the prison to escape with the prisoner, then trading him for the hostages. Baustista could be either the terrorist prisoner or a bystander helping Sly. It's all so easy but the movie refuses to be simple. First, what the heck is algorithm in the minds of the scriptwriter. I don't what it means and how it's Kimbral's fault. Forget all that. The movie continues down a wrong path. Instead of Sly, it's the Chinese guy who gets imprisoned. Again, Sly should be the dude and the rest of his crew could join him in the prison. All of the story should place in the prison. By splitting the story in two, Sly's half is diminished. This is all wrong. It should have been so simple.