First Look: Muscles and mayhem in ‘Escape Plan’

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Sam Neill, Vincent D’Onofrio and Amy Ryan

Writers: Miles Chapman and Arnell Jesko

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

The story: When a security expert (Stallone) is wrongly detained after being hired to test the security of a secret, high-tech prison, he enlists a fellow inmate (Schwarzenegger) to help him bust out.

The buzz: Schwarzenegger’s “The Last Stand” bombed in mid-January. Stallone’s “Bullet to the Head” died two weeks later. Since then, their first real onscreen team-up, not counting those few scenes in the “Expendables” movies, has undergone a name change and an array of release dates. It’s starting to feel like its original title, “The Tomb,” may have been prophetic.

— CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE