Believe it or not, if you’re watching “Escape Plan: The Extractors” (2019), it helps to have seen the first two installments in this trilogy, if only to familiarize oneself with the implausibility of the action scenes. (I mean, why, in a six-on-one fight, do the six bad guys take turns fighting the one good guy? Why do they never all jump him at once?) Anyway, this is fresh off the assembly line of low-budget, action flicks Sylvester Stallone has been operating in recent years between boxing movies. People get kidnapped. He leads a team to save them. Figure it out.
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There’s not much to boxing. It’s a sport where two people agree to punch each other until time runs out or one of them is rendered unconscious. Such a blank canvas allows writers and those in the performing arts to add their own flourishes. That’s why there are so many boxing movies, but also why they all end up seeming the same. “Southpaw” (2015) is the latest to glorify the down-on-his-luck pugilist fighting for honor and family. Director Antoine Fuqua and star Jake Gyllenhaal provide modern edginess, but it’s still the same old story, told well, but the same nonetheless.
Sometimes Melissa McCarthy is too much of a good thing (get it?) but I was laughing out loud just about all the way through “Spy” (2015). I also sometimes become numb to movies that shower me with a 119-minute fusillade of F-bombs, but listening to McCarthy and Rose Byrne rip each other a new one was almost “Sopranos” worthy. It’s a comic retelling of a Bond-like story, with BMWs, helicopters, poisoned drinks and McCarthy’s schtick. The pacing is good and a strong commitment to both the action (arterial spray) and comic (stool softener) genres balance each other (and McCarthy) nicely.
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