“Escape Plan” probably should have been a bad movie. Two old action stars who are well past their physical prime trying to break out of a silly, futuristic prison sounds like nonsense on paper. Still, for some reason, it works well on the big screen. It may not be a great or even an especially good movie, but for fans of dumb action cinema it does a decent job of scratching that itch.

To its credit, “Escape Plan” does have a fairly interesting premise. Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) makes a living by incarcerating himself in maximum-security prisons and then breaking out to test their security integrity.

Breslin accepts a job offer to break out of a new state-of-the-art private prison designed for the world’s most dangerous criminals. However, things go south quickly and it becomes clear that someone wants to make sure he never breaks out at all. He teams up with fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the effort to break out and get revenge.

The futuristic prison is certainly something to behold. Every prisoner is suspended in glass cells, and the guards wear strange masks. It is ridiculous and silly in all the right ways, which is a pretty good way to describe the rest of the movie.

The dialogue and acting are, for the most part, wooden and cheesy. Again, this serves to make it more entertaining. Jim Caviezel is especially enjoyable as the evil warden of the prison. Like any good 80’s action villain, his character is so outwardly evil that he might as well twirl his mustache while tying a woman to a railroad track.

Even though Stallone and Schwarzenegger have never been the greatest actors in the world, they still have a good presence in movies like this. For fans of the genre, there is a certain appeal in seeing these two continue to do their thing in 2013. Watching them beat people up while spouting really bad one-liners is surprisingly amusing.

Silly and unexpectedly enjoyable are good words to sum up “Escape Plan.” It is formulaic and does nothing special, but it moves at a good pace and, at the least, stays entertaining throughout. It is decent, lighthearted and forgettable fun.

3 out of 5 stars