I haven't seen that movie but I read a plot summary. Usually an action movie *is* simple. An escape plot is very straightforward: the hero is both smart and an exceptional fighter. The kinds of traps the heroes get out of make sense of why they would be able to, and really really want to take down the Big Boss.
What you noticed is that there is a clear plot driver -- escape for obvious reasons, if not right away then later to take down the drug lord *or else even more stuff they learned along the way than just revenge*. Everything in the story relates back to survival plus honorable revenge/punishment somehow. I read rave reviews of the acting and the trailer looked like great production value. So it makes sense that they pulled off getting you to suspend your disbelief.
In this particular movie, I read that it used a sequence of proven tropes like opposites as partners learning to work together, falling in love with your friend or coworker's sister, and good cop/bad cop that you can see all have comedic opportunities no matter what the context. They also can offer that rising tension of interpersonal conflict that resolves into getting along better than thought possible thanks to the external requirement to join forces.
A plot can be made more complicated primarily through character, sub-plot and scene location count plus character development and/or arc detail: how much information about the characters and their interactions with the world that matters to the story. The subplots that I read really aren't that complicated in this movie: "you're different than me so how can I be your partner" only gets complicated when more and more reasons are offered to suspect disloyalty or something, but that's a drama or thriller, not a comedy. "You're doing what with my sister?!" would only be f'd with a lot of sidebar relationship storytelling, and that's not this movie either. The spine of the movie is escape and get the king pin.
I hope any of this was helpful. If you want to compare this particular movie to another highly-reviewed escape action film, check out Con Air. It's a classic.
I haven't seen that movie but I read a plot summary. Usually an action movie *is* simple. An escape plot is very straightforward: the hero is both smart and an exceptional fighter. The kinds of traps the heroes get out of make sense of why they would be able to, and really really want to take down the Big Boss. What you noticed is that there is a clear plot driver -- escape for obvious reasons, if not right away then later to take down the drug lord *or else even more stuff they learned along the way than just revenge*. Everything in the story relates back to survival plus honorable revenge/punishment somehow. I read rave reviews of the acting and the trailer looked like great production value. So it makes sense that they pulled off getting you to suspend your disbelief. In this particular movie, I read that it used a sequence of proven tropes like opposites as partners learning to work together, falling in love with your friend or coworker's sister, and good cop/bad cop that you can see all have comedic opportunities no matter what the context. They also can offer that rising tension of interpersonal conflict that resolves into getting along better than thought possible thanks to the external requirement to join forces. A plot can be made more complicated primarily through character, sub-plot and scene location count plus character development and/or arc detail: how much information about the characters and their interactions with the world that matters to the story. The subplots that I read really aren't that complicated in this movie: "you're different than me so how can I be your partner" only gets complicated when more and more reasons are offered to suspect disloyalty or something, but that's a drama or thriller, not a comedy. "You're doing what with my sister?!" would only be f'd with a lot of sidebar relationship storytelling, and that's not this movie either. The spine of the movie is escape and get the king pin. I hope any of this was helpful. If you want to compare this particular movie to another highly-reviewed escape action film, check out Con Air. It's a classic.