2/5 No Escape Two out-of-water comedic actors + 103 minutes of tense action + 007 + pointed message about intrusive capitalism = good movie? You would think so, but John Erick Dowdle’s (As Above, So Below, Quarantine) No Escape would prove you wrong in record time. Pick any two of those elements and you may have a winning action thriller; but together, combined with a dash of overused slo-mo effect, they make a mess. Let’s take a closer look at what went wrong, and maybe a few things that accidentally went right. In a unnamed Eastern country - more on that in a bit - far away from his Texas home, Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson, confused and miscast) has relocated his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and their two girls with hopes of working his way up the corporate food chain. Things get off to a silly start, with the family running into an eccentric Brit explorer-type named Hammond (Pierce Brosnan) and his loyal Asian sidekick, Kenny Rogers (Sahajak Boonthanakit). Since the film is barely an hour and a half long, things had to accelerate pretty quickly. Out enjoying his first morning in a strange land, the country breaks out in a riotous bloodbath of angry natives with one mission in mind: kill the American businessmen…or just the white people…or just Owen Wilson…something. | Director: John Erick Dowdle Starring: Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan Writers: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle |
With a tiny bit of introductory exposition or context, not only would the social commentary have stung harder, but we might have actually cared enough about the family to hope that they make it out safely. With so much intense, bloody violence and sadism (from both the onscreen rebels and the filmmakers), it’s hard to hope for much else besides safe passage out of the movie theater. For the next ninety minutes, No Escape is an endless chain of breathless close calls. If Dowdle does one thing right, it’s jacking up the tension. You may not care about anything going on, but I promise Dowdle will have you on edge.
Intermittently throughout the movie, Brosnan’s Hammond will show up and use his slick (James Bond) skills to get them out of sticky situations. I only complain because I could have used much more of him. With misplaced actors like Owen Wilson and Lake Bell practicing their best anguished yells, its nice to see a skilled action veteran like Brosnan take the reigns and put Dowdle’s tension to good use.
Now, about that unnamed Asian country. Though the country is never named specifically, we do know that it borders Vietnam. So, Cambodia, maybe? Laos? Surely not China? Sadly, the reason the setting is unnamed is far more simple than that. Frankly, no country on Earth would sign off a movie that characterizes their people with such blatant racism. It is not hard to keep track with who’s the good guys and who are the bad guys. If they don’t have white skin, beware, because they are going to try and execute you or rape your wife or run over your family with an SUV. Despite some effective tension building and a handy supporting performance from Brosnan, No Escape is just too ill-advised to be anything resembling a good movie.
Intermittently throughout the movie, Brosnan’s Hammond will show up and use his slick (James Bond) skills to get them out of sticky situations. I only complain because I could have used much more of him. With misplaced actors like Owen Wilson and Lake Bell practicing their best anguished yells, its nice to see a skilled action veteran like Brosnan take the reigns and put Dowdle’s tension to good use.
Now, about that unnamed Asian country. Though the country is never named specifically, we do know that it borders Vietnam. So, Cambodia, maybe? Laos? Surely not China? Sadly, the reason the setting is unnamed is far more simple than that. Frankly, no country on Earth would sign off a movie that characterizes their people with such blatant racism. It is not hard to keep track with who’s the good guys and who are the bad guys. If they don’t have white skin, beware, because they are going to try and execute you or rape your wife or run over your family with an SUV. Despite some effective tension building and a handy supporting performance from Brosnan, No Escape is just too ill-advised to be anything resembling a good movie.