Growing up in the nineties the film ‘No Escape’ always brought up images of Ray Liotta’s (possibly only!) attempt at headlining a major motion picture. However, there are no gangs of cannibals here in a sci-fi prison island. Although, to be fair, Owen Wilson and his family doesn’t have it that much easier!
Wilson leaves America with his family and goes to work in a far eastern country. All sounds perfectly okay enough, until a major uprising happens and gangs of armed killers start roaming the street trying to put a bullet in the head of anyone with an American accent. Therefore, what follows is movie about Wilson trying to get the hell out of ‘Dodge’ before he ends up on the wrong side of an AK47. ‘No Escape’ is hardly ‘story-driven’ – I’ve pretty much given you all you need to know as far as the plot goes. Some might say that Wilson is an unlikely choice for an ‘action hero’ but this isn’t a film about a lone hero gunning down infinite waves of bad-guys. He’s here to play the ‘everyman’ which he has already proved that he can do with his (fleeting) non comedic roles. ‘No Escape’ is hardly a ‘feel-good’ movie and paints a pretty bleak picture of a country in crisis, espeically when it leans towards social commentary (mainly courtesy of Pierce Brosnan’s character filling in some of the background as to the hows and whys of the situation they’ve found themselves in). However, it is well shot and equally well-acted. Wilson has two on-screen children and, as we all know, having kids in prominent roles can sometimes be a little tiring to watch if they can’t live up to the film they’ve been cast in.
But it all works well. It’s no mega classic, but if you’re in the mood for something dark and depressing (plus a fun performance from the ever-reliable Brosnan) then give this one a go – it’s well-acted, tense and dramatic enough to warrant just over an hour and a half of your time.
7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that
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