No Escape (2015)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

One of my all time favorites.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

When was the last time an Owen Wilson movie was good? Never. This was no exception.The plot is horrible - no plausibility between scenes, espeically the helicopter scene was idiotic and the girl's lines after gunfire was nonsensical. This movie just following the Hollywood rules and there is no realism at all.

Having not heard of this film before I watched it on Film4. I was pleasantly surprised. I found it gripping as the family are caught up in a violent revolution. Both the mother and father have to resort to extreme measures in order to protect their family. As they desperately try to seek safety they find themselves running from one perilous situation to another in order to avoid an anti western mob. All in all worth a watch. I even liked the ending.

Nothing like adding a review 2 years after the fact. This movie is getting some air time on the movie channels and I decided to give it a shot. Owen Wilson in an action flick? Yeah, that's what I thought. I was about to change the channel, then I saw Pierce Brosnan on the plane, so I surmised he would be handling the action scenes. Who better to win against the odds, and do it with a bit of panache than James Bond? Brosnan's role was surprisingly limited, however, and Owen Wilson played his part of "Joe Everyman" with conviction and sensitivity. I forgot about Owen Wilson and began rooting for Jack Dwyer. I was utterly impressed.This movie has some parallels to the movie "The Impossible" about a family on holiday in Thailand when the 2004 tsunami hits. A family, in a foreign land, has their lives turned upside-down by a real, yet unimaginable catastrophe and must do anything and everything they can to survive. That's where the similarities end.In No Escape, the family - being foreigners - are literally hunted by the native population, who have overthrown their government precisely for collaborating with foreign powers at the expense of their country's future. It is the entirely innocent and unsuspecting foreigners (like the protagonists) of whom the revolution wants to make and example. And not in a nice "this won't hurt a bit" way, but maybe, like, by being beaten to death with a club, or dragged behind a car, or driven over by a tank while the victims are bound and kneeling. I should note that although violent, it is not gratuitously so. In fact, the actual violence that occurs under such circumstances, for anyone who is a student of history, is far more gruesome, and the camera cuts away from the worst of it. I appreciated the film relaying enough of the real violence in the world without drenching me in it. I had a definite appreciation for the life I am allowed to live after watching this movie. There is much that we take for granted.In fact, what makes this movie particularly compelling (I've never written a review here before) is the realism. Virtually anyone can imagine a "developing nation" such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, etc. descending into violence and chaos. In fact, there are several places around the world where this is happening right now, or may be about to happen. So we hear about these things in the news all of the time. And in our minds, it is an abstraction: that place over there, with those people whom I've never seen. But in this movie, they put you right in the middle of it in a way that is completely believable and credible. Who is to say that the next time we take our next exotic vacation that it won't be the exact moment when the country experiences a coup d'etat? And what would you do if you found yourself in that unimaginable circumstance? Although our protagonists are meant to survive to remind us of one family's will, the movie makes clear that they are the exception. As is much more plausible, virtually everyone else will die. And that is a realistic world view. Who was left on the ground when the Majors and Generals knew enough to pull out of Saigon? Of those people who were literally left behind, well, you can fill in the rest of the picture yourself.That is what this movie is about. But what makes it compelling and deeply affecting is actually love. Wow, I sound like a Hallmark cliche! But that is the truth, however much of a cliche. It is the love of this nuclear family unit that adds a compelling depth, an unexpected layer of humanity that elevates this movie above your average action/thriller fare: 1. First of all, anyone with any empathy, any sense of compassion whatsoever can immediately put themselves in the roles of these four scared, desperate, determined people. 2. Secondly, it occurs completely within the realm of that which is believable - yes, it could happen, it could even happen to me. 3. Thirdly, what torment must take hold of a parent's mind when they see men, women and children being murdered all around them? What demon enters one's mind when they imagine their lover, their spouse being beaten and killed - or worse...?These are the elements that ratchet-up the drama to seemingly untenable heights, yet the writers and director maintain this fevered pitch from beginning to end. And within that context, we are asked, "What level of desperation causes a parent to fling their child off of a roof - either to the top of another building - or to their certain death? Could you do it? Would your throw be enough? If you failed, would you have the strength to go on, for the sake of the others?" These are pretty intense questions that get asked again and again within the confines of extraordinary circumstances, and it never gets any easier. I think of all of the action-packed movies I've seen over the years: the fist ten minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark are forever etched on my mind. The relentless pace of Training Day practically had me reaching for the aspirin by the time it was over. But this, this movie stands apart. Yes, it is action packed and you will be exhausted by the conclusion, and deservedly so. But part of that exhaustion is the emotional toll. The realism and the dilemma of trying - not to keep yourself alive, as is the usual perspective - to keep people other than yourself alive, and what that asks of you, that is the emotional toll of this movie, and it is well earned. The writers, Drew Dowdle and John Erick Dowdle, did an exceptional job elevating this from an action film to an action drama. They make the emotional anguish palpable; you cry for their torment. You don't necessarily have time to consider this while you're watching the movie, but the impact it leaves is significant. There are a couple of nit-picky flaws, some scenes that are predictable, some things that are simply inexplicable, and some things that are a symptom of Hollywood cheese. The flaws are easy to overlook when considering the whole, and I won't waste time obsessing about them anymore than a viewer should worry about them. This movie only got 4.5 stars out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes? Last I checked, even G-d didn't create a perfect world. How many 8-10's do they have? Two? As I've said, I've never written a review on here, and the first one I'm writing is for a movie that is two years old. So that should give you an indication of the impression it left.Hope you get a chance to see it. MasterHiFi

PROS: The acting from the ENTIRE cast was so unbelievably awesome. Lake Bell who is one of my favorite actresses, gave one of her best performances in years. To add on, Owen Wilson played his role perfectly. He delivered every emotion in its rawest form; sadness, fear, anger, security, etc. were delivered by the whole cast, even the little girls who stole the show. Another amazing part of the film was the story line. This concept of rebellion and the families struggle through it was so perfectly delivered with few to no plot holes. I was able to comfortably watch the movie without worrying about pathetic attempts to make the movie more engaging, everything was thought out. This movie is my favorite movie of all time for many reasons, but the biggest reason was the ending. The ending came so abruptly, which was nice because it gave the watcher the same sigh of relief as it did to the characters. The ending was able to make you feel the same exact emotion as it did to those characters. Yet another great part about this film was the development of the characters. You were able to relate to any one character, and you stayed in tune with that character as the film progressed. But you also didn't feel detached from the other characters, which was nice.CONS: The one con that I had was not something I noticed on my own, but someone brought it to my attention. The build up of tension lagged in some spots, but this didn't bother me because it felt natural. But there were a few scenes where the characters were just sitting and not doing anything.www.chorror.com