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Review: No Escape (2015) ★★

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">One aspect of violent revolutions that is easily overlooked in our history lessons is collateral damage&comma; or more specifically&comma; the misfortunate&comma; uninitiated bystanders caught in the crossfire&period; While the actual participants in a revolutionary coup are more significant&comma; both historically and for the sake of storytelling&comma; it creates an interesting emotional tension and sense of urgency to see bewildered innocents suddenly thrown into the middle of a war zone&period; Something similar was done in Terry George’s <em>Hotel Rwanda<&sol;em> &lpar;2004&rpar;&comma; wherein Don Cheadle’s character must try to protect his family as a horrific genocide takes place all around&comma; although in this instance he was a native Rwandan rather than a foreigner&period; However&comma; while <em>Hotel Rwanda<&sol;em> generally excels in portraying the events of an actual genocide through the eyes of someone who only wants to ensure his family’s safety&comma; John Erick Dowdle’s <em>No Escape<&sol;em> is a mixed bag that offers legitimate tension&comma; but not much else&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What is No Escape about&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>No Escape<&sol;em> takes place in an unspecified South East Asian country&comma; though it was filmed in Thailand and is pretty obvious in its attempts to recreate the coup d’état that took place there in 2014&period; Of course&comma; in order to shoot on location in Thailand&comma; the filmmakers had to try to obscure the precise language and ethnicity of the locals&period; In the film&comma; a man named Jack Dwyer &lpar;Owen Wilson&rpar; is on a flight with his wife&comma; Annie &lpar;Lake Bell&rpar;&comma; and their two daughters&comma; Lucy and Briegel&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Jack works for a water systems company called Cartiff&comma; and is being relocated to South East Asia as part of a business deal with the local government&period; Unbeknownst to Jack and his family&comma; armed rebels have just assassinated the prime minister&comma; and violent confrontations are taking place all over the country as a result&period; When the rebels are able to overpower the police forces&comma; Jack and his family become trapped in their hotel and must find a way to escape the carnage with the help of a mysterious British man named Hammond &lpar;Pierce Brosnan&rpar;&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The first thing one notices when sitting down to watch this film is the rather strange choices in casting&period; Both Owen Wilson and Lake Bell are generally known for comedic roles&comma; and while they have both ventured into more dramatic territory&comma; it is difficult to separate them from their comedic roots when they’re working across from each other in the same film&period; So&comma; from start to finish&comma; it is hard to take either of them seriously&comma; even though the film is clearly meant to be taken seriously&period; They have very little chemistry as a couple on screen&comma; and whenever they show real emotion&comma; one is tempted to laugh&comma; as if they are purposefully overacting for comedic effect&period; The only real &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;comedy” in the film comes from Hammond’s sidekick&comma; a man called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Kenny Rogers” because of his obsession with the American singer&period; Nothing he says or does is all that funny&comma; but apparently an Asian man obsessed with Kenny Rogers is supposed to be funny in and of itself&comma; so he offers us our only respite from the drama&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1291" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1291" style&equals;"width&colon; 850px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1291" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;01&sol;hero&lowbar;NoEscape-2015-1-300x125&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Owen Wilson in No Escape" width&equals;"850" height&equals;"354" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1291" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">No Escape &lpar;2015&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">This brings me to the next point&comma; which is that the film works way too hard to appeal to mainstream audiences&period; Kenny Rogers epitomizes this&period; In a film about a violent coup d’état&comma; why would we even need comedic relief&quest; Honestly&comma; there is nothing worse than a story about a serious subject matter that insists on trying to make us feel good once every twenty minutes so that it doesn’t come across as too much of a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;downer&period;” It’s incredibly condescending to the audience and one of the first signs that a film is just not all that good&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Additionally&comma; <em>No Escape<&sol;em> is a thriller that is about as by-the-books as they come&period; Every line and situation&comma; if stripped of the specific actors and circumstances of the narrative&comma; could have been taken from any other mediocre thriller made within the last few decades&period; Each time the family escapes one seemingly inescapable scenario&comma; they are faced with another barrier that needs overcoming&period; By the end&comma; the film is more about human spirit and family values than it is about any revolution&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Though its predictability is frustrating&comma; there is technically a reason for it&period; So many thrillers use the same scenarios and cinematic techniques because they work really well at creating tension&period; Even if the film is horrible or completely unbelievable &lpar;which certainly applies to <em>No Escape<&sol;em> at times&rpar;&comma; it is entertaining and really makes us worry about the safety of the characters&comma; even in a Hollywood bizarro-world where no one important seems capable of dying&period; Thankfully&comma; the locales and setting are interesting&comma; so it largely makes up for a plot structure that is grossly derivative&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The final point that I take issue with is the discomforting level of xenophobia in <em>No Escape<&sol;em>&period; Naturally&comma; the protagonists are white Americans&comma; horrified and threatened by the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;restless natives&period;” While there are a few key &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bad guys” among the hordes of nondescript Asians&comma; they are generally just treated as machete and gun-wielding barbarians&comma; ridiculously hell-bent on punishing Jack for what turns out to be really a contrived reason&period; So&comma; while it is theoretically interesting to see someone from the outside experiencing a violent takeover firsthand&comma; this film does it in perhaps the worst way possible&colon; at the expense of the real victims&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Final Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">In short&comma; while <em>No Escape<&sol;em> is certainly entertaining and not an entirely forgettable film&comma; it fails to venture into any new territory&comma; and only offers a brief and mildly racist view of Thailand’s history and South East Asian culture as a whole&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <span class&equals;"s1"><em>No Escape<&sol;em>&comma; it is available to purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B016Z40978&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B016Z40978&amp&semi;linkId&equals;3c7c8981828dba246bafea2315eead3f">via Amazon here<&sol;a><&sol;span>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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