‘I’ ON CULTURE
There is a new candidate for dumbest movie of the year, and it is titled No Escape. I actually felt that way while watching it. A few patrons slipped out of the theater, no doubt hoping to slip into one of the other theaters in the multiplex, but as a faithful reviewer, I stayed to the end. I like action movies, and this one has plenty of it, but the writing is so dumb and hackneyed that it is embarrassing.
Jack (Owen Wilson) is a broke entrepreneur/engineer from Texas who is hired by a big American corporation to go to an unnamed Southeast Asian country (unnamed because we might have an anti-American rebellion somewhere if it was identified) with his wife, Annie (Lake Bell), and two young daughters, Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and Breeze (Claire Geare). While still on the plane, they meet old Asia hand Hammond (Pierce Brosnan), who seems amused by the American’s idealism.
The Americans have no idea that they are flying right into an anti-American revolution where their lives will be in great danger. Although there are a couple of scenes showing Jack’s almost trance-like avoidance of any problem or chance of understanding what is going on, most of the film becomes a chase where the whole family is in danger of being killed.
We are treated to some massacre scenes, which our trusty family always seems to escape. In one case, Annie leaps across a gap to a building with a lower roof (Jack is certain no one will then notice him and, of course, is correct), and then Jack tosses each girl over to her before jumping. Suffice it to say that if you think major stars or little girls actually die in this movie, you have not been in a movie theater in a while.
Obviously, Jack and his family are the heroes, but the revolutionaries are shown as having all the right on their side because they are against American imperialism. It is a bit difficult to root for them as they machine-gun women and children and perform atrocities, however. Who knows? Next year we might see a similar film in which we can root for ISIS as they burn victims to death and sell young girls as sex slaves.
That is a major problem with far too many movies that try to bring politics into the action. The American company Jack hires on with is not, as he believes, bringing fresh water to this poor country, but draining its resources. Jack is completely unaware of this, which means he probably never heard of Google or any other source of online information. Who in his right mind would not only try for a job with a company that is hated in the place you are going, but bring his family along?
Another problem is that there is just about no interaction with the Asian “natives” (the film was actually filmed in Thailand) so that most of the people shown in the movie are either helpless victims or evil crazies. If these are the good guys (and the writers seem to think their cause is worthy), why don’t we get to know them?
The director, John Dowdle, also headed up the group of writers responsible for this mess. The acting, however, is good enough that the film does sort of hold together. Wilson, far better known for comedy roles than anything dramatic, portrays Jack sympathetically enough that we actually identify with him. Bell deserves a far better role than this. Brosnan chews up the scenery as he too often does, but in this film it works, creating a way to relieve tension as the family keeps running.
Of course, Jack, who is a bit of a doofus, does manage to somehow find survival skills in himself that allow for the usual happy ending. I enjoyed the ending as well, because it meant that I was able to get out of the theater.
This is a film you should miss. I do not even recommend it on a free television basis until you are a real insomniac and it is past 3 a.m. There are far better choices around, even in these dog days of August.
Soon we’ll start into the really good movies that pile up at the end of year, so hang on.
