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NO ESCAPE [2015, USA - English]

Suffice to say before I continue with my review on The Brothers Dowdle’s latest action thriller flick No Escape, do not watch it if you’re Asian. Well, unless xenophobia is your cup of tea and you actually enjoy outmoded and shabby filming of outrageous action peril as long as they make you sit on the edge of your seats. Owen Wilson stars as an Americanbusinessman who brings his family to settle into their new home in Southeast Asia, but find themselves frantically running and fighting for survival in the middle of a merciless political coup. Directed by John Erick Dowdle who co-crote the screenplay with his brother Drew Dowdle, they apparently exercised extensive caution to avoid revealing the identity of the country it was filmed or depicting. Principal photography took place in Thailand, where Drew shared, “We worked very closely with the Thai government and there were a lot of things they wanted us to shy away from ... So although the film shows a coup breaking out in a South-east Asian city – it never specified the country. We were very careful not to make it Thailand in the movie.” And perhaps that became the convenient passport (or at least comfort to their own conscience) to hurl audience into an absurd journey of Asia’s third-world gauntlet of benighted madness and mayhem, where the entire local rebel population become hordes of faceless, inhuman killing machine, ruthlessly killing every American in sight, while slaughtering their own people as well who get in their way. 

This is a definite “turn off your brain” roller coaster ride. The “daughters shot-put” scene which entices most of us (after watching the trailer) to go watch it in the cinemas, obviously becomes the most talked about in the movie. In moment of desperation, Wilson’s character makes his wife (Lake Bell) leaps off the roof of one skyscraper to another adjoining building, and heaves both his daughter over the perilous gap for her to catch on the other side. Bell herself blamed the writers for coming up with such a nervy moment, quoting “It is fucked up! My mom was saying ‘How can these nice guys who are smiling all the time write something so dark, so demented?’” At some point during the movie I can’t help but wonder if the Dowdles even realized that they were filming an action thriller, and not a horror flick like their previous Quarantine (2008) and As Above, So Below (2014). 

They can claim that they’ve taken all the steps to ensure that film does not depict Asian countries in a retrograde or demeaning way, but you can’t help but be reminded otherwise in each and every scene of the story. Barbarous local rebels maraud their way into every corner of the streets, slashing and beating away indiscriminately at practically anybody unlucky enough to get in their way. They might as well be replaced with a pack of zombies, as you do feel as if you’re watching World War Z. Every Asian entering the scene if not a lunatic butcher, is either someone corrupted, barbaric or materialistic.

Cheap adrenaline rush, blatant stereotyping and poor, iffy visual effects and filming. The only positive point about this film is the cast, minus Pierce Brosnan.

Rating : D+

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