★★☆☆☆

No Escape is a movie which didn’t really work for me. Perhaps I’ve become jaded in my old age? I like Pierce Brosnan. I even like Owen Wilson in many things, but something just didn’t seem to work here. Make no mistake, the political statement it made about corporations running “civilized” countries trying to make indentured servants out of poorer countries was spot on. From that perspective it showed the naked truth about “globalization.”

Let’s start with what did work

Pierce Brosnan typically does a good job playing some form of hired killer type person. While not quite at the same level of Clint Eastwood back in his day, he still does a good job. In this role as a covert OP a bit past his prime stuck in yet another sewer of his agencies making he excelled.

The actors who played the kids also excelled. It was almost like they were given no lines in the script and were told to just live the moment. The screaming at the wrong moments, clutching at the neck nearly killing both a parent and themselves instead of being thrown to safety. That was all highly believable.

Another thing which was believable were the seemingly random acts of violence as locals started slaughtering all foreigners. We’ve seen too much of that sort of thing on the news not to believe it.

Where it failed

I guess where this movie failed for me was the lack of a Hollywood ending. In short the movie was too believable yet did not claim to be based on a true story. There was no rebel covert operative flying in with a chopper to save the day or help from our government. They were simply abandoned and left to fend for themselves. I guess that much should have been expected when they showed a lightly defended American embassy having been overrun and destroyed with all occupants killed. That was a bit too believable given recent stories in the news.

As movies making a political statement go, No Escape hit the mark. As an action movie created around escapism No Escape failed. I do not make the claim that it should have been an escapism action movie. We have plenty of those to watch over and over again. It is just that it kind of billed itself as something of an action movie so I had a wee bit of a cheated feeling.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.