Escape Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Escape Blu-ray Movie Review

You can run, but you can't hide.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 27, 2012

Have you ever watched the riveting if often extremely disturbing Biography series I Survived? It’s become a guilty pleasure around our household, although my wife prefers to simply tune in for the final fifteen minutes or so, after all the horrible stuff has happened to the participants and the episode has moved on to their rescue. One of the most compelling episodes was a long form outing where only one person’s travails were dealt with (usually the series has three or so participants in each episode). This unfortunate man had been taken hostage and kept in a small box-like cell for months and months while his captors attempted to negotiate a huge ransom from his family. The poor man was shot for no other reason than so his captors could provide gruesome pictures to his distraught wife to prove they were serious about killing him if she didn’t come up with the insanely large amount of money they were requesting. Something very similar is at the core of at least one of the two main stories in Escape, a better than average faith based film that offers some stunning Thailand locations as it deals with the oft-told story of maintaining a belief in Providence even as Job-like trials rain down from above. The film begins with wealthy sailor Malcolm (John Rhys-Davies) piloting his ultra luxurious watercraft through some gorgeous Thailand waters until he’s set upon by a group of modern day pirates, vicious thugs who demand everything of value he has on board and then begin arguing about whether or not to kill him. Malcolm, who understands their language, manages to blurt out that he has money, which leads them to believe that he’d be a valuable hostage, and they take him captive. This all happens in the opening few moments of the film, between the main credits and the actual title, which is revealed right after Malcolm has been knocked unconscious. In a somewhat disconcerting move, the film then moves on to a completely different storyline, one which will ultimately intersect with Malcolm’s.

The second story starts out with a couple packing up their home and preparing to move. It turns out they are both doctors and they’ve recently suffered a debilitating tragedy when their baby died. Paul Jordan (C. Thomas Howell) is trying to build a new life for himself and his wife Kim (Anora Lynn), and part of that plan is getting the couple out of the home where their child passed away and on to a new challenge, running a clinic for indigent children in far off Thailand. This part of the film works quite well, with a visiting couple wishing the Jordans a bon voyage but stumbling when they inadvertently mention their own challenges with their children. The visiting wife gives Kim a Bible that she had used when her mother died, and Kim is touched, even though she admits that Paul isn’t exactly a believer.

The film then moves on to its Thailand locale, where the bulk of the film takes place. Paul and Kim start setting up their clinic, but things take an unexpected left turn when a panicked child leads Paul into an ambush, and he’s kidnapped and kept captive in order to help heal the wounded leader of a bunch of human traffickers, the very same people who had taken Malcolm in the film’s opening sequence. A cat and mouse game of sorts starts to play out, as Paul is pretty sure he’s not going to be able to save the wounded man, but he needs to try, as the only reason the bad guys are keeping him alive is for his utilitarian value.

Malcolm begins reaching out to Paul and witnessing to the doctor, but as is so often the case in these faith based films, his exhortations fall upon deaf ears. Paul is simply to caught up in his own trials to try to reach out to anything external, let alone a divine presence. Rhys-Davies is quite good in these sequences, managing to slowly draw Paul out of his self-created shell and finally getting him to literally rage at the heavens, leading to a major carthasis. In the meantime, Kim has run up against a brick wall in trying to report her husband as missing, but she runs into a woman who begins praying for her immediately, forging an instant bond between the women. It’s one of the film’s major missteps in terms of straining credulity when this woman turns out to be Malcolm’s significant other.

The problem with many of these faith based outings is that they fall into the same rut over and over: we get the nonbeliever who has to go through a number of trials and tribulations, all the while being witnessed to by well meaning others, and finally coming around to seeing the light. That is exactly what happens in Escape, and the film would have been better, and more believable, if it had had the courage of its convictions and let Paul’s questioning really break free, rather than have it repeatedly constrained by Malcolm’s assurances. And the final act of the film is rote and predictable, down to the expected sacrifice one character makes. Part of this act is a little on the unintentionally humorous side as well, as Paul’s “first do no harm” Hippocratic oath, not to mention his nascent Christian tendencies, go right out the window when he’s running from his captors and needs to take violent action to finally get away.

Still, generally speaking at least, Escape is a much more satisfying film than many of this ilk. The exotic setting helps, and the gravitas of Rhys-Davies certainly anchors the film in a visceral spirituality. It’s also fun to see C. Thomas Howell going through his paces now in middle age, and he brings a nicely believable sense of anguish and even doom to his role, though any doctor will probably take umbrage at how panicked Paul is when he first confronts the wounded man. Escape may be the harbinger of a more adroit approach to faith based moviemaking, but there are still major steps that need to be taken before this genre really erupts into something truly memorable. The first step might be actually allowing a character not to believe by the film’s climax.

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pure Flix Entertainment is still getting its feet wet in the high definition arena, and Escape is yet another release that features an MPEG-2 encode, perhaps indicative of the fact that the label isn't quite ready to completely jump into the fray. While this isn't a bad transfer by any means, things really don't pop a lot of the time, which is a shame considering the gorgeous scenery of Thailand that is ubiquitously on display throughout the film. Contrast is slightly inconsistent at times, leading to some problems in the dark nighttime scenes at the camp where the hostages are being kept. Fine object detail is acceptably sharp, and the image is decently clear, if never really at a "wow" level. This is an "okay" looking high definition presentation, but my sense is it could have been a lot sharper and more robust.

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Escape features only a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, a major letdown for home theater aficionados who are going to at least want lossless audio, if not a surround mix. It's especially sad as the film offers a lot of opportunity for great audio, including an appealing, ethnic percussion heavy score and a glut of ambient environmental sounds. Taken on its own lossy merits, this is certainly an acceptable mix, with dialogue always audible and clearly presented, and the overall mix well prioritized. But Pure Flix needs to step up their game and start releasing their Blu-rays with lossless audio if they really want to capture a larger market share.

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Escape (HD; 4:15) is a brief featurette hosted by C. Thomas Howell, who basically recounts the predicament his character finds himself in. There are a few snippets of scenes being shot as well as some moments from the final cut of the film.


• Trailers for other PureFlix Releases

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Escape is often quite compelling, and it features a nicely turned pair of performances by Rhys-Davies and Howell. The film is hobbled by too many cliché ridden aspects as well as a number of "coincidences" that just strain credulity and undercut the film's rather nicely measured approach about someone questioning their spirituality. The film is often gorgeously scenic, and that aspect would have been better served with a newer codec, and the film's soundtrack certainly deserves lossless audio. All told, Escape has a lot to recommend it, and fans of faith based entertainment will probably be, well, forgiving for the drawbacks of this presentation and some of the hackneyed elements of the script.