Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

No Escape Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 19, 2015

A fear of the unknown is one of the most basic human responses to change, to an upsetting of routine, to a new perspective or place of residence. Trepidation often sneaks into even the most cheerfully optimistic outlooks, particularly when the change is big, like, say, moving to a new country where literally everything is foreign: the language, the people, the food, the customs. That feeling of being an outsider takes its toll and the adjustment period can be more difficult than one may be led to believe. And that's without bullets flying, bodies in the street, no safe haven, and hunters looking for any unfamiliar face to kill. Director John Erick Dowdle's (Devil) No Escape follows an American family through a night of terror in which they find themselves chased by roving criminal gangs who have just overthrown the government and are seeking out Western faces to kill.

The Dwyer family -- father Jack (Owen Wilson), mother Annie (Lake Bell), and daughters Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and Beeze (Claire Geare) -- has packed up from the comforts of an Austin, Texas home and is moving to southeast Asia, just miles from the Vietnam border, for Jack's new job with Cardiff, a Western enterprise working with the nation's water supply. On the family's first night in the country, separatists overthrow the government and murder the Prime Minister. The next morning, Jack leaves the hotel in search of a newspaper but finds himself in the middle of a violent clash between police and protestors that quickly spirals out of control and into a chaotic scene of bloodshed. Soon, Westerns are targeted and murdered in cold blood. Jack races back to the hotel and barely escapes with his family, only to endure a day of fear, violence, and uncertainty as they struggle to escape their pursuers, who have singled out Jack for his connection with Cardiff.

No Escape takes a simple concept -- the flight from danger and fight for survival -- and presents it in a tangibly realistic way. The movie feels dangerous. The characters feel burdened, scared, uncertain, emotionally spent. They fight on by adrenaline and little more. The film creates a palpable level of thick, difficult tension built around a fluid and believably dangerous environment defined by confusion and chaos. The film is raw, violent, frightening, and emotionally draining. It shies away from action hero tropes and instead presents the characters -- particularly the Dwyer family -- as pure victims whose fast-thinking saves them more often than physical violence towards their pursuers, which only increases the sense of frightened believability and necessity when Jack must take the fight to the enemy, even if it's only for a brief moment of desperate action. Pierce Brosnan's character, however, fills in the role of minor hero, a man comfortable with a gun and always, it seems, the white knight who appears when hope seems otherwise lost. His presence in a way lessens the movie's overall impact, but his character serves to release the family from unreleasable scenarios when the script otherwise paints them into a corner from which they could not otherwise reasonably escape.

The acting, then, is very much the movie's strength. While Director John Erick Dowdle frames it well and captures the essence of the external chaos juxtaposed against the internal chaos -- the family's fear, flight, and fight -- it's the cast that elevates the movie from simple chase film to truly dangerous, heart-wrenching drama. Owen Wilson and Lake Bell sell the stress very well. Bloodied and battered helps, but they both produce a very real sense of fear, more outwardly for their daughters but very obviously inwardly for themselves and for one another, too. They handle the various physical requirements with plenty of energy and vigor but it's their ability to emote that sense of panicked desperation that's the film's best asset. Brosnan is fine in a rerun to a James Bond-lite sort of role as the guy who can bring the gun to the gunfight when necessary. He and Wilson share a good rapport with one another both in the film's most dangerous moments and the few bits of levity they enjoy before their world is set ablaze, physically and emotionally both.

No Escape Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

No Escape generally looks fine, but the 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer struggles in some key areas. Basic definition is merely OK. Faces and clothes and the rougher urban landscapes -- both day and night -- serve up passably complex details. Pores, fabrics, and concrete aren't so tactile and perfectly defined as those seen on the best transfers, but they get the job done. Colors are fine. Greens and golds in the hotel lobby, Jack's standard blue shirt, and natural green leaves, grasses, and shrubs are bright and balanced in the daytime sunlight. Nighttime shots sometimes struggle to hold a deep black, sometimes pushing a bit to the bright side. Flesh tones push a bit pasty. Noise and banding are issues, particularly in lower light and smoky environments, respectively. Light macroblocking and a few jagged edges creep up at times, particularly early on in the moments leading up to the Prime Minister's murder. Overall, however, this is a good, perfectly watchable image from Anchor Bay.

No Escape Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

No Escape features an enveloping, and violently so, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Jungle ambience and airport clatter and chatter effortlessly envelop the listener at film's start, high points in the track for nonviolent sound immersion. After that, it's a steady stream of explosions, gunfire, crashes, smashes, clashes, and other sounds that convey the violence with a depth, weight, and precision that captures the chaotic details with frightening accuracy. Gunfire zips around the stage and pounds the speakers, and distant shots pop with a nicely natural sensation. Explosions offer plenty of wallop. Debris flies through the listening area with startling clarity, down to the finest bits of shrapnel. A downpour saturates the stage in chapter 13. Music is aggressive, tightly detailed at the bottom, and placed around the stage with balance. Dialogue is clear and focused, even through some of the more extreme moments of chaos.

No Escape Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No Escape contains a standard trio of extras: commentary, deleted scenes, and a featurette. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV digital copy are included with purchase.

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director John Erick Dowdle and Writer/Producer Drew Dowdle deliver a fun, interesting track in which they discuss a number of technical issues -- cinematography, score -- as well as cast, characters, story details, anecdotes from the shoot, and more.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Hotel Morning (3:10) and Hammond's Breakdown (1:58). With optional commentary with Writer/Director John Erick Dowdle.
• Behind the Scenes (1080p): Four short pieces that focus on individual cast and crew discussing plot, characters, and making the movie. Included are Owen Wilson (2:56), Lake Bell (3:12), Pierce Brosnan (3:41), and The Dowdle Brothers (3:49).

No Escape Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No Escape is a tight, focused, and entertaining movie that finds its strengths in its ability to portray a very raw sense of danger, hopelessness, exhaustion, and fear. It's a simple story by any definition but presented skillfully on both sides of the camera. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of No Escape features decent video and excellent audio. Extras are comprised of the standard trio of commentary, deleted scenes, and featurette. Recommended.