No escape s talented cast and taut bmovie thrills are unfortunately offset by its onedimensional characters and uncomfortably retrograde worldview. But seriously, no escape is a hardhitting thriller and is actually quite intense. Audiences should flee from this racist mess no escape, satrring owen wilosn. Will this racist, theyeatdogs, fever dream end on a note of gooey family sentiment. The only way that this film could be any more racist is if the dwyer family holed up with lillian gish and.
The extent to which the film cares at all for the actual citizenry of that nation is sharply delineated from the start, when an opening scene of a violent coup against the ruling prime minister cuts abruptly to a white family laughing and teasing each other on a flight to that country. The film stars owen wilson, lake bell, and pierce brosnan, and tells the story of an expat engineer trapped with his family in an unidentified country in southeast asia during a violent uprising the film was released on august 26, 2015. Justin chang, film critic at variety, describes no escape as a morally rank slab of cultural exploitation. Maybe they should teach that in film school, alongside the parallel editing of birth of a. Even if the film doesnt take to the to explain who the nazis are, what the core beliefs are or that not all germans are nazis, you wont necessarily end up with a racist film.
I guess no film starring an american family in a foreign country is going to be immune from cries of racism, and i can. Owen wilsons no escape is another attempt to depict asian. No escape is different from the taken films in a couple of key ways. No escape has a dollop of grungy bmovie the melodrama, the sense of physicality but its still an effective. Its a great adventure though the film is not without flaws. By most accounts, this is a successful, whiteknuckling thriller. The film stars owen wilson, lake bell, and pierce brosnan, and tells the story of a businessman trapped with his family in a war zone. No escape is a pedestrian but modestly gripping nervejangler from. Owen wilson and lake bell suffer boggleeyed panic attack 2 5 stars 2 out of 5 stars.
No escape is a xenophobic thriller about xenophobia. N o escape is a thriller set in an asian country so unstable it doesnt even have a name. No escape ups the ante even further, since it pins the coup on the. The action is gripping, and the performances by owen wilson and lake bell especially are moving. No escape could have featured any expat family, but whats more important is that the film could have shown a family who is native to the country. No escape is a 2015 american action thriller film directed by john erick dowdle, who cowrote the screenplay with his brother, drew dowdle. The film, which has been banned in thailand, where it was shot, portr. Owen wilsons no escape is another attempt to depict asian people as. The disney movies you grew up with are incredibly racist. Xenophobic thriller no escape comes awfully close to. The disney movies you grew up with are incredibly racist turns out some of your favorite films from fantasia to aladdin, dumbo to the little mermaid are downright offensive.
The filmmakers behind no escape seem to have had one goal in mind. Those demerits mostly hold true in the film itself. No escape starring owen wilson appalling and takes. With lake bell, pierce brosnan, owen wilson, thanawut ketsaro. The weinstein company is free to use that blurbready quote if they need a critical boost.
And by pitting its white leads against the citizen hordes. Owen wilson saves his family in this slick, racist thriller competent action filmmaking and one speech about corporate imperialism cant make up for this action flicks. If racial politics were all we had to judge this movie on, the conversation would be over. This appalling escape movie takes racism towards asians to an extreme not seen for many years in mainstream films. The mouthpiece of the gaming generation, the escapist aims to capture and celebrate the contemporary video gaming lifestyle and the diverse global video game culture by. Tone deaf and possibly racist, no escape is a cinematic low point. No escape is just so damn unpleasant 1 out of 5 stars.
No escape gets a questionable start but speeds to the finish for a win. Thats the setup for the shamelessly risible and racist no escape, the screwiest mix of suspense and stereotypes since michael bay was a pup. As foreigners, they stand out in the crowd and have to find ways to mingle or hide among the locals. In their new overseas house, an american family soon finds themselves caught in the middle of a coup, and they frantically look for a safe escape from an environment where foreigners are being immediately executed. Still, talking to them was a little awkward because there is one major problem. No escape is a suspenseful but borderline racist thriller. No escape is hardly storydriven ive pretty much given you all you need to know as far as the plot goes. In owen wilsons new film no escape, every asian character is either a ruthless murderer or anonymous collateral damage. And by pitting its white leads against the citizen hordes of southeast asia, no escape is also uncommonly honest about the fears and assumptions that fuel adventure fiction here, the other is not abstracted away to orcs or aliens. Some might say that wilson is an unlikely choice for an action hero but this isnt a film about a lone hero gunning down infinite waves of badguys. Its the most intense and breathtaking movie of 2015, with a stellar performance from owen wilson. There was no escape for me from no escape, a surprisingly terrible. The ones in peril are an american family, headed by owen wilson and lake bell. No escape starring owen wilson appalling and takes antiasian racism to an extreme most of the asians are depicted as ruthless and cruel, and the rest are characterless plot.
The only way that this film could be any more racist is if the dwyer family holed up with lillian gish and waited for the klan. And honestly i was going into it prepared for it to be mediocre. Tone deaf and possibly racist, no escape is a cinematic low. The film paints an unnamed southeast asian setting as a dangerous hotbed of machetewielding savages. Also, owen wilson is very good here, which was a welcome surprise. I interviewed the filmmakers of the new blockbuster no escape to see if they think their movie is racist. Its no more a racist portrayal of the somali people than a movie about nazis fighting allied troops is a racist portrayal of germans. No escape, while cruel, is often uncommonly suspenseful. The film, which has been banned in thailand, where it was shot. No escape from films offensive stereotypes boston herald. No escape is a 2015 american action thriller film directed by john erick dowdle, who cowrote. If you were feeling really resentful, you might write a film a bit like no escape. No escape is tense but problematic no escape from hollywood racism had to shorten its name to fit in a hashtag. And no, the movie isnt nearly as racist as some of the whiny film critics online would have you think.
Trapts twitter rampage goes from defending trump to. At the washington post, stephanie merry calls the film out for stereotyping an entire region of the world, by presenting southeast asia as little more than a dangerous hotbed of machetewielding savages. There was no escape for me from no escape, a surprisingly terrible film from the otherwise reliable weinstein co. And now, in perhaps the cruelest twist of all, the kingdom is about to suffer at least a small amount of tourism dropoff thanks to the xenophobic, fearfueled, and borderline racist no escape. Its up to history whether or not future students categorize no escape alongside the work of those earlier auteurs, but its fair to say that this new movie combines genuine filmmaking skill and effective action editing with a queasily racist subtext, one in which a bloody revolution in asia only matters insofar as some white people might get killed.