White people in peril

Pierce Brosnan and Owen Wilson in a scene from "No Escape." Image courtesy the Weinstein Company.

Society in the unnamed southeast Asian nation in “No Escape” has fallen asunder completely. A collection of brutal rebels have assassinated the country’s ruling despot, which results in mass rioting, chaos and murder on the streets. No citizen, soldier or tourist is safe from the roving mass of destruction consuming the streets, much of which is depicted with the darkest shades of red pouring onto the streets.

Such an interesting premise, one overloaded with potential to document how people slip into brutality and vengeance so easily. Unless the people filming it are say sibling filmmakers John and Drew Dowdle, who instead focus on what effect the perils of a country at war with itself has on a family of attractive white people.

Sure, the American family in this film are indeed quite fetching. Occasional (cinematic) model Owen Wilson stars as an engineer moving his brood (lovey wife Lake Bell and obnoxious daughters Claire Geare and Sterling Jerins) to the undisclosed nation (although my money is on Cambodia for geographical and historical reasons) to begin work on a water facility. But, wouldn't you know it, the family has just the worst timing: Wilson, Bell and the kids move across the world the very same day a revolution breaks out in the host country, leading a contingent of rather devoted rebels to hunt down and slaughter every foreigner they can find. Wilson is a prime target given his connection with the unpopular water project

All the family can do now is try to survive and escape through the dangerous streets of the chaotic city, forced to rely on ingenuity, desperation and a and a little help from mysterious British raconteur Hammond (Pierce Brosnan). Shenanigans involving clubs, tanks, small boats, guns, angry foreigners, and film clichés ensue.

White people trying to survive angry foreigners sums up the fears of many an American tourist going abroad, and “No Escape” cranks those worries to 11 before breaking the freaking amp due to overuse. A majority of the non-white characters are portrayed as sinister beings intent on destroying this poor, innocent family caught up in the middle of political machinations. Any sympathy for the rioters is mentioned via exposition by Brosnan as a passing thought before depicting more acts of anti-American violence. before its left behind for more anti-American bloodshed. Realistically, the fear is rather silly; I'd be far more worried about the evil lurking within the Danish people than any Asian nation.

Any country this happy is automatically suspicious in my book.

Wading through the film's overwhelming xenophobia and abundant racism, “No Escape” drops the ball when it comes to presenting a tense ambiance, even amid the aforementioned chaotic backdrop. The issue isn't the milieu – that, once again, is established effectively – but to the Dowdle boys' continued insistence of shooting themselves in the foot over and over and over again by using expired tropes and ridiculous shots to establish something resembling tension.

Good tension, the kind of thing that leaves audiences gripping their soda pop cups or armchairs, requires an element of uncertainty “No Escape” just doesn't produce organically. What the film does instead is fallback on a few old filmmaking crutches, like having a wind chime stop when things start to go down and introducing a character just to kill him off as part of a short redemption arc. The average viewer will know Brosnan is doomed the moment he picks up a little girl's stuff animal.

Plus, it doubles as a "save the cat" moment, like the one pictured here.

I personally like playing the count the cliché game, although it does distract from involvement in the film's proceedings. So too does, say, littering the entire film with enough Dutch angles to drop Holland beneath the sea and inserting some really, really silly slow-motion scenes into the mix just because they look cool, a la Zack Snyder. Having so much of both, especially the slow motion, creates confusion as to what the film's tone actually is, and it makes it clear the Dowdles aren't quite sure of what they're working with in “No Escape.” The film could, and should, be a tight thriller along the lines of the John Dowdle helmed “Quarantine” – a very solid remake of an excellent Spanish horror flick – the kind of film in which the characters can't quite trust anyone around them and the moments are tight and taut. Instead, you get a tank blowing things up and a lot more booms than a film like this needs.

Then again, at least movies like “No Escape” ensure actors like Bell – who does exceptional work with a very thin role – earn a few bucks to perhaps helm another film of her own. And it is always nice to see Brosnan have a good time while knocking out a few bad guys, even if his inevitable demise is shot in a more comedic fashion than intended. But they, and the audience by extension, are certainly capable of doing better than this.

Review: Two out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 103 minutes

Genre: Action/Thriller

Ask Away

Target audience: Anyone expecting a Lake Bell/Owen Wilson romantic comedy, maybe?

Take the whole family?: One of the weird little quirks is while the film earns its “R” rating, it still somehow holds back a bit too.

Theater or Netflix?: Wait for Netflix if you must watch it.

How far is “No Escape” off tonally?:  I alluded to it in the last paragraph, but man does this thing bounce all over the map and then some. Aside with the issues between the action and thrills, the film has a weird habit of dropping into comedy at rather inappropriate times through either silly line readings or death scenes seemingly inspired by the antics of one Tom Cat.

Watch this instead?: If you're going to watch a white person's view of the disintegration of an Asian country, you might as well go with Sam Waterston's recollection in “The Killing Fields.” I'm also going to add “The Matador” for anyone wishing to see Pierce Brosnan act chill and awesome while deconstructing his Bond persona.

The man knows how to rock a Speedo.