No Escape Review Roundup: Did Critics Like the New Owen Wilson Action Thriller Movie?

The actor plays an American businessman who moves with his family to Southeast Asia...just in time for a violent political coup

By Corinne Heller Aug 27, 2015 7:45 PMTags
Pierce Brosnan, Lake Bell, Owen WilsonCraig Barritt/Getty Images for Weinstein

Owen Wilson chucks the comedy and takes on the role of dad hero in his latest film, No Escape, an action thriller.

The actor plays a Texas businessman who moves with his family to a Southeast Asian country. The group finds themselves in grave danger as rebels launch a violent political coup and attack their city, turning it into a war zone.

Lake Bell plays his wife, while Sterling Jerins, who played Brad Pitt's daughter in World War Z, stars as their kid. Claire Geare plays their younger daughter. No Escape also star Pierce Brosnan as a seasoned—and shady—fellow traveler.

Find out what five critics said about the movie.

1. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gives No Escape one out of four stars. The headline of his review is particularly scathing: "Title be damned: Audiences should flee from this racist mess ASAP."

"Wilson and Bell look out of breath, but from running, not acting," he adds. "Even in the dog days of summer, when quality escapism is rare, seeing No Escape would have to qualify as an act of audience desperation."

2. The Christian Science Monitor's Peter Rainer says the film "amps the action and keeps the terror taut."

"No Escape is pretty trashy, but it held my attention, which is more than I can say for most of the summer fodder."

3. The Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper gives the movie 1.5 stars out of four.

"The perpetually laid-back Wilson seems like an odd choice to play a husband and father who has to get his hands bloody in order to protect his family, but he actually gives one of his best performances," he says.

"Brosnan's a hoot playing a grizzled ex-pat who wears a tiger's tooth around his neck, sports a variety of nasty scars and talks of once having had a family of his own," he adds. "It's as if his James Bond had been booted from the MI6 in favor of a guy who looks like Daniel Craig, and now he's skulking about in the shadows as a gun for hire."

4. FoxNews.com's Justin Craig says No Escape's casting is "quite perfect."

"One would never expect Owen Wilson to lead a taught action flick... but his presence alone gives this film solid footing and provides even greater suspense," he says.

"If this movie does nothing else, No Escape doubles down on xenophobia as it quietly slips away into movie obscurity," he adds.

 5. The Seattle TimesMoira Macdonald gives No Escape 1.5 stars out of four, saying the film "manages to be both dull, particularly in its early scenes, and repellent."

"The movie's casual treatment of countless dead locals, the way the children's fear is exploited, a brief scene of attempted rape—well, getting to see Wilson sprinting in khakis doesn't seem like a fair trade-off," she writes. "Just like the Dwyer family, I found myself looking for escape; you might, too."

Watch: There's "No Escape" for Owen Wilson and Lake Bell