Escape

Ten young women are kidnapped by sex traffickers. And, given the title, I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say they try to escape.

You might remember the director from The Dead, a zombie film set in Africa. I kind of liked that. This is a bit more of a traditional exploitation movie. Lots of youngish women in revealing clothes running around, trying to escape brutish guys.

The interesting thing about Escape is that the women fight back. Instead of just screaming for help, they throw punches and sometimes rocks. The fight choreography is a bit poor, but I liked that they made the effort. A lot of these kinds of thrillers get kind of annoying and repetitive with all the running and screaming.

It feels a bit long even at 90 minutes, but it's certainly watchable. There are also maybe too many characters. It's easier to keep a dozen characters straight when they're dressed and styled differently, but these are all youngish blondes in beach outfits. There was a nurse who was pretty cool, but the others kind of blended together.

If you're in the mood for a B movie, you might as well give it a try. If you're looking for something more than that, skip it.

Great setting and scenery, the plot is as you'd expect for this type of film, so you know what you're getting but it's solid and an easy watch.

The female characters are, on the whole, portrayed as having both beauty and brains, as they ultimately outsmart their captors and escape. Ok, you may question how a small group of petite young women in skimpy dresses and high heels can run through the desert and take down a ruthless criminal gang...but it's a movie, it's fiction and in this move, that's what they do, and it's positive to see this portrayed.

I think some of the acting is very good, and being honest, some of it is a bit questionable, but it doesn't detract from the overall film. The bad guys / criminals all fit the bill very well, and the lead female roles are solid. A few of the performances are a bit 'Made in Chelsea / I want to look like I'm crying but really I'm not', but all in all, the film does what it says on the tin and delivers on its promise.

I think it is a bit like if the Made in Chelsea lot went on holiday and got captured, and you'll probably see this and know what you're getting from the trailer, so if it's not for you, don't watch the film.

Overall: an easy watch, enjoyable, some good performances, great scenery / settings, good to see female characters in the stronger, hero, come-out-on-top roles.

What I liked: Great choice of location. I found myself looking it up. I'm not someone who particularly likes blood and guts films but the violence was fairly well done.

What I didn't: Terrible script. Most of the acting was quite amateurish but the dialogue didn't help. The rescue room team were a joke and added nothing. What was going on with the mothers? The random vagrant drink in an abandoned and ruined building in the middle of nowhere. How did he get there? And the girl calling into each clearly empty space asking for help! Then there was the completely unnecessary story about a childhood guilt which was met with some dreadful over acting from the listener. Meanwhile the guy hunting them was wandering around aimlessly presumably waiting for her to finish.

Conclusion: A serious subject badly written, produced and directed with the main lure being the very pretty and scantily clad girls. My first thumbs down in a while.

I love the concept. It would be nice if there were more horror movies where the female characters are not complete morons.

Unfortunately, this isn't it. It's not a horror movie, more like a really bad comedy.

Almost every scene reminded me a scenes from horror movie parodies.

The acting is absolutely horrible. No character is believable. As bad as the girls were, the parants' "war room" side was so much worse and unnecessary.

The bad guys, especially the boss, were so badly written. The accents just made it worse.

The dialogs and the script are just bad. Karla telling that long dumb unrelated childhood story while being chased was just hilarious.

Also, Lucy finding this ABANDONED structure in the middle of the desert going door to door (openings, no actual doors) asking if anyone is home was absolutely dumb and funny (The building has no roof, ffs!). Surprising, she finds that useless homeless that hands her a plastic bottle that seem to be full with urine and cigarettes, yet she tries to drink it, then vomits.

This movie is terrible. The only thing going for it is the decent cinematography and the desert shots and the pretty good gritty efrects.

Best if avoided.

I'm not sure if the acting was bad, or it was simply down to the dialogue. In fact, I think it was the latter. Except for 2 or 3 very noticeable (and terrible) performances.

It was very cliche at times. And each sentence seems to be about 5 words long, pause, then next sentence.

There's a lot of human trafficking films out there, and this one is on the more unrealistic end. It wasn't terrible, it wasn't even bad, but it wasn't above a 4.5. No way. But it wasn't the worst film I've seen by any stretch of the imagination. So, if you're into thrillers, you'll probably not regret watching it, but probably won't remember in a week either.