A cool little short film, The Escape is easily the greatest commercial I've ever seen. Imagine if
Le transporteur (2002) was way shorter, had less action and no Jason Statham, but did have Clive Owen and Jon Bernthal. BMW should be proud.
Clive Owen does his best Jason Statham, channeling Frank Martin from the Transporter films. This role really suits Owen, and further proves that he would've been a great James Bond had they cast him some years ago. He's a good protagonist, mysterious and intriguing, and is complimented by Jon Bernthal, who is good as the villain. Bernthal plays his usual grizzled tough guy role to a T, and it works. Dakota Fanning and Vera Farmiga are both here, which was surprising. The performances are good overall, especially considering that this is just an extended advertisement. It's a very stacked cast for what seems like such a small production.
There's a bit of cool action, in the form of a long car chase, and there are some slick crashes and explosions. The stunts are tight, and the budget actually looked pretty big for something like this. Neill Blomkamp directed this, which isn't surprising when you see the action scenes. He brought us
District 9 (2009),
Elysium (2013), and
Chappie (2015), and clearly has an eye for action scene structure and execution.
Definitely worth a watch, as it's such a minimal time investment anyway. Can't really be compared to a normal full-length theatrical film, but still great in its own right. This is the only time I've ever actually wanted a car after watching a commercial.
