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.

Overall, I enjoyed this film, although it did seem to be a lower-budget version of 'Taken', but instead of Liam Neeson kicking ass, there are numerous hot 'blondes' doing it. Combining their superior psyche, these females exploit the machismo, one-dimensional nature of the villains, especially in the final act. That being said, I thought the actors cast as the antagonists did a good job. In particular, I enjoyed the camaraderie and 'friendship' between the eyepatch character and his Eastern European accomplice (Jon-Paul Gates, who I have seen in other films). Even though both were abducting and raping women at will, I thought their character traits personified the Eastern European mafia, where loyalty is not as important as greed and self-aggrandisement. When Gates attempts to drive the car, bleeding profusely, and Eyepatch asserts he can't drive, is hilarious! Some amusing moments in between the carnage of sex trafficking!

Ok its a bit hackneyed, the trafficking of BEBs (Blue-Eyed Blondes) with the ruthless baddies and the helpless young ladies. In this case there is a problem that since all the heroines are all BEBs, and since the film tries to track the action of different BEBs in similar locations, and since we get flashbacks to explain how the BEBs got into this situation, it gets hard to follow. Probably its best just to let the action flow over you rather than work out the plot.

Some nice touches - the girls are not all hopeless and brainless, and do some good fightbacks. The tension is mainly in the last 20 minutes, and the plot extends even into the end credits (good thing I didn't shut it off as soon as the last baddie died!).

All in all watchable but I would not watch it for a third time. Spoiler alert! Not all the baddies are British!

Two friends take a dreadful and horrifying vacation when criminals kidnap them in order to sell them to the highest bidder. That's when adversity and retribution sets in, this movie is about women empowerment and I was here for it. Good acting, great location scenery and women fighting back. Cliche at times but I enjoyed the film. Director Howard J. Ford previous films The Dead and The Dead 2 were also good movies, as a horror fan I am waiting for The Dead part 3. But I will recommend this movie Escape, I am all for empowering women & I am predicting this will be the year for women. Good Job 💙

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.