Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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42 UCW SEPT. 30 - OCT. 6, 2015 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I try to add spoiler tags to any review in which I sarcastically give away crucial plot details. I'm not sure if adding spoiler tags to this review is necessary, because, as an American action movie set in a foreign country, does anyone really believe the main cast is going to suffer anything more than minor inconvenience? Well, every- one involved still reading the review can breathe a sigh of relief — Owen Wilson and his family avoid anything permanent happening to them in No Escape (103 min- utes), even though basically every other person they pass dies in a really horrible way. So, sort of like The Impossible, but with fewer tsunamis and more guns. It didn't take too long to figure out that the filmmakers, at some point, decided that the movie didn't need to be set anywhere more specific than "Southeast Asia, the violent part." I can't be sure, but geography suggests that the film was originally set in either Laos or Cambodia, even though it was filmed in Thailand, and the filmmakers incor- porated a mixture of different dialects for background signs and characters. Hilariously, there were several scenes where the script resorted to having the characters mumble vaguely place-sounding words, or simply refer to "Southeast Asia," which actually includes twelve or thirteen separate coun- tries, each with their own politics, religion and language. The only sure thing is that the film does not take place in Vietnam, because that becomes the ref- uge sought by the main characters. The main characters consist of Owen Wilson, action hero, his wife Lake Bell, and their two daughters: Adorable (Claire Geare) and Mouthy (Sterling Jerins). They have flown into Southeast Asia, the violent part, because Owen Wilson is tired of doing prestige comedies with Wes Anderson and wanted to try out his Liam Neeson impersonation. Within minutes of crossing the border, they meet Pierce Brosnan, sleazy expatriate. The next morning, Owen Wilson wanders the marketplace and winds up in the middle of a violent uprising, as Americans so often do when the travel abroad. He practices his parkour skills while evading capture and finally ends up on the roof of the hotel with his family. Unable to speak any language of Southeast Asia, Lake Bell speaks French to someone who bothered to learn the lan- guage of the place he was going to live in and finds out that the locals object to American imperialism. A massacre follows. He and his family prepare to jump from one roof to another for hours while the militants helpfully avoid the side of the roof they are trying to jump from. They finally escape, but the guy who was politely waiting for them to stop talking and actually jump is immediately killed. This is repeated several more times in various permutations as I check my watch repeatedly. Finally, the family escapes, rendering the title of film meaningless. Overall, I was often bored. However, if you're a fan of any film that Liam Neeson has done in the last ten years, you could do worse. Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. Owen Wilson, Action Hero No Escape (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Special thanks to Camping World and all of the supporting businesses, participating restaurants and non-profit partners. Fayetteville Urban Ministry needs your support as we continue to "show God's compassion for our neighbors in need, and thus build a community together". Thank you for the continued support of the Fayetteville Duck Derby and Fayetteville Urban Ministry. Get ready for the Fayetteville Duck Derby 2016 Coming next Spring! Thank you for voting Fayetteville Urban Ministry's Fayetteville Duck Derby 910.483.5944 www.fayurbmin.org 102 Person Street • Downtown Fayetteville www.theoriginalwingco.com