May 12, 2017 "A Rough Experiment": Today I found this article by Chris Knight in the Edmonton Journal:
Imagine you showed up for work one day to discover a new corporate policy that required you to off your coworkers before one of them managed to ice you. That’s right: The Belko Experiment puts the “off” and the “ice” in office politics.
It puts the “ick” in there as well, given the gruesome way this thinly sketched scenario is carried out. The film opens on a weekday morning with the arrival of some 80 American workers to the eight-storey Belko building in Bogota, Colombia. The expat satellite office sits well back from the road, surrounded by a chain-link fence and nestled next to an old hanger that apparently none of the workers ever thought to ask about.
Meet nice-guy Mike (John Gallagher Jr.), his office-romance Leandra (Adria Arjona), security desker Evan (James Earl), and maintenance guys Bud and Lonny (Michael Rooker and David Dastmalchian). Sean Gunn plays the weed-smoking Marty.
Tony Goldwyn plays Barry Norris, the highest-ranking company man in the building. And John C. McGinley ramps up his signature grin as Wendell, that creepy employee you just know would kill people if he had a chance. Which this film duly gives him.
The last character of note is Melonie Diaz as Dany. Her position as the new hire gives the film a reason to explain that every Belko employee has a tracking device placed in the back of their neck, purportedly to let the authorities find them if they’re kidnapped.
We soon learn that the trackers can also explode and kill their hosts.
Before you can say “morning smoke break,” the intercom announces two employees need to be killed within the next half-hour. And steel shutters roll down over all the doors and windows, preventing escape.
What follows is a variation of what philosophers call the trolley problem — would you redirect an out-of-control trolley to kill one person and save five? — except in this case there’s an evil driver at the controls.
It’s a clever conceit, but in the hands of director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek, The Darkness), it fails in its, um, execution. Too many easy jump scares, not enough psychology — an average season of Survivor features more duplicity.
And the relatively small building, which should be a character in its own right — think of Die Hard, or The Raid — winds up being a bland backdrop to the action.
It’s still a decent thriller if you can stomach the gore, but you may find yourself wishing the movie had let loose with just a little more inventiveness, given the fact that the central metaphor is so bleeding obvious. Real experiments need a control; movies, not so much.
My opinion: I won't be watching this movie. This seems violent and people killing each other. There doesn't seem to be a good reason for violence like if there was an action movie like a law enforcement agent has to fight and kill people to save a big mission.
Jan. 4, 2019 "'Escape Room' is high-concept and not half bad": Today I found this movie review by Lindsey Bahr in the Edmonton Journal:
In retrospect, it’s actually kind of surprising that there hasn’t been an escape room-themed horror movie until now. The popular interactive mystery games are kind of mini films.
There’s a built-in set, stakes, opportunities for conflict and teamwork and a logical start and finish. It’s certainly a more obvious fit for a movie than a board game or theme park ride.
So, from the imaginations of “Fast & Furious” producer Neal H. Moritz and “Insidious: The Last Key” director Adam Robitel comes “Escape Room ,” where the characters are as random as an audience-chosen improv group (Investment banker! Soldier! Miner! Smart teen! Grocer!), the rooms look like discarded Nine Inch Nails music video sets (not exactly a criticism), the stakes are $10,000 or death, which seem far too low and too high, and everyone agrees that Petula Clark’s “Downtown” is a bad song (which is both incorrect and a strange, rude hill to die on).
As if the film is concerned that the audience will lose interest immediately, “Escape Room” starts at the end, as a lone man, Ben (Logan Miller), desperately tries to figure out the clues in a room that is quickly closing in on itself, “Star Wars” trash-compactor-style.
It’s certainly a jolt of energy up front, but right as things are looking really bleak for Ben, it cuts to “three days earlier.” It’s cheap and a little insulting to have to reassure the audience that there is some exciting and harrowing stuff to come as long as they get through all the boring introductory stuff.
At least it doesn’t resort to the old record-scratch, freeze-frame, “you’re probably wondering how I got here” standby.
The thing is, “Escape Room” isn’t actually all that bad, just kind of silly, but it takes a moment to readjust your expectations after that condescending beginning, and a very phoned-in introduction to the unlucky six Chicago strangers who all receive a mysterious box and decide, what the heck, let’s check out this escape room.
There’s the skittish but brilliant college student Zoey (Taylor Russell), the ruthless finance guy Jason (Jay Ellis), the veteran who hates heat, Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), the regular joe, Mike (Tyler Labine) and the escape room obsessive who honestly never does all that much to help, Danny (Nik Dodani).
Curiously no one seems all that concerned about the odd premise that this team activity could have a single winner at all, or perhaps they think they’ll all win $10,000. I guess it becomes clearer when people start dying in the rooms.
And, boy, are they put through the wringer. The have to brave extreme heat, extreme cold, poison, drugs, rising tensions and body counts while trying to figure out how to get out of each puzzle room, a few of which are pretty interesting.
It’s like a “Final Destination” spinoff where each character’s past trauma haunts them. Mercifully, all the carnage is kept to tolerable PG-13 levels.
The filmmakers haven’t gone so far as to put you in the game, too. A lot of it is watching all the characters find keys and have their own revelations, so by the time you get to the fifth room, it’s understandable if interest is starting to wane a bit even with the addition of a link between the six people.
The third act really kind of blows it though and the movie essentially ends with a shrug and the possibility for a sequel. You could do worse in January. And anyone already interested in the idea of an escape room that tries to kill you probably isn’t expecting all that much out of this anyway.
“Escape Room,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “terror/perilous action, violence, some suggestive material and language.” Running time: 100 minutes. Two stars out of four.
My opinion: The review was interesting to read. I'm probably not going to watch this movie because I don't like scary movies.
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