Overview: The Year is 2022. John Robbins (Ray Liotta, Goodfellas), a former Marine Captain, has been sentenced for assassinating his commanding officer and is banished to a secret and remote prison island run by The Warden (Michael Lerner, Eight Men Out). In this prison of the future, inhabited by society’s most violent and feared criminals, Robbins is left to the mercy of the elements and his fellow man.

He finds the island divided into two camps: The Outsiders, led by the brutal and bloodthirsty Marek (Stuart Wilson, Lethal Weapon 3) and The Insiders, led by the strong-willed, benevolent Father (Lance Henriksen, Aliens) and his followers Hankins (Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters) and Casey (Kevin Dillon, Entourage).

Robbins doesn’t care to join either - his one aim is to break free of an island from which there is no escape. To aid him, he steals a powerful and destructive weapon from The Outsiders, sparking off a major war between the two encampments.

Now bloody battle and the brutality of hand-to-hand combat will take many lives before Robbins can think of freedom again. Trapped on an island where nature can be as deadly as man, there is only one thought which keeps Robbins alive ... escape ...escape ...escape!

Blu-ray Verdict: This one was a favorite of mine back in my High-School days. I watched it countless times. In fact, I even had the movie poster on the wall of my room at one time! The last time I watched it was probably about 15 years ago. I was going through my VHS collection and trying to find something to watch I hadn’t viewed in awhile and saw this. So, I grabbed it and threw it in.

Even now, here on crystal clear Blu-ray from MVD Visual, it still holds up today and I think the story line premise is actually interesting. Kind of an adult version of Lord of The Flies, but they are there for more nefarious reasons, of course.

The cast is great. A lot of very solid actors, both ones you’d know by name and others you’d recognize by their faces, and, of course, the just-passed brilliance of Ray Liotta is front and center.

There are some fairly good action sequences, but for the most part, it’s not overly heavy on that aspect. The SPX are solid and the score fits the film very nicely too.

It is also a deceptively longer film that you might expect for the year and the genre, but that’s okay by me, especially as it goes a mile a minute in some places, much like action thrillers tend to do.

As a whole, it’s a prescient vision of a horrible future (which is actually here today in 2022!) when prisons are run by private firms for profit and recalcitrant prisoners are sent to the island of Absolom to finish each other off.

The plot, such as it is, provides lots of opportunities for gory scenes and exuberant special effects, and the landscapes look even lusher in high definition. There are some great performances, but my favorite has to be Ian McNeice as the hypochondriac and finicky Tom King, who more than makes up for the total absence of women in the film!

Then it would be Lance Henriksen, who veritably steals the show as a bizarre kind of father figure, and one not too far removed from Michael Preston’s in Mad Max 2. Ernie Hudson also provides a good friendly face among the support cast.

Special Features:
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: DIRECTING NO ESCAPE - A new interview with filmmaker Martin Campbell
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE: THE SCI-FI WORLDS OF GALE ANNE HURD - A new interview with producer Gale Anne Hurd
PENAL COLONY: WRITING NO ESCAPE - A new interview with co-writer Joel Gross
Making of No Escape
Vintage Featurette
Alternate Intro
Promotional Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots

No Escape Trailer

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