“No Escape” (Action/Thriller: 1 hour, 43 minutes)

Starring: Owen Wilson, Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan

Director: John Erick Dowdle

Rated: R (Strong violence including a sexual assault and strong language)

 

Movie Review: John Erick Dowdle’s resume contains horror thrillers like “Quarantine,” 2008 and “Devil,” 2010.

He dumps the horror-genre theme to create a more realistic thriller. “No Escape” is a nice, intense escape, though character development is little.

Jack Dwyer (Wilson), his wife, Annie (Bell), and their daughters have just moved to Southeast Asia to begin a new life. Jack’s new position with a corporation is the reason for the family’s move.

The family finds itself in the middle of a political coup as armed rebels seize control of the city, murdering foreigners and fellow citizens who support western influences. The family must survive the next few hours, searching for the means to escape.

Wilson is in a non-comedic, goofy role. He scores points here as a believable family patriarch. Drake plays his wife. The actors do a great job with what the script offers, but they and others are underdeveloped.

Brosnan’s appearance is weaker. While he is engaging, one has to wonder why his character is not developed further. Apparently, his character has a great deal to do with what is happening, but this element of the film is not developed. Instead, the character alludes to western encroachment as the reason for violence. After that, the film makes an anti-corporate statement without an exploration of that message or Brosnan’s character.

“No Escape” is a roller-coaster ride. It is enjoyable, but it has no depth that convinces enough to care about the state of its characters. It is quantity without quality.

Grade: C+ (The escape is thrilling but unconvincing.)

“We Are Your Friends” (Drama/Music: 1 hour, 36 minutes)

Starring: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski and Wes Bentley

Director: Max Joseph

Rated: R (Profanity, drug usage, sexual content, some nudity and violence)

 

Movie Review: A young San Fernando Valley man faces life, dealing with finding a profession, a new love, his friends and passion for music. However, the story digresses to one of young people just partying, experimenting with drugs and making bad decisions.

The movie’s plot is a formulaic one that distracts.

Facing maintaining his “bromance” with three close male friends, his career and a new love interest, Disc Jockey Cole Carter (Efron) faces multiple decisions. He is young and wondering where to go next. He finds life and all its complexity and romance with Sophie (Ratajkowski), but these items come with conditions and setbacks.

Efron has a great presence here. He is believable. He has a unique manner of making these types of roles tangible. He drives an otherwise common plot.

Young people party with drugs and alcohol present. They engage in sexual activities. They have big dreams. Once the film moves past the elements of youth, its cast becomes much more interesting, yet it takes a while to get there. By then, this young cast of 20-somethings appears older.

The film is best when it sticks with Efron’s Carter. Every time the plot varies from this pivotal character, it appears more like a lighter “Entourage” (Director Doug Ellin), which debuted earlier this year. Pitiful, since Efron is engaging in this role.

“We Are Your Friends” takes an hour to get to a substantial moment. Until then, its moral is a dubious equation. Do drugs. Find love. Get your dream job and be happy. The message by director-writer Max Joseph, primarily a documentary filmmaker until now, and his co-writer Meaghan Oppenheimer appears a youthful dream.

If only, life were that easy.

Grade: C (They are just passing acquaintances.)

“The Diary of a Teenage Girl” (Drama: 1 hour, 42 minutes)

Starring: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgård and Kristen Wiig

Director: Marielle Heller

Rated: R (Nudity, sexual content, thematic elements, profanity and drug and alcohol usage involving teens)

 

Movie Review: A bold tale about a teenager coming into adulthood, “Diary of a Teenage Girl” is for adults looking for an original screenplay.

The film features Bel Powley as Minnie Goetze, a teen artist living in a 1970s San Francisco. When not illustrating her comic books, she wonders about love, sex and making vocal logs for her diary.

Her life changes when she experiences sex for the first time with Monroe Rutherford (Skarsgård), the boyfriend of her mother, Charlotte (Wiig).

The presentation is a proactive tale about coming of age. It is very candid in nature. It is really about a teen’s exploration of her thoughts and body through feelings of love, sex and worldly expectations.

First-time director Marielle Heller does not hold back on sexual visuals, drugs and other adult concepts. One has to appreciate her audacious approach.

 She creates a commentary of the United States then and now. It tackles taboo concepts and displays them with remorse. The problem is the story, while well-acted and original, never totally allows its characters to face consequences in a definite manner.

Once they do, this screenplay treats them as such and moves, sometimes leaving matters unresolved.

The screenplay is not concerned with a verdict regarding its characters. The script wants moviegoers to relate to these lives and understand their actions, even if one disagrees with them. Their progressions through life forms the characters’ growth and the manner in which they continue learning.

The audience’s task is to observe the experience and learn about these on-screen personas.

The story is about a young woman’s trek into adulthood. Scandalous but intriguing, it is engaging until the end for those who appreciate independent productions.

Grade: B- (A book of interesting notations)

“War Room” (Drama: 2 hours)

Starring: Priscilla C. Shirer, T.C. Stallings and Karen Abercrombie

Director: Alex Kendrick

Rated: PG (Thematic elements)

 

Movie Review: Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick prove race has nothing to do with religion in this, one of their more intriguing films.

The latest tale by the brothers shows how prayer can save people and marriages to keep families intact. The message is good, although the Kendricks still oversell it.

Real estate agent Elizabeth Jordan (Shirer) is a wife facing a major crisis. Her relationship with husband Tony (Stallings) is a frayed marriage. Her motherly duties for daughter Danielle Jordan (Alena Pitts) are waning.

Things change when Elizabeth meets her latest client, Miss Clara (Abercrombie), an older woman, who is a Bible-toting, major believer of God. Clara shows Elizabeth that through faith and prayer, a family can change for the better.

God sees no color, just His children. The Kendricks see no color either in this religious screenplay involving a mostly African-American cast. Exploration of faith via an upper middle class, suburban family is one of the Kendricks most gratifying works.

Maybe that is the case because Miss Clara, as played by Abercrombie, reminds me of my grandmothers. She, like many seasoned black women, holds her family together with prayer, wisdom and much love.

Therefore, the character appeared real in a manner that evoked memories. Miss Clara steals the show in many ways, too.

Simultaneously, other characters appear somewhat not as a considerable. Their situations appear forced. They are in a situation before we fully understand them outside of the situation. Then, audiences are supposed to relate.

The film’s best moments are when the plot does what its producers intended — promote Christianity and faith. Watching Abercrombie pray, one gets a profound sense of boldness in the manner and tone in which she uses words. here, the film scores.

Scenes are not as gratifying when the non-religious characters are flanked by Bibles in the background or have crucifixes hanging around their necks. Several people admit in the movie they are not big on religion, yet they have a Bible in each room. Do the characters have it there for show, or does this movie?

Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick produce a better feature here, but it overplays the message. The Kendricks have yet to learn the fine art of subtlety when delivering their message.

Grade: C (The room needs more space.)