No Escape No Return (1993) Reviews

• NO RENT, NO WATCH

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  Where to begin with a movie like NO ESCAPE, NO RETURN? How about the title? Why not? It makes no sense and has nothing to do with the plot (if you want to call it a plot). It should be called 21 JUMP STREET : THE LATTER YEARS. Maxwell Caufield steps in for Johnny Depp as the good looking- young- white- cop. He seems to still be searching for another GREASE 2. Some newcomer bimbo plays the blonde. Oh yeah, Ioki's back, and this time he gets to do some stuff! DUSTIN NYGUEN finally gets to show off his martial arts skills (or lack there of) as the tougher of three renegade police (picture MOD SQUAD! only not as good!). This movie just makes you feel bad for veteran great JOHN SAXON, although his scenes are the only ones worth watching. JOEY TRAVOLTA pops his head in once or twice, probably just to remind us how much he resembles brother JOHN. The "action" sequences are rare and never live up to such great scenes as, let's say, the mudslide scene from "ROMANCING THE STONE". If you love to torture yourself with this kind of garbage, as I do, then rent "NO ESCAPE..." for a good laugh. The biggest one comes when NYGUEN's character sits alone in bed, crying his eyes out! Poor Ioki. Cheer up. I hear BOOKER needs a new partner.

• High-quality Action! Blow-ups, and beat-ups constantly,

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  Police officers William Sloan (Caulfield), Tommy Cuff (Nguyen), and Ali Weston (Loveday) are more than just your average cops. They grew up together, trained together, and graduated the academy together, all at the top of their class, with their own individual specialties. They have a strong bond, and that bond will be tested to the limits when a corrupt DEA agent, Dante (Nouri) tries to set them on a path to their ultimate ruin. When another official, Mitchell (Saxon) comes in to investigate, he realizes something fishy is going on. Dante, against the warnings of their Captain, Stark (Travolta), made them a special team to investigate drug runners, setting them up for a fall. While each member of the team has their own personal demons to confront, will they be able to outsmart and out-shoot the bureaucratic forces lined up against them? Much like a busy day at the Stop & Shop bottle return room, will it be NO ESCAPE NO RETURN? PM's batting average remains high with this very enjoyable and entertaining outing. It's gems like this that made going to the video store fun - trying new titles, never knowing what to expect, and sometimes finding a winner. Items like No Escape No Return kept the odds in your favor. We appreciate that. NENR (don't kids tease each other by saying "neener neener neener"?) was essentially the culmination of writer/director Charles Kanganis's time at PM. It does appear to be the end of his education and evolution there, as he seems to put all he's learned onto the screen, with winning results. Coming hot on the heels of his Traci Lords diptych, A Time To Die (1991) and Intent to Kill (1992), here Kanganis goes full-throated action and makes no apologies for it. There's a ton of action, the stuntwork is top-notch, the movie is shot and directed well so you can see all of what's going on, there are shootings, high-quality blow-ups, and beat-ups constantly, and two of our favorite settings for action are, of course, here: the disco and the bar. The disco scene features some very cool slo-mo and the bar, of course, is the place for the time-honored barfight (which, in classic form, is instigated by some racial slurs that you would never hear today in our stranglingly PC world). As if all that wasn't enough, we have a stellar cast of familiar faces to keep the whole ship buoyant. Dustin Nguyen's "back's against the wall" once again, as it was in 21 Jump Street, and it's hard to find a cooler moment in our recent memory than him, dressed in a black leather jacket, with fingerless gloves, and shades, holding double handguns and he takes down the bad guys. Fan favorite John Saxon resembles Rudy Giuliani, Joey Travolta resembles...I mean, does his part (mainly delivering exposition) quite well, and Michael Nouri looks like he's gotten a haircut. Even mainstays Robert Miano and Real Andrews get in on the fun. And we've gained a new respect for Maxwell Caulfield. Far from being just a cross between Jeff Fahey and C. Thomas Howell, his performance is also cool and great. For PM fans, this movie will certainly put you in mind of Maximum Force (1992) - but NENR has a unique character all its own. Maybe that's because Kanganis places emphasis on character development - there's more of it in the first five minutes of this movie than a lot of other action movies combined. So you always care about these people and what happens to them. If that wasn't the case, all the car-flipping-over-in-the-middle-of-the-street-and-blowing-up stunts wouldn't mean a thing. So, we applaud all involved with No Escape No Return (not to be confused with No Retreat, No Surrender) - it delivers the goods.

• A murky potboiler of a thriller

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  NO ESCAPE NO RETURN is a murky potboiler of a thriller from PM Entertainment. The whole thing seems to have been shot at night in various grimy locations which add a sleazy realism to the storyline. The story is about a couple of cops who team up to bring down a drug ring and there are famous faces on both sides. British actor Maxwell Caulfield (of GREASE 2 infamy) is the slick hero of the piece while John Saxon plays the usual gruff superior type and Michael Nouri is the baddie. Joey Travolta also appears in a smaller role. There's some action here to keep it bubbling along, but I found the script below par and the clichéd story simply not as engaging as other PM Entertainment films I've watched.

• "That's how I know you ain't a cop - you too [...] crazy"

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  NO ESCAPE, NO RETURN is a fairly unique entry into the subgenre of police-themed action-thrillers, and it is worth checking out despite my average rating. This well-written adventure is engaged in a fight with producers trying to shoehorn it into the form of a throwaway adrenaline piece. Concessions appear to have been made that result in some sloppily-presented scenes and heavy-handed drama, but you're still looking at an interesting and engaging alternative to the usual PM cop fare. The story: Three police officers – played by Dustin Nguyen, Denise Loveday, and Maxwell Caulfield – are targeted for internal sabotage after interfering in the plans of a drug baron. The movie's strengths begin with its three leads, who do collectively well with their roles. The film gives Maxwell Caulfield top billing, but this is in fact one of the few times wherein all three of a movie's leads play equally prominent characters. Too much of their background and motivations are revealed via exposition and the strongest of their dramatic scenes are mucked about with attention-pleading editing, but the performers seem to genuinely feel their roles and have a natural chemistry that make their relationships believable. Additionally, the extended storyline is equal to these characters for its unconventionality. The plot against the characters begins as an assassination attempt but morphs into a cerebral attack, leading to the stars making some genuinely surprising decisions throughout the film. The action is a solid mix of shooting, fighting, and explosions. It's not the best stuff ever, but a little more of it would have bolstered my rating. Some of the gunfights are nice, and the PM studio lives up to its reputation by including a couple of cool car crashes, but the clear star of the action scene is Dustin Nguyen. Nguyen is choosy when it comes to his action roles, supposedly having turned down films for years to avoid being typecast as a karate man, and a feature like this makes you value the parts wherein he does demonstrate his aptitude for the martial arts. He leads four of the five fights, and while I would have given a lot to see him take on some credible opponents, it's a thrill to see him cut loose, particularly in the three-on-one brawl. Problems with the jumpy pacing occasionally give the feature an oddly experimental vibe, and its passive justification of police brutality rings particularly foul nowadays. Nevertheless, for all its faults, the movie is entertaining in more than a mindless way. It would be great if writer-director Charles Kanganis' screenplay had instead been filmed by someone like Dwight Little, but even in its current state, I recommend this one for viewing by action fans.

• "PM" in this case means "Poor Movie"

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  The PM Entertainment production "No Escape No Return" was made just before the company started to make a serious name for itself with high quality direct to video actioners like "Rage" and "Last Man Standing". Indeed, this movie already has the PM trademarks of very good photography and lighting. Unfortunately, that's about all that's good that can be said of this otherwise sorry effort. Most of the blame can be placed on the shoulders of writer/director Charles T. Kanganis. His script, for one thing, is ridiculously padded. It takes FOREVER for the movie to introduce the three lead protagonists, and once that happens, it takes an equally long time to get them into the predicament that they spend most of the remaining movie trying to get out of. And the protagonists, when not coming across as incredibly bland, come off instead as unlikable. Part of that has to be the poor performances, but there's also plenty of dopey and/or stilted dialogue the actors are forced to say. The movie may have been saved by serviceable action sequences, but to tell the truth, the poor direction and editing saps any energy another director might have been able to contain. This is not the worst PM Entertainment production, but even fans of PM Entertainment (like myself) will find this really tough to sit through.