The Couchpotatoes In all honesty movies like Inescapable have been made before and way better. Inescapable is okay to watch once and then forget about it. It won't remembered as a great movie. The story itself isn't bad though, even if it has been done before. It's just some action scenes that brings the movie down. Not that there are a lot of it, but the ones where there are fighting scenes are clearly done by amateurs. None of them look real and that's the minimum you could ask from an action thriller. Alexander Siddig isn't a bad actor but fighting scenes are clearly not his thing. The cast is okay without having Oscar winning performances. All in all it's an okay movie, there are for sure worse movies than this one, but it's just not great either.

LeonLouisRicci The Basic Plot of a Taken Daughter may be a Reason to Knee-Jerk and Cry Foul or Worse Stay Away from this Low-Key Thriller set in Syria, of all Places, just Before the Uprising. This is not that Clear on Details, and it would be Better if it was, like the Background of the Protagonist, and His Much Talked About Past. But it is a Movie that Looks Really Good with Sharp, Colorful Images, and the Dialog and Performers have and Urgent Gravitas. The Movie is Somewhat Slowly Paced for this Type of Current Trend Action, but it has a Difference about its Similarities that makes it Intriguing.Overall it is Well Produced and Thoughtful but not Rich Enough or Viscerally Intense to Rise Above its Independent Stature. Worth a Watch but do not Expect any Bar Raising in the Genre, just a Competent, Entertaining Little Movie with Big Intentions.

gradyharp Though this film has been negatively received as being a take-off on the TAKEN films (father looking for daughter under dire circumstances) it is a different kind of film and one written and directed by Ruba Nadda who manages to gives us a story that in many ways explains why the Syrian situation (terrifying chaos) is as it is. If for no other reason than to gain insight on what life in a country infested with many 'secret police' organizations whose drive seems to be shoot now investigate later.Years after he left Damascus under suspicious circumstances (he was a accused of being an Israeli spy), Adib Abdel Kareem (udanese born British character actor Alexander Siddig) is comfortably at work in Toronto when he is confronted with devastating news: his eldest daughter, Muna (Jay Anstey), has gone missing in Damascus. Now Adib, who has not been back in over 30 years, must return to Syria and deal with his secret past in order to find her. Getting a Visa is the first near impossible step, but once in Jordan he calls upon his ex- fiancée Fatima (Marisa Tomei) whom Adib deserted when he escaped to Canada years ago to assist him in ploughing through the red tape and dangers to find his daughter. The Canadian ambassador Paul (Joshua Jackson) is inextricably involved as is Adib's old comrade Sayid (Oded Fehr) and the man with answers Halim (Saad Siddiqui). Inescapable is a thriller about a father's desperate search for his daughter and the chaos of the Middle East he left behind.The film is tense and disheveled at times but that reflects the worrisome chaos of too many factions trying to assist a country who seems unable to find its core values. This is not a great film but it does offer a taste of what life must be like in war torn Syria. And for that it is worth watching. Grady Harp

A P Saw the premiere at TIFF, and I really wanted this to be good, (especially coming from a Canadian director who did well with her last film.) But this one just does not work. First, the story followed a far more superficial plot line than I expected. (You won't find any meaningful commentary on Syria here.) Worse, none of the actors was at their best. I'm not sure if it was a matter of the lines being poorly written or poorly delivered, but I found myself rolling my eyes within the first ten minutes. Marissa Tomei, who I normally like, was severely miscast for her part. The story was trite and full of plot holes, and I don't think anyone in the theater (least of all the people filing out during the show) cared what happened to the characters. (Not that much happened to them anyway.) Best wishes to those who worked on the film for better results in the future. But for this one, not a film I'd recommend seeing, even as a rental.