MOVIE REVIEW: ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Six people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive -- and discovering they've all played the game before.

Director: Adam Robitel

Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore, Holland Roden, Thomas Cocquerel, Carlito Olivero

Release Date: July 14, 2021

Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror/peril and strong language

Runtime: 1 h 28 min

Review:

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is the type of sequel that knows you probably don’t remember much of the original outside of it being enjoyable horror junk food.  It’s smart enough to give you a recap of the original film in its opening sequences before starting in earnest.  Adam Robitel delivers a slickly produced but inherently stupid film that plays it safe by using what worked in the original.  Robitel knows the main attraction to these films are its puzzles and he uses it to film’s advantage allowing you to overlook some shoddy script writing and lackluster acting from the cast.  It’s engaging enough but it still plays like a bastard child of the Saw series and underappreciated Canadian horror film Cube.  The story here is fairly nonsensical with its primary function is to set up the inevitable trilogy capper which will have to answer a slew of unanswered questions.  Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is fine for mindless background entertainment unfortunately it’s the type of film that suffers if you think about it too much. 

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: ESCAPE ROOM

Six adventurous strangers travel to a mysterious building to experience the escape room -- a game where players compete to solve a series of puzzles to win $10,000. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun soon turns into a living nightmare as the four men and two women discover each room is an elaborate trap that's part of a sadistic game of life or death.

Director: Adam Robitel

Cast: Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, Nik Dodani

Release Date: January 4, 2019

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13 for terror/perilous action, violence, some suggestive material and language

Runtime: 1h 39 min

Review:

Escape Room is one of those January horror releases that pop up every year.  For all intents and purposes, it should be terrible and forgettable.  Escape Room is surprising in that it’s actually an entertainingly brisk sci-fi horror film.  The film itself plays out like a blood and gore less version of Saw, at least on the surface.  As the film goes on, you’d be hard pressed to ignore a more than passing similarities to the 1997 sci-fi gem Cube.  Nobody would ever accuse this film of being as intelligently written as Cube but it works more often than it doesn’t.  That’s because the film cast is surprisingly likeable even though their characters are written with only the most basic levels of layering.  Recognizable faces such as Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine and Jay Ellis give the film a bit more clout than you’d usually expect from films of this ilk.  Sadly, the film does lose a bit of steam in its final act where it seems to rush through the conclusion only to set up a possible sequel, never allowing this original entry’s plot to settle.  Ultimately, Escape Room is one of those fast food style films where you’re liable to forget about it shortly after you leave the theater but then have a sequel pop up a year later.

C+