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Escape Room Takes Viewers Into Familiar Territory

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With a new year comes the January dump that movie fans have become accustomed to. It’s the time of year when studios offer up minimal effort features as an escape from the awards season discussion. It’s all a low-stakes affair with minuscule expectations. Thankfully this can often lead to fun unassuming surprises like Escape Room.

The film centers around six strangers – Zoey (Taylor Russell), Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), Mike (Tyler Labine), Ben (Logan Miller), Danny (Nik Dodani), and Jason (Jay Ellis) who come together after receiving an invitation to a new escape room experience with a grand prize of $10,000. They soon find out the stakes are much higher than winning or losing and must work together if they hope to escape with their lives.

Plot-wise the film plays out like the Baby Einstein version of Saw. Rather than dump the audience straight into the mystery the film reveals the penultimate level and its participants, diluting the intrigue that is meant to carry you through the next 90 minutes. This is followed by character introductions that telegraph the haves and have-nots while the film sprinkles in a few groan-worthy platitudes just in case you missed the glowing neon signs that read “THIS IS THEIR CHARACTER FLAW”.

With that out of the way the games commence, and if Saw were a Rubik’s Cube, a game designed to test one’s will and mental aptitude, then Escape Room is a collection of those moments in Dora the Explorer where you have to point at the bridge just behind her except sometimes the bridge is out of frame, a simple task disguised as more thanks to unfair manipulation. In practice, each room’s set of objectives fluctuate between glaringly obvious and unsolvable unless the characters point it out. This doesn’t make the game any less fun in the moment, but rather unsatisfying once the full puzzle is revealed.

This all combines to create a sense of familiarity. We’ve met these characters before, and we’ve played this game numerous times. Within the first quarter of the film, you could take a guess at the film’s outcome and get at least 80% of the way there. The other 20% being reveals that lead to a “sure, if you say so” shrug.

Yet, despite all that Escape Room has working against it, I walked away feeling refreshed. After downing a handful of heavier features in the past few months, Escape Room is a comfortable palette cleanser. There is a level of satisfaction in watching someone struggle with a puzzle you solved five minutes prior, or to watch people squabble as they find themselves in a giant oven. It’s silly and inoffensive, sometimes ridiculous, but it always manages to be entertaining on one level or another. Whether you’re laughing with it or at it, at least you’re laughing.

Nobody will remember Escape Room when February and March roll around, but by then it’ll have already served its purpose. We’ll soon be on to prettier, deeper films that warrant our interest and challenge our perspectives, but until then it’s good for a one-night stand.

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Interviews

The Les Files With John C McGinley

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In the studio today, Les gets to talk to legendary actor John C. McGinley who’s been a force on the stage and the screen. Hollywood has him on speed dial to play certain iconic roles that move the story such as Tom Card in Burn Notice, Brian Kelton on Chicago PD. Now the showrunners of the beloved cop sitcom Brooklyn 99 have brought him in to play Head to the Patrolman’s Union and lover of all things Billy Joel, Frank O’Sullivan. This new character is the antagonist for the final season of Brooklyn 99 and he’s a cross between Archie Bunker and Yosemite Sam.

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Movie

Transformers Rise Of The Beast will definitely be a movie I’m going to watch repeatedly.

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This was an epic movie overall. What else can I say without giving spoilers? Not a lot else, unfortunately, but I will try. So the start was interesting as it takes place in 1994, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts takes the audience on a globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduces a whole new faction of Transformers – the Maximals –  to join them as allies in the existing battle for Earth. There are quite a few hidden gems to look for. The humor in this one was excellent definitely the 90s were everywhere in this movie.


The action was awesome as a Transformers movie should be and it does have a decent storyline. The film also has Great references to the older Transformer properties as well. As a major fan of the beast war series, it was awesome to see that version of the universe brought to the big screen. However, there were some moments of eh, been done many times. But just a couple despite being another Transformers movie. but this one did give more life to the series for me to be intrigued to see where it goes. The movie is a good 2 hours long so it goes at a good pace.


But with that being the only bad thing, in my opinion, it is a great theater movie. I think it added some freshness to the franchise. That with a nice blend of the 90s nostalgia. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This is Chris, an honest review writer until the next movie, see you next time.

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Movie

Justice League: Warworld Official Trailer

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Until now, the Justice League has been a loose association of superpowered individuals. But when they are swept away to War World, a place of unending brutal gladiatorial combat, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the others must somehow unite to form an unbeatable resistance able to lead an entire planet to freedom.

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