Escape Room 2: No Way Out

The sequel to the successful Escape Room is similarly solid, and anyone who likes these variations on Cube and Saw as much as I do shouldn't grumble. The sequel picks up right after the first film and this time we watch an unsuspecting group tackle the escape room, except that they are all former champions – they are smarter, and so solving the puzzles isn't such a problem for them, though they are certainly challenging for the audience. Again, the film is PG-13, so we have to do without the gore, but in this case it doesn't really matter that much, as the deaths wouldn't have looked any better in a different rating. The design of the escape rooms is impressive, the puzzles are nicely intricate, no tension is spared, and the whole thing is well and intelligently thought out enough that you have no chance of getting bored as they go from room to room. Completely realistic it may not be, but that's a good thing, as if it kept it down to earth it would be as boring as real life. The final unexpected twist was also nice, so for me, a fine respite and entertaining genre film, of which there aren't many, so I have no problem giving it a higher rating. Story 3/5, Action 4/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 4/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotions 3/5, Actors 3/5. 7/10. (13.09.2021)

How it is when you're sitting in front of the screen, nostalgically reminiscing about, say, Saw IV, and you're miserable. But if you take into account the chronology of when the Saw franchise spawned that very trend of actual escape rooms (one of the most hellish challenges of the bourgeois lifestyle), which subsequently made its way back into cinemas, only reduced by macabre violence and that comical moralistic veneer, you'll find that you've actually found yourself in an escape room as the audience, tasked with not necessarily getting into every obviously profit-driven piece of crap just to keep your outlook on film up to date. But is it really that hard to find actors who maybe can't act, but can at least run? Or screenwriters who have ever been around what it looks like when two people are having fun? (12.10.2021)