Owen Wilson may best be known for his comedic roles in films like Wedding Crashers, Zoolander, and last year’s Marry Me with Jennifer Lopez, but it is another title from his long list of credits that is making waves with Netflix viewers. After joining the streamer’s content catalogue last month, the 2015 action thriller No Escape jumped into Netflix’s Top 10 movies streaming chart, all while generating plenty of buzz online.
Directed by John Erick Dowdle, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother, Drew Dowdle, the film stars Wilson as Jack Dwyer a former civil engineer and new Cardiff employee, who moves to Southeast Asia with his wife Annie and their two young daughters. They soon find themselves trapped in a fight for survival amid a political uprising where armed rebels are ordered to kill any foreigners that they encounter. Along with Wilson, the movie stars Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan.
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The film arrived on Netflix just one day after Christmas on Dec. 26, and it was immediately met with success. No Escape quickly jumped onto the streaming charts, becoming the No. 2 movie in the U.S. on Jan. 6, when it only fell behind the star-studded follow-up to Rian Johnson’s 2019 hit Knives Out, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Murder Mystery. It came ahead of Trolls, King Kong, and White Noise, the remaining three titles that wrapped up the Top 5. After peaking in that No. 2 spot, the film dropped to the No. 4 spot on Jan. 7 and then to No. 5 on Jan. 5 before falling off the Top 10 list. The movie also jumped into the Top 10 list in Netflix’s other regions, including the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, FlixPatrol data showed.
With its move to Netflix, more eyes are sitting down to view the movie, sparking plenty of chatter on Twitter, where one person gave the film a “10/10” as they wrote that it “had my heart in my a- the whole time, it was so good.” Another person tweeted that the movie “had my anxiety through the roof but it’s good,” with somebody else adding that No Escape will “have u on ur toes the whole time watch no escape on netflix im tewwww locked in.”
Despite all the buzz, No Escape doesn’t necessarily have the best ratings. The film only managed to secure a 48% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it certified rotten. The critics consensus reads, “No Escape‘s talented cast and taut B-movie thrills are unfortunately offset by its one-dimensional characters and uncomfortably retrograde worldview.” However, the film boasts an audience score of 62%, which makes it certified fresh in that rating. No Escape is currently streaming on Netflix.
