Unimpressive film with a rather predictable plot. Ray Liotta has been wrongly convicted of a crime and is sent to an island-prison colony divided into two camps: unreformable criminals and reformed, peace-seeking, criminals. It is evident by Ray Liotta's character and his predicament that this is a good guy vs. bad guys movie. The dialogue is, for the most part weak, and the film is too long. For a movie of this sort, I would recommend watching "Escape from New York" or "Running Man" instead: they're shorter, have better stories, and better actors all together.

the first 15 minutes are boring but when Liotta goes into the outsiders camp and has some fun its great. Lots of violence with dull character villians but Stuart Wilson is a hoot as the head baddude. burns some with some pretty horrible dialoug but then theres still goodies, with the highlight being when Stuart and his men come into the insiders camp and find noone but Liotta and one of their weapons, Liotta fires and boom, great scene.

Excelente film, con actuacion de calidad como suele ofrecer Ray Liotta.
Solido guion, apropiada banda sonora e inmejorable fotografia, hacen que esta pelicula atrape de comienzo a fin.
Vean este pelicula para dar cuenta de cuantas otras son burdas copias.

This movie was just stupid. While I think the whole concept of the movie is creative and had potential, that hope shattered about three minutes into the movie. I loved Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas", but his descendance into bottomless pits such as "Copland", "Operation Dumbo Drop", and now this...lead me to question whether or not Liotta has some real-life serious debts to the Mafia for which he urgently needs quick cash to pay off, and is willing to sacrifice his professional credibility to save his kneecaps.

I struggled to stifle my yawns as Liotta sheds forced tears for all the women and children he bombed in some former war, and my indifference grew by the nanosecond as the special effects (so called) of that bombing frightfully paralleled those of "Battlefield Earth".

The evil warlord is, like in "The Postman", some washed up, over the hill, unshaven hippie whom everybody is terrified of. As he pits Liotta, a veteran special forces commando, against a fellow tribesman in a fighting pit, he threatens them both to start fighting before he "jumps in there and kills them both". So these two men, one a young man and the other the special forces soldier, instantly take to each other's throats to avoid the wrath of this crusty old prune.

When the warlord and his men storm the peaceful villiage and find it empty, Liotta pops up from a watchtower and screams the devastatingly-insulting, ego-shattering, insomnia-inducing war cry, "You want it? Come and get it!" Oooooh. The teeth-gritting warlord, so furiously enraged by this terrible, unbearable taunt, attacks with full force and, of course, loses. Liotta pulls an RPG out of the sky and uses it to blow them all away.

Two stars for potential plot and my thread-lingering respect for Liotta. Minus five stars for this mangling of "Lord of the Flies With Assault Weapons and Air Strikes".

What a cool movie! I didn't think much of "No Escape" when it hit theaters, and didn't pay any attention to it until seeing on TV one night when nothing else was on. What a surprise! This is a great action flick, just alot of fun to watch. It's a great DVD to watch with a bunch of your buddies, heck, even my wife loved it.

Ray Liotta stars as a former marine with a hidden, dark past, so dark in fact, that he kills his commanding officer and is sentenced to life on a tropical prison island filled with rival gangs. He lands in the bad section of town first, dukes it out with the baddies, and ends up with the civilized tribe, becoming a leader & inspiration for them to fight for what they have and to get off the island. Pretty standard plot, but the action is fast-paced, there's plenty of it, and the actors really shine.

Liotta does a stand-up job as our hero, Lance Henrikson is very good as The Father, and the supporting cast turn in admirable performances as well. But the true reason to see this film is the absolute tour de force performance of Stuart Wilson as the arch-villain Marek. Never have I seen an actor deliver a better mix of humor & nastiness; he's completely brilliant here. Wilson pulls off the best antagonist I've ever seen in an action flick. I guarantee you'll enjoy the movie for, if nothing else, Wilson's performance alone. His work here is a must-see for any action fan.

A good cast, a phenomenal villain, and a load of fun; that sums up "No Escape". Don't let this underrated action film slip by you. It's so much better than the typical Stallone/Schwarzenegger action movie, and Wilson's brilliant performance must be seen. Enjoy!

This is a movie to watch just for kicks. It possesses no Oscar merit, but it definately fills that warm spot in a B-movie man's soul. One must admit Lance Henrikson is definately one sci-fi/fantasy/thriller acter who is just plain interesting to observe. I just have one disturbing question about originality. Why steal the classic arena scene from Spartacus? Were we that desperate for something that demands great merit? All in all, a fun watch.

ESCAPE FROM ABSOLOM is a classic sci-fi movie from New Zealand director Martin Campbell, the man behind GoldenEye and The Mask of Zorro, ESCAPE FROM ABSOLOM is truly a classic movie starring Ray Liotta, Lance Hendrikson and Ernie Hundson (Ghostbusters fame) who all do exellent performances. Liotta does good acting in a scene of the movie when his character is haunted by the memories of him killing people as he watches the fire. This sci-fi film set in 2022, in a future where prison corporations have become big buiness, A convicted soldier (Liotta) is taken to a Jungle island after being banished from a maximum security prison ruled by actor Michael Lerner. Only to find the Jungle island is ruled by two societies of prisoners, Savage outcasts and peaceful criminals. Where he discovers escape is impossible, and he plots to escape. The film is set on location in Austrilia, the film has good film-sets, good costume designs and good special effects. Like FORTRESS, Escape from Absolom should have a sequel, in which Liotta should reprise his role as Robbins. ESCAPE FROM ABSOLOM is a classic science fiction movie.

This is what movies are about to me.All action,good guys and bad guys,duking it out with no women to slow the plot down whatsoever.I mean it,not a single female character is seen in the whole film.There is mention of one,when Ray Liotta's lead character refers to 'sleeping with the owner' of his majorly destructive weapon,but that's all.Everything else is just complete perfection.Superb action,great director Martin Campbell who went on to direct the James Bond film Goldeneye and Vertical Limit,a wonderful leading man in the kind of unappreciated Liotta,and all done at a length that stretches out to just under 2 hours,adding a sense of completion and of full potential being reached.This was briskly followed by the almost equally good Christopher Lambert Sci-Fi/Actioner Fortress,and it might be a good idea to watch both films as a double bill one night as they are both brilliant Sci-Fi/Action prison movies.But this one's slightly better because unlike Fortress,it's an entirely boy's own flick.

This is an action adventure that pays much homage to all the other action adventure films that came before it. And there lies its problem. This is a futuristic tale of a Marine officer sentenced to life in a maximum security prison (actually ending up on an island with warring "tribes" of convicts) for murdering his commander. Of course you get the obligatory evil warden, along with the obligatory "really-bad bad guys" and the "not-so-bad bad guys" (straight out of the Mad Max ROAD WARRIOR movie). Not to stop there, you also get the obligatory hero with a guilty conscience, along with a young man who is in awe of our hero, and we can't leave out the obligatory traitor in the midst. I'd also be remiss for not mentioning the obligatory father figure who leads the "not-so-bad guys", and of course there is always the tough, second in command, but gee whiz, who's counting.

The really sad thing about all this is, the movie turned out to be pretty darn good in spite of itself. Ray Liotta plays the exiled Captain, and his performance is very intense and believable. Stewart Wilson plays Marek, the leader of the "really-bad bad guys" and has some of the best comic dialogue and one-liners in the film (ala Alan Rickman of DIE HARD fame). Those two performances are memorable, but alas, it's just not enough to carry the film for its full length. The actions scenes also vary. Some are appropriately intense and done well enough, but some are just...well...obligatory.

Between 1 and 10, I give "No Escape" a solid 5. Had the script writers dared to be a little different, this could have been a very entertaining movie. As it turned out, it was just okay. Enough to fill in a dull afternoon or a sleepless evening, but in the end, you may feel as I did. Cheated.

No Escape isn't exactly meant to be a fascinating look at our future. It wants to be a turbo-charged action/adventure, and even at those levels it doesn't quite succeed. Granted, the movie has 2 very exciting action sequences, particularly the opening chase sequence and the big battle between the two rival colonies on the island. However, just about everything else is dull, bland, and lifeless. Everything is done in a routine manner that it just gets boring after a while. This isn't worth watching, and not fast-paced enough as an enjoyable action film.

No Escape seems to bear a similar resemblance in story or plot to another sci-fi futuristic prison movie entitled Fortress (starring Christopher Lambert). However, Fortress was an underground system and No Escape involves,for the most part, an island filled with banished hardcore prisoners from another corporation owned system. Yet, in Fortress the Mentel corporation also runs the show.

Ray Liotta is convincing as the main character with a "non-criminal" past who committed an act out of despair which lands him in a futuristic/hight-tech security facility for life. Then, he's banished out of this system for committing another act. The true punishment is survival of the fittest on a mysterious island caught in turmoil between two tribes (the CBS t.v. series "Survivor" has nothing over these guys)! The bad side,known as the Outsiders, and the good side (term loosely used since they are also hardcore criminals). The Outsiders are led by actor Stuart Wilson; he's a comedically nasty, yet obnoxiously gracious and witty villain. Lance Henricksen plays "Father" to the civilized clan. Without getting into too much detail of the summary, suffice it to say that Liotta's character wants off the island bad... The most impressive premise of the movie is that it all takes place on earth on an island which is a stark contrast to most films of this nature taking place in outerspace or some ridiculously named and imaginary planet. While the film may be a bit too long for some, it never stalls. Also,the dvd features are very entertaining and amusing with the animated graphics. Pay attention to the robotic vocoder/synthesizer reading the actors' filmographies and bios (this was an unexpected treat since most dvds w/bios force the viewer to read the tiny words unless the viewer hits zoom). Color, sound, and picture quality are all super sharp;not a bad flick for a great bargain price through most retailers. The cast of characters were well chosen for the parts ! And, no, it is not too gimmicky or high tech enough to lose the viewer...

This is a great movie for both action lovers and drama lovers, it has tons of action. The plot is also good. The DVD edition is much better than the VHS version, the sound is the only drawback. However, I highly recomend it to your DVD collection.

This move was entertaining. Liotta was great and the villian was one of the best I have seen. He should do more movies as a villian. Great script and diologue. To the other reviewers, you should feel sorry for the prisoners. They are human and desirve to be treated with some dignity.

No Escape was directed by Martin Campbell of Goldeneye and Mask of Zorro fame. So, you might expect that it's a tightly-edited, competently-made film with brief flashes of style. That's exactly what it is. Especially for the first third of the film until Liotta meets the 'good guys', Campbell does a nice job giving the film a certain visual flair that you wouldn't expect in what's essentially a B-class action movie. For the remaining 2 thirds, the direction is more straightforward and takes second-place to the plot. This is fine, as the plot is pretty compelling, with some clever twists and turns despite many cliches. The scene where they try to send a ship off the island creates real tension. Bottomline, it's cliche-ridden, but the execution makes up for it.

The picture on the DVD isn't up to major Hollywood studio standards, but it's not terrible and more importantly it is widescreen. The sound is equally acceptable. For this type of film (Action, B-movie), all the DVD has to be is widescreen and cheap. The No Escape DVD fulfills those requirements.

I loved this film! It's got a lot of superb action, and great dialogue (particularly from the villain, Marek), but it also has a thoughtfulness and a morality to it that sets it apart from the typical "mindless action movie." An action movie with a heart -- what a concept!

This movie was boring and a borderline B movie. Some good action scenes but they are not enough to even warrant a 99 cent rental. It is no wonder the widescreen version is priced so low. Im surprised they even put it out in widescreen.

Ray Liota is the only convict I felt remotely sorry for since he had a good reason, but the others were just scumb, like his friend, Casey who helped in a kidnapping,should have told the police that something was wrong, the only thing that saved this movie from being a turkey was the good fight scenes

I think no escape was the best movie I have ever seen.I think that Ray Liotta did an exceptional job.I give this movie thousands of stars,because I think this movie was the best ever made.I especially like the part where the head outsider said,"An hour in the pool with Ralph"and then Robbins threw his spear into Ralph!That was so cool!Watch this movie!

"The Penal Colony" By Richard Herley, was apdapted into a 1994 prison movie set in the future by Martin Campbell (The director of GoldenEye) and Gale Ann Hurd (The producer of the terminator and aliens), this movie shows us a futuristic alcatraz where convicted prisoners are dumped and left to die. The story starts in the future, (Year 2022) When prison colonies are over powered by corporations from all over the world. Marine captain John Robbins, is convicted of a one manned homicide, by assassinating his commanding officer. Robbins (Ray Liotta) is transported to a Maximum security prison, after escaping from two prisons, The prison is for Prisoners who have failed to be Re-habed. Robbins is shortly banished, by trying to assault the prison's warden, who decides to dump him on a Prison island called "Absolom" which has two seperate society's of criminals. Robbins joins the insiders, (A civilized peaceful society of criminals) after fleeing from the outsiders (A society of savage criminals). Robbins finds himself helping the insiders fight the outsiders. the only thing that Robbins wants: is to escape. But it's impossible to escape, with gunship's as security, and being detected by a spy sattelight. Michael Lerner is good at playing the warden. you may have seen him "Godzilla" as the mayor) The good thing about the film is the special effects and costumes. And the story is good. I reccomend "No escape" a Sci-fi prison action film with no escape from the TV set.

Few action movies have the plot and characterization as this one does. You actually get a great story, likeable good guys, and plausible twists and turns that makes this one of the best action movies I've ever seen. It definately is in my top 5 movies of all time (Aliens and T2 being tie for first)

This movie is one of the best action movies I've ever seen. So what if there are no women at all in the film, this movie has something for every action lover. It has scenes, themes, and weapons reminiscent of both primitive and futuristic times. The enemy is smart and ruthless, but Liotta's character is every bit as smart. The final fighting scenes make the whole movie worthwhile. This is a must see!