Movie Review: Escape Room (2019)

Movie Review: Escape Room (2019)
I didn't have high hopes going in to Escape Room—I had determined beforehand that it was more of a thriller movie vs. a horror movie (I hate horror movies, and probably would have skipped it if that was the case). However, it ended up surprising me in a good way, and was actually a very entertaining film.

Five strangers each receive a jet black cube, and the five of them each figure out how to open the cube. The strangers couldn't be more different: there is Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), who served in the armed forces; Zoey (Taylor Russell), a college student; Mike (Taylor Labine), a trucker; Ben (Logan Miller), a grocery clerk; Danny (Nik Dodani), a huge nerd who has done more than 90 escape rooms in the past; and Jason (Jay Ellis), a high-powered stockbroker. However, the five of them will need to work together to get out of this escape room—especially when they realize what the cost is when they don't.

The cast worked very well together in this movie, and odds are you won't recognize most of them—after perusing IMDb, I realized that Nik Dodani is from Netflix's Atypical, Logan Miller was in Love, Simon, and Jay Ellis is from TV's Insecure, but none of the cast are really "household names" yet. I was also surprised that the movie had a few funny one-liners, even though it's not a comedy; they broke up some of the tension of the film and helped provide some comic relief.

Yes, see this movie, although if you're claustrophobic I'd probably advise you to skip it ... I can honestly say that after seeing this film, I won't be doing another escape room for quite a while. I actually didn't even check my watch until an hour into the movie, which for me is rare; that's how entertaining the film is, and it captivates your interest from the very first scene. Escape Room reminded me of Hunger Games, especially near the end, and it sounds like they're setting it up for a sequel, as well, which I would definitely watch.

Escape Room will be in theaters tomorrow, January 4th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 100 minutes. 4 stars out of 5.

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