No Escape liberally borrows a number of different plot elements from 1981's Escape from New York. An Island prison set in the near future where none can escape from and the prisoners have fallen under the leadership of powerful, tribal-like warlords. Escape from New York did it better and Manhattan Island makes for a much more interesting prison than a delsolate jungle island. But that's not to say "No Escape" isn't good. It is, it's just not totally original.

Ray Liotta plays Robbins, a soldier who shoots his commanding officer after a botched attack kills hundreds of innocent villagers. Robbins is sent to the Island prison called Absolom, where no one has ever escaped from. The Island is comprised of two warring factions: The Outsiders who are a savage, tribal group led by a ruthless warlord named Marek (Stuart Wilson), and the Insiders, a more peaceful, communal group led by the zen-like "Father" (Lance Henricksen).

Robbins is captured by the Outsiders and is tested by Marek in a death match with another member. Robbins dispatches him quickly, impressing Marek who offers Robbins a "position on his staff". Robbins wants no part and escapes, eventually being taken in by the insiders. The insiders have built a community where they farm, raise livestock, and have built simple machines like windmills, looms, and stills. They constantly have to fight off raids from The Outsiders and can use a man like Robbins.

There are several battle scenes as the Outsiders raid the Insiders wooden fortress, meanwhile the warden of the prison played by Michael Lerner keeps a close eye on things, especially Robbins through satellites, and other hi-tech means.

No Escape is a solid if unoriginal action/sci-fi flick. The characters are pretty two-dimensional. Lerner is the ruthless Warden, Ernie Hudson is Hawkins, the head of security for the Insiders, Kevin Dillon is Casey, the young prisoner who gets attached to Robbins, and Kevin J. O'Connor is the conniving supply man Stephano. The movie is derivitive of so many others but is well made and fun. Good escapist action.

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".