For this uninvolving action piece, the director's eye is more upon pyrotechnic effects and stunt work rather than narrative flow, and following upon its violent opening minutes, the work simply skids into predictability, a viewer being able to foretell even the details of dialogue. The setting is Los Angeles, where this movie is filmed, its plot relating of three members of the Los Angeles Police Department, assigned to an undercover narcotics detail, during which deadly complications occur, as a DEA operative and two uniformed officers are killed, this while a very large amount of drug sale money disappears, about which none involved appears to have any knowledge. The three surviving undercover officers are subsequently under suspicion, leading to a Department personnel investigation that alleges they are secreting the missing cash, whereupon the trio become fugitives as they attempt to discover who is answerable for the aborted operation. The police official heading the investigation, Captain Mitchell (John Saxon), and a sergeant working under him, Dante, played by Michael Nouri, are aware that the longer the renegades are on the lam, the more serious their situation will become, yet the officers remain in hiding, although each alienates the others during the course of their search for the elusive drug dealer. Any possible inner aspects of the officers (Maxwell Caulfield, Dustin Nguyen, Denise Loveday) are neglected while they behave as rampaging steamrollers while seeking the narcotics kingpin. An additional matter of significance appears from within the Department, as a possibility exists that a police official is linked with the Forces of Evil. Despite the generally reliable cast members, a flabbily constructed script and weak direction impede their best efforts, with a surfeit of the storyline's emphasis being upon cartoonish violence and frequently occurring explosions to please devotees of that sort of activity. A hackneyed screenplay simply does not provide enough contributing sidelights to keep plot emphasis away from clichéd episodes of violence, and the actors merely go along with the work's prevailing mediocrity. Nouri, as a conflicted Dante, is able to liberate himself from his limitative lines often enough to handily gain acting honours here. Essentially a thick ear production that favours loud noises and lead characters yelling at each other, the movie is at the typically low level plumbed by PM Entertainment Group, a company that specialised in cinematic slag. The DVD release of the work comes from Madacy, an outfit with a spotty reputation for quality. However, in this instance, both its visual and sound grades are excellent. The only bonus feature is an imposing 50 minutes of strident trailers from PM for films which a viewer of sensibility might not sit through by choice.
Review of No Escape No Return
