Nerdly » ‘Escape Through Africa’ VOD Review

20th Apr2022

‘Escape Through Africa’ VOD Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Linn Bjornland, Eric Roberts, Justin Gordon, Jeff Berg, Alexander Leeb, Robert Okumu, Leonard Kelly-Young, Charles Chiyangwa, LaMont Hendrix, Jeff Grays, Delpaneaux Wills, Guru Singh | Written and Directed by Ted Betz

Escape Through Africa, that’s a title that conjures up visions of films from a bygone era – where soldiers took on the rough terrain and vicious locals of the vast continent, usually with stiff upper lips and a bravado that time and time again was the downfall of many a character. And that’s exactly what writer/director Ted Betz gives us with his film!

Set in 1914, Escape Through Africa follows a British nurse, Anne Corringfield (Linn Bjornland) escapes an attack on the African outpost controlled by her uncle Captain Lockwood (Eric Roberts). When Harold (Jeff Berg) arrives at the outpost and tells of a massacre – as seen in the film’s opening – of a British patrol by locals under the command of German Major Veicht (Alexander Leeb), Captain Lockwood heads out to hunt the killer party and gets ambushed. The tables turned, the German-led war party attack the outpost leaving no one alive… Well almost no one. With help from local warriors, Anne leaves the outpost and embarks on an epic journey to save a neighbouring outpost from the same fate.

It’s an interesting task for a filmmaker to choose a genre that has seemingly had its day and craft a modern take on the rip-roaring adventure movies of the past. For Escape Through Africa feels very much like the kind of story Wilbur Smith would have written in the 60s; very much inspired by films like Zulu and its sequel, Khartoum and Charge of the Light Brigade. As I said very much in the vein of the “stiff upper lip” British-led films of the 60s and 70s. Only with Eric Roberts in the lead, recreating the badly-accented performances of Charlton Heston and Burt Lancaster of those now-classic films… Also, if you’re a fan of Eric Roberts you’ll be pleased to know he STARS in this film as opposed to his usual extended cameo roles!

Escape Through Africa is pretty much well-worn storytelling, especially for those whose parents made them sit through old-school action adventures on television growing up. We have a bunch of heroes travelling through harsh terrain who are frequently attacked by the enemy as they make their way to safety, battling for their freedom with casualties on both sides. Hold on, I thought this was one of those British pre-World War 1 movies? That sounds more like an old-school Western, with the travellers in this film only needing a horse and carriage to follow the stereotypes and cliches of that genre. Told you this was familiar well-worn storytelling!

But there’s nothing wrong with cliched storytelling if it’s done right and Ted Betz almost… almost… gets it right. The main issue with Escape Through Africa is the fact it’s too modern. The CGI feels out of place, the sets look too “new”, some of the dialogue is not of the time, and Eric Roberts insists on wearing literal rose-tinted sunglasses throughout the film! It’s tiny things that take you out of the film and bring the entire film down a notch. Though to be fair, Betz has actually crafted a film that could, if marketed the right way, have been positioned as a family adventure epic a la Indiana Jones. But on a tenth of the budget!

Low budget, but high concept, Escape Through Africa is a fun diversion from the usual direct to market genre films we see week in and week out and writer/director Ted Betz should be commended for delivering something different from the norm.