No Escapes

A very good picture of a disaster about the heroic profession of firefighters.

2017 saw the release of 'Only the Brave'. 2019 brought us 'The Bravest'. And in 2020 we saw the release of 'Fire' (also known as 'No Escapes').

'Fire' takes its time setting up the characters, but this made us get to know them, and ultimately root for them. Much of the film's long running time was made up of unnecessary humorist scenes, and the film only really gets direction and become serious around the 1-hour mark. Once there, it is a rollercoaster ride of suspense and excitement, filled with drama and emotion.

The film's main protagonist is Andrey (Konstantin Khabenskiy), who leads a fire fighting team. After the death of one of his team members, he decides to include his daughter Katya (Stasya Miloslavskaya)'s new boyfriend, Roman (Ivan Yankovskiy) in his team. Roman is a bit of an arrogant deuce bag, to put it bluntly.

Of all the characters, I connected most to Lev (Viktor Dobronravov), who also had the best and most tragic back story. 'Fire' is a heroic tale of bravery against all odds. It is filled with action, suspense, and great visual effects (some of the fire scenes are actual footage).

'Fire' is a much better film than 'Only the Brave' (which, by the way, I didn't enjoy at all), but 'The Bravest' still remains my favourite.

Good story, has some humor. I recommend to watch this film.

This was very well shot, and although the story's concept was awesome, it was way too long at 131 mins with some long dragged out and unnecessary scenes. The slow pacing didn't help either. You'd think with three writers the screenplay would be tight, but it was riddled with plot and technical issues, some laughable logic, and tons of ridiculous dialogue. Romans character was annoying, and there was too much "Top Gun" music and slow-mo scenes that were cringeworthy. Still, a decent one-time watch, especially for the stunning visuals. It's a generous 6/10 from me.

I do think it's a pretty good movie that I seen. The story is pretty good with firefighter goal is to stop the fire and save the villagers. It builds up really well with the characters and the disaster of the fire. The movie is pretty long and could be trimmed by cutting scenes that is not necessary to the plot. A couple plotlines that is easily predictable and is rather generic for the most about. The strongest part is the suspense on how the characters trying to figured out how to save everyone and to protect people from the dangers of the fire. It contains great special effects of the fire and other things.

It's a pretty good Russian disaster movie.