Escape from Angola

This is a very strange movie. It feels as though someone had a lot of African animal footage and decided to make a movie by surrounding it with a vague attempt at a plot, lots of wooden acting, and some very fake explosions.

As someone mentioned, there's no chemistry between most of the characters, and far too much of the dialog is spent lecturing about Africa and wildlife conservation rather than serving what plot there is.

If you like animal footage and lectures about African wildlife, then it may be worth watching, but judged as a movie by any other standard I'd suggest finding something more useful to do with your time.

This film is quite possibly the worst I have ever seen, and I have seen some crap. It makes Legionnaire look like Sunset Boulevard. Technically, the movie is a joke: colour and grain vary hugely from shot to shot, stock footage is interspersed with comical regularity, and the various forays into "special effects" are just plain ridiculous. The plot is beyond nonsense. Calling the acting wooden is a grave insult to wood everywhere. What bothers me most however is the bizarre tone of the movie: it is suggested that the protagonists are a family of conservationists (this is by no means clear) but the vast majority of the film is taken up by a constant and sometimes bloody struggle with nature. Coupled with this is a subplot about "freedom fighters" who are later referred to as "bad men" and are not above shooting at unarmed children. I simply can't understand how such a movie could have been made. If it is shots of African flora and fauna you are after, this is not the film for you, as the few shots that aren't of animals being netted, rammed by Land Rovers or stabbed with hunting knives are largely stock footage. Watch the Discovery channel instead; it won't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Set in Angola, this story is about a white game farmer - Stan Brock as James Mallory - and his family. The plot involving his endeavors to rescue wildlife in a tenuous political situation is rather thin. Further strain arises from the weak relationships of the various characters. In particular, I can't figure out why Mallory's wife ever would have found him attractive - they seem to share nothing in common. Several of the sequences involving wildlife captures may offend those sensitive to the treatment of animals. Another problem area is the overuse of "comedic" animal scenes. Finally, portraying African people fighting for their own land as "terrorists" while glorifying white settlers is frankly racist. The African scenery shots are gorgeous and are the main redeeming element of this otherwise forgettable film.

Action of this traditional adventure film is set in strife-rent Angola, where James Mallory (Stanley Brock, with a vigorous performance), his wife Karen (Anne Collings) and their three teen-aged sons make their residence while operating at the site a private wildlife preserve, until their lives are disrupted by members of a militant political faction. James and his offspring are asked to assist a neighbouring rancher, Lars (Ivan Tors) who needs help with moving his large herd of elands to safety past the nation's border and away from the encroaching insurgents, but their vehicle breaks down and the four men are segmented in their attempts to seek aid, while Karen is isolated as residents flee the spreading combat zone. As the youngest son, restricted by a broken ankle, remains with the incapacitated vehicle, his brothers attempt to return, through perilous jungle, to their home and mother, while James wends his solitary way, made hazardous by wild animals in addition to brutal soldiers, to an outpost wherein government forces are stationed, the storyline moving about among several foci of danger. A genuine fondness by producer Tors for Africa is manifest here through the many scenes of wild fauna, easily the most interesting portions of the work, although his acting is wooden as is that of the three brothers from the Tors clan who portray the scenario's sibling trio, with the film's strongest performance delivered by Collings. Suspense is a requirement in order for a work of this type to be successful, but several factors are operating against this effort, notably its frequent essays into comedy involving animals; a score that is continually sprightly and inconsequent for scenes of potential danger; flawed continuity; but all in all, it is a fairly pleasant movie, offensive only to aesthetic touchstones, despite its predictability.

Escape from Angola is a family misadventure set in Angola. It features a family of Euro-Americans (the Mallories) living and working on an animal research ranch. Some bizarre notions about solving all of the world's problems with African animals are tossed about early on, and the entire film is nicely decorated with some really nice stock footage of gazelles, giraffes, big cats, elephants and other lovely creatures. Eventually, a plot festers into being. The plot involves an encroaching militia of guerilla rebels and all four of the Mallory boys (including dad) getting stranded in the desert and wandering off in different directions for virtually no reason.

Pros:

Great stock footage dominates about 30% of the screen time.

The cinematography is not bad

The film is decently edited

Cons:

Acting

Directing

Concept

Script

Pace

In short, run, don't walk.

Harmless in comparison to American Pie, Battlefield Earth, etc, so it gets a 2.