Escape Through Africa

This movie tries to capture the spirit of classic movies like Beau Geste but fails to do so with a very unfocused script that had me pulling my hair out at times because the characters where just so unbelievably unreal in their roles. And this is due to a bad script with poor execution.

The story focuses on the start of WW1 & how the Germans & British had conscripted the locals into their war efforts. If this was the movie's focus, then it would have been a novel idea. But instead the movie's plot is about Germany's invasion plans of Africa somehow falling into the hands of the British. Eric Roberts plays the Captain in charge who must get the plans delivered to the next outpost so as to warn them of the Nazis plan of attack. He is accompanied by his niece & the remaining survivors. Can they make it & warn of the impending Nazi attack?

Because this script was so unfocused, the characters were flipping in their character roles going from scene to scene. One minute they are smart & intelligent & then they are just plain stupid in the next & switch back & forth again. An example is that there is a Nazi spy & several instances the spy does something that clearly reveals himself but the captain just ignores it. When it is finally revealed, the captain states that he knew all along who the spy was???

And the dialogue in parts was bad soap opera bad that I actually felt sorry for the actors having to do it. So many things in this movie didn't make sense. It was a wasted effort, just barely watchable that I didn't really care in the end who made it or not. Watch if you have nothing better to do as there is no real big payoff here.

I cant believe any government who wanted to get a foothold in Africa would make such a feeble attempt as to put a few poorly trained soldiers and mercenaries in a small outpost in the middle of nowhere overseeing a range of wild animals and savages. That being said, even if were true, this movie does a terrible job portraying it. The acting is mediocre to bad, fight scenes undramatic and unreal, cinematography is nonexistent and other than suspenseful music, its just a poorly written and acted movie. If you want to see a real movie about the British army in Africa I would suggest the original movie "Zulu" with a debut by actor Michael Caine.

The story line had great potential to become a movie classic and the location is great. There is great scenery. But this "epic" falls flat. The acting is wooden, the music is occasionally just too much and although the captain character could have been memorable, Eric Roberts is just plain awful. His lines are flat and he is stiff and slow; never has been that great an actor. The best acting, by far, is by the "natives". Especially the child who is better that all the others. The battle scenes between the natives are pretty well done. The script is very much "so so". Anne is unrealistically naive.

The current IMDB score of 4.1 is a fairly accurate assessment of this movie (but I feel it should be lower). Seeing Eric Roberts as the lead actor should have been my first clue that this movie would bomb, but I thought I'd give it a go regardless. Although it became immediately apparent that this movie was a B-Grade movie, it did start out okay. It didn't take long to slowly get worse until it reached the level of stupid. Poor script, poor acting, terrible fight scenes, cliche story line and what can only be described as major plot holes scattered throughout. It got an extra star only because of Linn Bjornland and her cuteness :P.

Eric Roberts studied acting in Britain in the early 1970s. Therefore he must have relished the challenge of doing an English accent in Escape Through Africa.

Roberts has a starring role in this movie. An old fashioned rip roaring adventure in the mould of Zulu.

Unfortunately it is let down by a clunky script and a very low budget.

Set in 1914 East Africa. British army officer Captain Lockwood (Eric Roberts.) His niece Anne Corringfield (Linn Bjornland) with the help of African tribesman need to warn a neighboring outpost of an impending German attack.

However Lockwood suspects that there is traitor in the party. Anne then goes off to rescue a local girl who has been abducted.

The story is too cliched. It lacks action and it needed a lot of extras for some scenes to even make it look like a viable epic.

Roberts seem to be enjoying himself with a meaty character. A racist of his time, we regards the Africans beneath him, not bothered that a local girl has gone missing. Yet his character begins to understand the local natives.