Escape From Tomorrow Review

Whenever you think of Disney World you think of the happiest place on earth. Now I myself have never been to Disney World or Disney Land, I guess my parents didn't love me enough; but I wouldn't associate an amusement park with the happiest place on earth. I'd imagine that the Disney parks would be like Six Flags except more crowded, more expensive, and without as many giant coasters. If I were to get a vacation of choice, an amusement park would not be at the top of my list. One man's heaven is another man's hell. To be honest Disney always freaked me out a bit, the subliminal messages in their movies, blatant racism, and corporate greed doesn't strike a good cord with me. I like the characters and the fantastical worlds they make, I just don't like the company itself. Escape From Tomorrow is an independent film written and directed by Andy Moore. The story revolves around a man named Jim and his family on a trip to Disney World. Jim is just an average guy trying to enjoy his vacation, but on the last day he gets a call from his work telling him that he's being let go; Jim keeps it to himself trying not to spoil the trip. The family leaves their hotel and heads out on train to the park, while on the train Jim notices two attractive young French girls and immediately he is infatuated. The family arrives at the park and set out on some rides, out of nowhere Jim isn't feeling so well and starts having mild hallucinations. He keeps the severity of the situation to himself and moves on. Jim and his son go off to the Buzz Lightyear ride while his wife and daughter go to ride the tea cups. While out, Jim sees the French girls again and decides to follow them with no concern for his son. He even takes his son on Space Mountain which causes him to be sick, when he meets back up with his wife she is furious that he took their son on the ride and decides to take him back to the hotel to take a nap. Jim continues touring the park with his daughter and spots the French girls once again and continues to follow. After a while he heads back to the hotel and meets up with the rest of the family at the pool, but they soon must leave if they hope to make it in time to see the fireworks display. While he doesn't say it, Jim is obviously tired and wants to call it a day but goes a long with the family. They decide to eat at a restaurant where Jim gets wasted; he even throws up when they go on a ride. His wife is furious and after an argument returns to the hotel with their son. Free from his wife he must make a choice, continue playing dad for his daughter then call it a night or give into the desires that have been plaguing him for the last day. The film has gained quite a bit of attention for how it was made; it's the definition of guerrilla film making. Most of the movie was shot in both Disney Land and World, but it was shot without Disney's knowledge. This was just a low budget passion project of the director's who somehow made it happen. Apparently he and the cinematographer took nine trips to the parks and mapped out every detail and how to film it. They then had the actors come in as a normal family would with mikes strapped under their shirts, and they were filmed by a few camera men using some DSLR cameras. They had to do everything in secrecy because there's no way Disney would sign off on a project like this, and if they were caught they would be ejected from the park and the movie wouldn't happen. After years of preparation they finally finished the project and three years later it's finally available to the public. And I'll say it now; this is an absolutely fascinating movie. There's something very strange about it in that I found it good but at the same time it's not good in the classical sense. It reminded me of the movie Holy Motors: the writing is subpar, story doesn't make a lot of sense at times, and other than the lead the acting isn't anything to write home about. I will say I thought the cinematography was very good; while they didn't have high quality cameras to film everything with, it's obvious that the shots were well planned out and they knew exactly what angle they needed to film at. But there's something about Escape From Tomorrow that is truly mesmerizing that really pulled me in to this one of a kind movie. There are a lot of people that will absolutely hate this movie, for some reason I am not one of them. I would recommend it solely for the experience; it really is like nothing I've ever seen before.

Pros: Interesting premise, ambitious film making, well planned cinematography, unique and mesmerizing.
Cons: Writing isn't very good, rather confusing, obviously low budget, decent at best acting.

3.5/5 Stars