Escape Room: Tournament of Champions

When "Escape Room" was released in 2019, it definitely put the 'T' in thrill. Racing against the clock, these 'contestants' strived to play by the rules lest be killed. Well, now we have "Escape Room: Tournament of Champions" whereas these people must beat the clock and the system in order to save their lives. 

This is the sequel to the box office hit psychological thriller that terrified audiences around the world. In this installment, six people including Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell), Ben Miller (Logan Miller), Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel), Rachel Ellis (Holland Roden), Brianna Collier (Indya Moore) and Theo (Carlito Olivero) unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common...and discerning they've all played the game before. You see, these are all the ones that lived from past escape room series, so it's now time for the tournament of champions. Who lives or dies and will they find the way out for good this time around?

Others to round out the cast are Deborah Ann Woll as Amanda Harper, Lucy Newman as Therapist, Matt Esop as Junkie and Scott Coker as FBI Agent. 

This was as intensely directed as its predecessor by Adam Robitel ("The Taking of Deborah Logan" '14, "Insidious: The Last Key" '18, "Escape Room" '19) plus video shorts, documentary shorts and a video documentary short. Obviously, by his very resume, this filmmaker is in his comfort zone, and he pulls it off with intensity and grit which leaves its audience biting their nails. One can feel these individual's pain, discomfort and fear as they race against time in order to win to get out of an escape room, only to end up in another one. If you like his brand of directing, his "Insidious; The Dark Realm" is in post production with a release date this year. It was intriguingly written by Will Honley, Maria Melnik, Daniel Tuch and Oren Uziel, based on a story by Christine Lavaf and Fritz Bohm. Considering there are four writers that penned this--usually too many hands in the pot--this was better than I would have thought. Maria Melnik is the only original writer from its predecessor, which, I'm sure helped with this, but even with the added writers, it wasn't bad. There were a few places of inconsistencies and choppiness, but at the end of the day, it didn't cause any confusion as the story unfolded. The actors were certainly believable and assuming this makes money, it leaves it open to an obvious following. 

If action, horror and a thrilling premise are elements that make for a film that one can sink their teeth into, this film will fit the bill. It's a 90 minute, cut-to-the-chase story that will simply fly by while your're on the edge of your seat. This is pure escape into escaping from rooms.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                         Rated: PG-13                                                  88mins.