Escape from Mogadishu - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Escape from Mogadishu



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
North and South Korea have not exactly been on pleasant terms for their existence, going back decades and decades to when they had there own parting of ways and we got involved. However, Escape from Mogadishu takes a unique point of view for the ever raging conflict, and chooses to do so from the lens of the early 90s Somalian war that was the focal point for films like Black Hawk Down and several others. The film opens up with the South Korean delegates trying to get an alliance with President Barre of Somalia, only for the North Koreans to sort of swipe the deal out from under them. Confused and frustrated as North Korea was trying to get South Korea’s plans of getting into the U.N., the South Korean delegates try and figure out who they can bribe, and what they can do to get the self appointed “President” of Somalia to side with them.

However, things go to hell in a hand basket when the people’s rebellion surges up into a full scale civil war, declaring war on all embassies and nations that sided with Barre and his cadre of militaristic thugs that he called a “cabinet”. Now the South and North Korean ambassadors are trying to escape from Mogadishu with their lives, as a full on slaughter happens out on the streets. A slaughter that very well may just encompass everything and whose destruction sees no diplomatic immunity.

Well, enemies working together to forward a common goal is nothing new, but now we have two nations of the same people who absolutely hate each other, having to rely on one another to get out alive. The first 40 minutes of the film are rather sluggishly paced (comparatively), and seems more like a slow paced political thriller than the action fest the trailer promised. However, that is meant to build up the back drop of the conflict, elaborating on the back story of the ambassadors before shoving them into the grinder and hitting frappe on us. After that point in the movie it’s a full tilt tension filled bomb, and while it may not be perfect, is a fun thing to watch.

Some of the context of the film could have been handled a bit better, and some of the transitions to certain parts of the film been smoother, this is still quite an intense film. There’s almost an Argo like sense of despair and claustrophobia as the ambassador’s and their people are being hidden away from the conflict, but once they get into the plan to actually escape the city (in a car chase that is probably one of the best parts of the movie) it gets a lot more intense and ferocious. Action is good, actors are quite well done despite me not recognizing anyone in the cast, and is all around a fun romp.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Shot on RED digital cameras, Escape from Mogadishu looks fantastic. It’s a nice and stylized look with dusty browns of the Somalian streets, along with deep ambers and darkness infused night time shots. Outside of a few grain spikes and some crushed blacks, this looks all around excellent. There’s tons of excellent details all around, from the glistening metal on AKM rifles, to the blood dripping from an open wound. Grime and clothing nuances are perfectly noticeable to the naked eye. Colors are bright and well saturated outside of the normal dusty hues, and black levels are deep and inky. Sometimes a bit TOOO inky as they tend to get crushed in the night time shots. That also could be due to the heavy amber hue that comes from the street lighting, but all in all, this is a very nice looking digital looking image.







Audio:

Found in either Korean or English, the film sports a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that is quite the looker (so to speak). Loud, robust, and fully action filled, the dramatic thriller uses all 6 channels at its disposal quite actively. The sound of gunfire and grenades going off blasts through the surrounds, and the LFE channel is usually quite active with sporadic booms and crashes throughout the film. Dialog is crisp and cleanly located up front, and while things do get a little bit hard to hear with some of the soft Korean voices blurring together, it is still an evenly balanced mix with great surround replication.








Extras:

• Production Documentaries
• Making-of Featurette
• Original trailer

Final Score: ​

North and South Korea have been at each other’s throats for as long as the two countries have existed separately, and this is a nice look at the contention between the two nations. The movie can be a bit slow in the first half, but it picks up substantially after the 45 minute mark and gets progressively intense from there. The Blu-ray sports great video and audio, but the same minimalist extras that we’ve come to accept for most Well Go USA imports. Recommended as a fun watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jona Xiao, Kellen Goff, Stephanie Panisello, Nick Apostolides, Bill Butts, Armen Taylor
Directed by: Seung-wan Ryu
Written by: Ki-cheol Lee, Seung-wan Ryu
Aspect Ratio: 2.39::1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Korean DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Korean DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 123 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 18th, 2022

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. While the anarchy that was happening there was in the news, we didn't really see the 360 degree point of view and this will help show some aspects we are not familiar with.

I will check it out.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Huh... interesting!