REVIEW - ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW

It doesn't really go anywhere, it doesn't really make sense, it doesn't really have much of a point, it doesn't really look particularly professional, but Escape from Tomorrow is curiously compelling. It strives to cohere a lot of wayward thoughts into a bitter assault on the Disney empire; this assault's intent is broadcast loud and clear, due to writer-director Randy Moore's sheer determination. Its methods of enacting said assault are trite, incompetent and spasmodic, which makes their overall success, however miniscule in the grander scheme of life, more remarkable. And the sentiment behind Moore's enterprise, with its fantastical detours, its shabby aesthetic timbre (green screen backdrops so bad one must assume that Moore decided to incorporate their lousiness into the film as a B-movie-style in-joke) and its tongue lodged immovably in cheek, is very agreeable. That's the effect it has, at least, and one of admiration for Moore's outrageous brazenness in launching such an onslaught on the very industry he requires to embrace him in order to achieve success, and for his shooting methods, as the filming which mostly took place in official Disney theme parks was carried out without permission. These effects aren't quite as pointed during the film, as the its general shabbiness and wick acting stick themselves square in the middle of the path to enjoyment. For such a mega-low-budget, guerrilla-shot feature, I was surprised to note a recognisable credit in the cast: composer Abel Korzeniowski, whose lustrous Old Hollywood orchestral score provides a perfect sheen of glossy irony.