Oh, Owen Wilson, why do you do this to yourself?
The funnyman trying to be an action star if the movie title doesn’t have the word “Shanghai” in it has just not been all that great. He was in “Behind Enemy Lines,” where he was able to co-star with Gene Hackman in one of his last roles, but he is just difficult to take seriously in that type of role.
And no, “Starsky and Hutch” doesn’t count.
But Wilson is giving it another shot in “No Escape,” playing an American family man who was relocated to Southeast Asia and finds he and his family embroiled in a violent political uprising.
Will he pull it off? No, not in the sense of “will he survive?”…more in the vein of “can he pull this off?” Because we very often love Wilson in comedies and even the rare whimsical drama (“Midnight in Paris” may be his best movie). And I think we can all agree the world needs a little more Lake Bell.
But as a legit tough guy? Ehhh…
