Revisiting No Escape No Return (1993)

Plot: A drug kingpin takes revenge on three undercover LA police officers for the death of his brother by framing them for murder. Fighting for survival and to clear their names, the cops are in for a surprise when they discover who runs the drug ring.

Dustin Nguyen, Maxwell Caufield and Denise Loveday star in the PM Entertainment actioner which is packed with regular fight scenes, double gunplay and explosions.

This is really Dustin Nguyen’s show as he gets the best fight scenes and this is clearly influenced by John Woo in terms of style. Our three heroes are a ragtag group of cops who do things their own way, but when Sloan (Maxwell Caulfield) kills the brother of vicious drug baron Malcolm (Kevin Benton) they are set up and forced to try and clear their names.

John Saxon shows up about half way through as good cop James Mitchell who has the gang’s back when Dante (Michael Nouri) clearly does not. Branscombe Richmond makes a brief appearance as a doomed nearly rapist but it’s only or a few minutes; he makes for an entertaining psycho and he could have made for a more interesting antagonist.

As this is a PM Entertainment film, No Escape No Return starts off with a bang as Tommy Cuff (Nguyen) battles a gang with his fists and feet, then it turns into a shoot-out, then a car chase with several explosions, so we know we are in good hands.

At just under 90 minutes it mostly moves along well, although I’ll admit when the action stops it is mildly less interesting. There is some overacting too from the supporting cast but nothing too terrible, however, some plot threads are never resolved like who took the money? Was the explained and I missed it? It’s at times not that involving, but thankfully the action mostly makes up for it.

Overall, No Escape No Return has some enjoyable set-pieces with Dustin Nguyen stealing the show, but the plot is a little disjointed and not especially interesting; it’s still an entertaining enough ride to make it worth watching.