Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Bang, boom, bam. That's about the size of things in No Escape, a movie banking on its admittedly first-rate action drowning out its political tone-deafness.

Name : Stephen Dalton / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Dowdle delivers enough adrenalized tension to maintain his track record of profitable, populist pulp.

Name : Walter V. Addiego / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Strict plausibility isn't necessary in these movies, but you can't just throw it out the window, and "No Escape" shows why.

Name : Kevin P. Sullivan / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Even ignoring the racism-which is pretty much impossible-No Escape is a cliche-ridden, artless relic.

Name : Daniel M. Gold / Alias : New York Times
Among the most terrifying scenes is an early shot of Mr. Brosnan in the hotel bar, shouting lyrics to a Huey Lewis tune. Oh, the horror.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
If you've really been wanting to see endless shots of Owen Wilson running, sometimes while carrying a medium-sized child, the thriller "No Escape" might be just for you.

Name : Julia Cooper / Alias : Globe and Mail
Whatever seeds of social justice and emotional nuance No Escape may be attempting to sow are undercut by the film's melodramatic valorization of family values.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Dowdle sticks closely to the family's perspective, for better and for worse; though fairly effective at conveying their terror, he fails to establish any sort of social or political context for the story.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
No Escape is an outlandish, sometimes brutally violent, exploitative, fast-paced white-knuckler featuring your classic American everyman who suddenly develops action-hero skills when his family is placed in danger.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
Writer-director John Eric Dowdle makes the street action propulsive, bewildering and terrifyingly real, and things are just getting warmed up.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
No Escape is pretty trashy, but it held my attention, which is more than I can say for most of the summer fodder.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
Every Asian character is either a ruthless murderer or anonymous collateral damage. A lot of locals have to die, the film suggests, in order for one white family to survive.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
This isn't lightweight, fanciful entertainment; it's tense, white-knuckle material.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
I won't make a case for No Escape being a good film; the first half is pretty good and the second half ranges from pretty bad to truly awful.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
This movie really moves. But a fleet of tanks couldn't help the brothers Dowdle push past the plot holes in the screwiest mix of suspense and stereotypes since Michael Bay was a pup

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
Despite its illegible chase scenes, awkward slow-motion shots, and fumbling attempts at political commentary, No Escape manages to be intermittently interesting, thanks to an off-beat supporting turn from Pierce Brosnan.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
A thoroughly ugly film for an audience that doesn't care who's shooting whom.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
Taut, well-made and entirely dubious.

Name : Michael Granberry / Alias : Dallas Morning News
A nearly two-hour thrill ride that, tired cliche that it is, really does keep you on the edge of your seat.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Between the script and the superior editing by Elliot Greenberg, there's an enormous amount of tension and thrills to be found here; unfortunately, they're all in the service of a movie that's reprehensible to the core.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
In terms of pure popcorn escapism, No Escape delivers from the get-go, cutting to the chase without belabouring the character details.

Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
No Escape is a tense but utterly predictable exercise in Western xenophobic paranoia and guilt.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
A technically accomplished, morally rank slab of cultural exploitation .

Name : Gary Goldstein / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Supersize your popcorn, check your logic at the door and settle in for a pretty good ride.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
There's no fleeing the clunkiness in "No Escape."

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
A taut thriller about an American family touching down in an unnamed country just as a violent coup erupts, No Escape goes about its gut-churning business by playing (and preying) on our worst xenophobic tendencies.

Name : Martin Tsai / Alias : Los Angeles Times
The make-it-rain cliches are abundant and Jean-Claude La Marre's direction is pedestrian .

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
In the final analysis, the movie doesn't offer much about the subject that hasn't been previously explored, but the soil is fertile and many ideas germinate.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
"Ex Machina" shows there's still life left in tales of artificial intelligence.

Name : Richard Corliss / Alias : TIME Magazine
The year's most seductive high-IQ drama.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It's hard to imagine another director squeezing as many shades and colors from his screenplay as Garland did, and from now on, it would be understandable if he insisted on directing everything he writes.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
While Mr. Garland wants to tease your brain, he's an entertainer, and in time ditches science and philosophy for romance and action.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
[A] methodically absorbing sci-fi drama.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
I know, I know. You've seen all this A.I. stuff before. But never like this. Garland is hot for ethical shop talk on what defines humanity or lack of same.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"Ex Machina" is a smart, exceptionally stylish head trip.

Name : Stephen Dalton / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
For dystopian future-shock fans who can look beyond its basic design flaws, Garland's feature debut functions just fine as superior pulp sci-fi.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Sizzlingly smart and agreeably sententious, Mr. Garland's film transcends some all-too-human imperfections with gorgeous images, astute writing and memorably strong performances.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Ex Machina" is a tense tale of artificial love so intelligently crafted and edgy that I adored it myself.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With a stellar cast and seductive look, "Ex Machina" is a sleek contraption for capturing our imagination.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Shrewdly imagined and persuasively made, "Ex Machina" is a spooky piece of speculative fiction that's completely plausible, capable of both thinking big thoughts and providing pulp thrills.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Garland sidles up to some large ideas, some more provocative than others, and his premise hints at the costs of perpetual, omnivorous surveillance.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's great when a movie messes with your head.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Ex Machina is beautiful and ominous and features another delicately nuanced performance from Isaac, who's quickly making a habit of them. But in the end, for all of Garland's ambition, his reach winds up exceeding his grasp.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
Garland's primary concern is his flesh-and-blood characters, even though they are not nearly as showy (or beautiful) as his main attraction, the vulnerable, delicate girl with a heart of steel and wires.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Alex Garland brilliantly brings the past into the present with the near-future tale Ex Machina, a stark but dazzling meditation on intelligence, consciousness and morality that discreetly uses special effects in service of story, dialogue and character.

Name : Anthony Lane / Alias : New Yorker
"Ex Machina," despite the stutters, slowly finds its grip and starts to squeeze.

Name : Mark Jenkins / Alias : NPR
Reasonably diverting until its predictable (and predictably misogynistic) outcome.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Ex Machina packs a scientist's brain inside a thrill seeker's body, much like the nubile robot within it.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
For a first-time director, Garland seems assured. His sharp, sparse dialogue and meticulous direction are equally compelling, and the trio of lead performances are top-notch.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
"Ex Machina" isn't quite "Citizen Kane" for an era of Internet tycoons, but it suggests that that's not such a bad idea.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
Although "Ex Machina" is small and talky - it has just four characters, and the only action comes at the end - it also looks good. The set direction is interesting and evocative. The effects impress but don't overwhelm.

Name : Trevor Johnston / Alias : Time Out
A bit more intelligence would not have gone amiss.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
Its aura of cool menace is largely attributable to Isaac, stealing his every scene as the smoothly bullying CEO, and production designer Mark Digby, who created the millionaire's sleek, high-tech mountain fortress.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
"Ex Machina" takes its time, wrestling with questions of responsibility, morality and compassion while getting ever weirder. At its heart is Ava, played with a fine blend of innocence and quiet panic by Vikander.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A neat psychological thriller for the digital age. Great performances compensate for a slightly slim story.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
"Ex Machina" is an exquisite puzzle box of a picture. It baffles. It unsettles. It intrigues.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
Make no mistake, this is a film of ideas-sadder, quieter, more delicate than the Hollywood sci-fi standard-where every sliding wall of opaque glass suggests something about technology and the way people would use it.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Like stage actors who live and breathe their roles over the course of months, Isaac, Gleeson, and Vikander excel, and cast a spell.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
A chilly yet engrossing drama, elevated beyond its four-people-locked-in-a-house framework by the eerie beauty of the production design and the thoughtful curiosity of Garland's screenplay.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The writer and director, Alex Garland, keeps the movie so full of doomy atmosphere that expecting the worst sort of becomes a treat. But gradually the hypnosis wears off, the mystique dissipates, and banalities take over.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
Ex Machina is the best movie I've seen all year.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
A clever film with one indelible performance from Isaac.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
It doesn't quite add up in the end, but it's heady stuff anyway, dense with moments of shivery beauty and frightening ideas.

Name : Guy Lodge / Alias : Variety
Garland's long-anticipated directorial debut synthesizes a dizzy range of the writer's philosophical preoccupations into a sleek, spare chamber piece .

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
By going deep on a simple construct, Ex Machina establishes itself as a unique and deeply unsettling psychological thriller that's both necessary and unforgettable.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Clever novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland makes a half-dandy directorial debut with Ex Machina, a sci-fi film that - like much of his work - fakes excitingly in the direction of breaking new ground before turning formulaic so fast.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
The Swedish actress Alicia Vikander ("The Fifth Estate") infuses Ava with the just the right mixture of iciness, vulnerability and mystery. It's a star-making performance.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
It's the film version of an iPhone: small, expensive-looking and a touch overhyped - plus an addictive sales pitch for whatever Garland makes next.