The Escapist

this movie is gonna make your day

source: The Escapist

not a bad film: good atmosphere, cast, acting & OST c/o Leonard Cohen. it bares a resemblance, and even a few lines, to Shawshank Redemption. but then a lot of prison films do now. however, the UK prison depiction was wholly inaccurate. British prisons have had in-cell lighting, kettles & tvs for over a decade. cons have never 'run' a whole prison, ever, anywhere. and the whole hazing/raping aspect - is a purely American phenomenon. and still you call us Brits fags!! also, there aren't any library cards as such, the common currency inside is drugs, tobacco & foodstuffs. also, kat is an African herb, with amphetamine like qualities - as opposed to something you could knock together in an ad-hoc laboratory with oranges & fruit cake.

Don't waste your time on this movie. Complete dud. Very slow moving with no twists or action. For a prison movie this ranks at the bottom. Poorly planned escape. One of those movies that jumps around to different points in time. Characters are poorly introduced and you know nothing about them. No back stories, little information, unrealistic. Just a low budget poorly acted movie that tries to hard to be "artistic" or "deep" but fails. Decent story but done poorly and made boring. Maybe it plays better overseas and in the UK but any decent film student in HS could beat this movie. I've seen good UK movies before, but can only think of cultural differences on why anyone would like this movie. No action, no suspense, no drama, predictable plot

Frank Perry is twelve years into a life sentence when he learns that his estranged daughter has become a junkie on the outside. Unable to do anything for her from his cell and unwilling to wait till he gets out, Frank comes up with a base plan to escape from the prison and brings several other prisoners on board to assist him. The escape itself can be worked out to detail and timings but in the meantime it is the days leading up to the escape that prove to be the more testing in a world of betrayal, power, rape, murder and drug use. Watching the trailer for this film some time ago I was left not particularly fussed about whether I got to see it or not – it just looked like I expected and offered little. The generally good reviews made me check it out when it was released on DVD though and I'm glad that I did because this is a much better film than it looks on the trailer. It is not that the plot is something different from a prison movie , although it is a little, it is the manner of delivery that makes the film work as well as it does. The concept is strong but it is the editing and structure that are the driving forces here. We start the film in two places. On one hand we are with the group as they start their escape attempt, while on the other hand we are some time before this when Frank gets his motivation to escape. What this structure does is increase the tension by having two dramatic threads happening at the same time, with the escape itself delivering the pace to pay off against the build-up that is happening at the same time in the other thread. Rather than building up to the escape then the film does both at the same time and it is an effective and engaging technique. The point where one thread catches the other isn't totally convincing in some regards and I'll not be the only person to express a slight doubt at the dramatic punch of the conclusion but, with being caught up in the story so effectively up till this point, it does work and the way that it slightly undoes the impact of some of the film that had gone before is not a killer of a problem so much as it is a minor niggle. Wyatt's direction is roundly good and, as co-writer, he makes the most of the structure and material. It helps of course when your debut feature has an impressive collection of actors and performances – and Wyatt's does. As he also showed in Red recently, Cox makes an engaging leading man when given the chance. Fiennes is not quite so good as he perhaps overdoes his swagger and toughness – still looks the part and does well but again he is a slight niggle. I liked Cunningham's turn as well as Cooper – although the latter had a bit of a wet and less engaging character to work with. Brazilian musician Jorge was a bit of a weird find but did OK. Mackintosh is engaging and convincing in how he acts knowing he is technically untouchable due to the actions of his brother. Lewis is not in the film for much of the running time but his "less is more" approach produces a real menace when he is given the camera. The Escapist is a comparatively small British film full of faces you'll recognise but nobody who is a real "leading man" in film terms, directed by Wyatt making his feature debut after a few shorts to his name. However it is cleverly structured and delivered with a real sense of quality in the story, direction and performances. It is not perfect but it is much better than the trailer suggests and I was pleasantly surprised by how much it engaged me and how much I enjoyed it.

A exceptionally bad movie which wastes some really good actors in ill-conceived dross. The Escapist is poorly written with an unconvincing plot that steals from every American prison break movie ever made. Unfortunately stealing great scenes from other movies is great if you can make them coherent in your film. A task that was quite beyond this director. The ending is the biggest cop out ever, well since Bobby Ewing woke up in the shower after being killed off a year earlier. Take my word, watch 'The Shawshank Redemption' for the millionth times, of Clint in 'Escape from Alcatraz.' Get the box set of 'Prison Break.' Under no circumstance rent this rubbish.

There have been many great prison escape movie in the past. Escape from Alcatraz , The Great Escape and Papillon are just three classics that spring to mind . Sadly The Escapist is nowhere near good enough to mentioned in the same breath as those three. Frank Perry (Brian Cox) is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. After years of brutal prison life he begins to feel that there is nothing to live for on the inside. When his estranged daughter falls ill, Frank is determined to make peace with her before it's too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists – misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence. However his dogged fight for freedom is blocked at every turn not just by the guards but also by the local psychotics that roam the prison. But Frank only has the one goal in mind and that's to come to the aid of his daughter…by any means necessary. Much of the action takes place within the tunnels, sewers and underground rivers of subterranean London. Despite the impressive cast (Brian Cox , Joseph Fiennes and Damian Lewis) The escapist is a bit of a mess. Foe some reason we see the escape happening in snap shots between the actual planning of the break out and it's totally confusing. I wonder why directors feel the need to mess around with time lines in films?. It's a big risk to show some of the climax of a film before the end and if it fails it ruins the whole film. That's the case with The Escapist. It's a shame because the acting deserves a much better final product . The performances from Brian Cox ( Frank) , Dominic Cooper ( Lacey) and Steven Mackintosh (Tony) are impressive but sadly to no avail. The prison scenes are unrealistic and look almost Victorian and i was extremely surprised when halfway through the film it is disclosed that the prison was in London. I could have sworn it was in Ireland due to the amount of Irish accents. ( This was made by Parallel films an Irish Company). Another thing is that we never find out what the characters did to get into prison in the first place . There is very little background information on the inmates so therefore i didn't care what happened to them . If you have seen or a planning on seeing The Escapist i would like to ask you a favour. Please explain the ending to me! I was left totally bemused as to what was real and what wasn't and in the end i just wanted it to finish , escape or no escape. If you considering watching this do yourself a favour and watch one of the three movies i mentioned at the start of this review instead . You wont regret it. 5 out of 10

Truly superb film. I was impressed by the choice of actors, some of whom played characters that one wouldn't expect them to do so well in - Damian Lewis, in particular, really impressed with his performance as 'the bad guy', while Steven Mackintosh also does an impressive job of scaring the living daylights out of you in this film. The sound design and parts of the music really help the film along, building the pace at the right moments, creating suspense and capturing the raw, gritty feeling of prison life perfectly. It was a delight getting so involved in the subtleties of a film's soundtrack - something that is lacking in modern day feature films. This film should stand out far more than other films of this genre, it is award-winning material.

This film has a lot of things going for it: a good cast, especially Brian Cox, a striking visual sense and some well written dialogue. However, it is let down by a number of arbitrary and confusing elements which do not gel to make a satisfying whole. One gets the impression of the British prison system is entirely run by the inmates with the indifferent warders looking on. Sadly this may be a fairly accurate portrayal of a modern British prison (although the living conditions are far more comfy than depicted here thanks to 'human rights'). But the impression is that certain scenes have been created just because they look good rather than because they serve any dramatic function. There's a strange and unexplained initiation ceremony for scantily clad newcomers; the now obligatory prison rape; and the lengthy intercut (apparent) escape scenes add to the confusion, even though they are highly atmospheric. The black drug baron is particularly ludicrous. He has an assortment of potions to hand which would make Harry Potter jealous. He's able to concoct a poisonous 'cat' substitute somewhere in the prison (not sure where, I didn't think that laboratories were standard requirements yet) over night. The 'surprise' ending merely added more questions rather than explaining anything. The comparison made to the Dallas shower scene made elsewhere is very apt.

I caught this at Sundance. Not the premiere but one of the other showings. Then I went back to a second viewing! (The only film there I'd felt that way about.) The audiences reaction said it all. People came with very little hype or knowledge about what was billed as a prison escape movie. So this was one of the few films at the festival which really exceeded expectations. I knew something was up when it started with the escape itself! Cutting back and forth between the escape and the plan was a device that I worried at first would annoy me, a tip of a hat to Memento but without good reason for being there. I was wrong - in fact the reason we get this structure is one of the cleverest reasons I've ever seen and its only fully clear what it all signified in the last few seconds of the film. But I won't spoil it.. its just worth saying that this film and its clever structure and twist makes it more of a Jacobs Ladder or Memento than a Shawshank Redemption. You need to see it twice to pick up all the clues and understand completely - a bit like Donnie Darko or Mulholland Dr - enjoyable even if you don't get it completely but there are other layers to figure out in future viewings. The film had an interesting look to it like a 70s movie and excellent cinematography although I wished that they'd either not used CG in places or done it a bit better. The acting from Brian Cox (carrying the film) and Stephen Mackintosh (minor role) really impressed, first time I've seen Cox carry a movie since Manhunter. The sound was very interestingly done which is rare and together with the unique, detailed look of the film gave me the impression of a director (Rupert Wyatt) who got to realise his unique vision.... which is what these Sundance movies should be about. The music was quite diverse, and best when not getting too sentimental, but it helped with the pace if not the mood. Leonard Cohen's song also perfectly led us in and out of the story. But the technical side of the film-making from all parties was clearly top notch and Joe Walker's editing, creating a double story while keeping both interesting was also stand-out good. I also loved the retro titles- these films its referencing from the 70s are some of my favourite but this managed to update, subvert and improve them. Hats off.