Synopsis
Trailers
Reviews (12)
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J
I always appreciate a film when it puts a spin of old story and that’s why I was very intrigued by The Escapist. The film, which came out in 2008, takes the old story of a group of men trying to escape from prison and sets it in England which is something you don’t often see. The writing is quite good. There’s a real human element to the story with Frank (Brian Cox) peacefully serving a life sentence when suddenly he hears news that his daughter is dying. It was a bit strange getting used to the two different narratives but once you did, it was quite compelling. My biggest problem with this film is the side-plot with Rizza (Damian…
11 -
D
Based on its mediocre rating and that less than 400 people wrote reviews of the film here, I wasn’t expecting much. It just goes to show that you can never tell what you’ll discover or how you’ll react to a movie. I found it engrossing and well told with exceptional acting and an exciting prison escape story. Frank Perry (Brian Cox) is serving life in prison and seems adjusted to his situation until he gets a letter for the first time in 14 years telling him that his now 21-year-old daughter is a junkie and barely alive. He decides he’s going to escape to see her. The film opens with the start of the escape attempt and goes between the…
47 3 -
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The World Is More Than Enough – 30 Countries In 30 Days Challenge (13 / 30) – United Kingdom After making a pig’s ear of choosing a decent film from Canada to watch in this challenge, I was nervous about my UK selection as, once again, I had a whole heap of stuff to choose from. I’m not even sure why I arrived at choosing The Escapist. I’ve had it on DVD for years and I’m a huge fan of Brian Cox, but I’m fairly sure that wouldn’t have been enough for me to choose this. Whatever the reason, I’m very glad that I did because I would have struggled tohave found a film much better than this. This is,…
19 4 -
J
A greasy, dusty, morose little piece of prison business that would’ve slotted perfectly into a mid-summer mid-70s release, probably starring Jon Voight with a terrible mustache. Startlingly similar to Paddington 2.
10 -
D
Fun and atmospheric prison flick with compelling performances and a fun little twist at the end. Doesn’t really break new ground, but I dug the look of the film. It’s always nice to see Brian Cox as the lead and he delivers. Damian Lewis has fun with his bizarre bad guy.
33 -
C
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T
This isn’t a great movie, but it was still tense and enjoyable. It’s also one of the reasons why I love Criterion. Without it, I probably never watch it or even know it exists. What a great streaming services for film fans.
14 -
L
There are some films you can’t judge correctly until the entire film is done. You know what I mean. That film that has you wondering why it is so highly rated and then all of a sudden something happens and you get it, and you are glad you stuck with it because wow, at the end of the day, it was terrific. The Escapist is like that, only better because it is good right from the beginning. Not great, but good. There is a really nice back and forth between the future and the past that elevates it, but it is still just a good and interesting story of guys breaking out of prison. But when it ends, when it…
38 -
D
For me it isn’t a given that a prison film grabs me, especially one that involves the tried and tested route of the prison break. This film, however, is no ordinary prison break film at all. This is an actor’s film and Brian Cox owns this film from start to finish. His performance gives this film depth and meaning. He is mesmerizing in every scene he is in. The script is clever. I first thought the jumps through time would be annoying, but they weren’t because director Wyat paces it perfectly and has a few wonderful tricks up his sleeve. He runs a tight ship and gets some amazing performances out of his cast. This is a film that transcends the prison genre tropes beautifully and cleverly, which makes it an instant favorite of mine.
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J
You may sometimes find a director lightly dabbling in elements of a particular theme or genre before diving into it head-first with a subsequent, more confident feature. If you want to view Rise of the Planet of the Apes as a prison break film—in small part, anyway—then Rupert Wyatt seems to have done something in the way of the reverse, when he messily jumped right into the genre from the very start before centring whatever adeptness he’d find in the field towards one piece of a much more ambitious project. The Escapist hardly enters the upper echelon of prison escape fare, but Wyatt and co-writer Daniel Hardy understand from the outset that every such film needs a particular angle to…
13 -
S
I went to this hoping for just a really enjoyable prison flick with actors I really like (Cox, Cooper, Lewis) from a director I’m starting to like (Rupert Wyatt; Rise of the Apes). I got a lot more than I bargained for. I got… Not just really good, but excellent performances. A film that’s surprisingly more complex and clever than a prison flick needed to be. A GOOD performance from Joseph Fiennes, who surprisingly didn’t ruin the film for me. Who knew the guy had one in him? A small appearance from WWE’s own Sheamus, which was weird and random, but somehow worked. This film may not have it all, but it sure as hell has more than you would expect.
15 2 -
A
For most of the runtime, this feels like a pretty standard issue prison escape film, and there are several elements that don’t seem all that realistic, like just how much control the alpha convict has over the guards, or how a prisoner is literally cooking up drugs, or how a dusty WWII-era gas mask is found in an abandoned tube station and then used, etc. It’s told in a split timeline, cutting back and forth between the events leading up to the breakout and those afterwards, which for the longest time didn’t seem to be adding anything, but if you’re patient, there’s a nice payoff. And while this isn’t a particularly elevated film, it’s well made and held my attention, buoyed by strong performances, the one from Damian Lewis especially.
12
- Synopsis
- Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he 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.
- Director
- Rupert Wyatt
- Writer
- Daniel Hardy, Rupert Wyatt
- Studio
- Picture Farm, Parallel Film Productions, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland
- Country
- UK, Ireland
- Language
- English
- Year
- 2008
- Runtime
- 102 mins
- UK20 Jun 2008
- USA20 Jun 2008
- France02 Jul 2008
- Germany28 Jan 2009
- Greece29 Jan 2009
- Australia19 Feb 2009
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