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
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