90
Film Threat
On top of the tried-and-true prison genre formula coupled with the misfit gang formula, Rupert Wyatt's "he Escapist flips everything on its ear by playing out in two timelines simultaneously.
The Escapist
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- United Kingdom,
- Ireland
- 2008
- · 102m
Director
Rupert Wyatt
Cast
Brian Cox,
Damian Lewis,
Joseph Fiennes,
Seu Jorge,
Liam Cunningham,
Dominic Cooper
Genre
Action,
Thriller
Convict Frank Perry is 14 years into a life sentence without parole. He's accepted he will never see the outside world again, but when his daughter falls gravely ill, he is determined to see her before it's too late. With help from a group of fellow inmates, he hatches a plan to dig his way out of prison.
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What are critics saying?
90
Film Threat by Mark Bell
On top of the tried-and-true prison genre formula coupled with the misfit gang formula, Rupert Wyatt's "he Escapist flips everything on its ear by playing out in two timelines simultaneously.
80
Village Voice
A taut thriller that ends on a note of unexpected grace.
80
Village Voice by Jean Oppenheimer
A taut thriller that ends on a note of unexpected grace.
75
Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy
Hollywood used to make a fair number of films like The Escapist (sigh: remember grown-up dramas?), and it's a satisfying variation on a once-familiar theme.
70
Los Angeles Times
It makes for an unexpectedly welcome form of dramatic escape: the character study breaking free from a hoary old movie genre.
70
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Shapes a standard prison-break drama into a metaphysical study of freedom and reparation.
70
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
It makes for an unexpectedly welcome form of dramatic escape: the character study breaking free from a hoary old movie genre.
60
The Hollywood Reporter
All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.
60
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Farber
All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.
40
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
The splintered viewpoints help with the monotony, but from the taunting of new inmates to the cell-block sadist, we've gone through all this before, right down to the final twists.
38
New York Post by Kyle Smith
It all leads nowhere. There are pull-the-rug-out endings, and then there are pull-the-floor-out endings. The Escapist leaves you standing on nothing, like Wile E. Coyote, wondering why you bothered to come this far.
30
L.A. Weekly by Scott Foundas
All might have been forgiven were it not for a needlessly Shyamalanized ending that deserves to earn Wyatt at least 25 years for grand-theft cinema.
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