60
All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Shapes a standard prison-break drama into a metaphysical study of freedom and reparation.
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
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
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.
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.