A satisfying nail-biter with a tricksy, time-jumping, twist-heavy plot, a refreshingly spare approach to dialogue and a fine all-male ensemble cast...

| Nov 18, 2022

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

This is a rather curious film, admirable in some ways but also strangely frustrating.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 16, 2009

I hate criticising someone for ambition but The Escapist is a victory of ambition over dramatic achievement.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 8, 2009

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.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 3, 2009

Shapes a standard prison-break drama into a metaphysical study of freedom and reparation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2009

Director Rupert Wyatt and his co-writer Daniel Hardy have neatly trimmed the fat from this story -- there's almost no character, incident or visual cue that doesn't somehow enhance the plot or set up a surprise or key revelation later on.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2009

The prison escape movie -- a tired genre -- gets some fresh energy in The Escapist, a compelling, carefully written and totally gripping film from the U.K. that is acted with naturalism and conviction by a smashing cast.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2009

Neither more nor less than a solid prison-break thriller.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 1, 2009

A taut thriller that ends on a note of unexpected grace, the British prison drama The Escapist marks the impressive feature debut for director/co-writer Rupert Wyatt.

| Apr 1, 2009

About as plausible as platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts Express.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2008

At last, a British crime movie that's as good as its pitch sounds: Brian Cox trying to break out of prison. Do you need to know any more to want to see it?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 20, 2008

[Star Brian] Cox calmly registers ranges of steely determination, fatherly care and regret-filled sadness with great authority.

Full Review | Jan 24, 2008

All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.

Full Review | Jan 23, 2008

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 21, 2008