carbuff Very interesting movie with an unusual timeline structure. It builds and holds suspense very well all the way to the end of the movie, but, man, this film is fundamentally pretty grim, which held my rating down a bit. I'm not going to give anything away, but, while this movie is pretty emotionally powerful, I really can't imagine anybody feeling very good after watching it. It takes place entirely in a prison or under the streets of London, which gives it an extremely cheerless, malevolent, and claustrophobic atmosphere, and there aren't any really good guys here--only relative degrees of bad, as is characteristic of so many films today it seems. So a very good, but depressing movie that leaves me feeling like I need to take a shower, so I guess I will.

joanmcbee15 First I must say this is the first time I have written a review for IMD. Though I am a IMD junkie. Use it all the time. Was compelled to write regarding this movie. It was one of the best prison movies made in a very long time. A lot of what I would call hardness and softness. Which is why I think it would appeal not only to men but women also. Plus I think they said the "f" word about as many times as I could count on my two hands. Which is to say a lot. Meaning that a quality movie, involving this subject matter, can be great without using that word every other sentence.Nough said. Watch it!

BOUF A thoroughly absorbing, gripping British film starring Brian Cox..not a household name like Ajax or Corn Flakes, but you'll recognise him from The Bourne Identity, Match Point…etc..and Joseph Fiennes; and plenty of the others in this cast, who have done lots of solid duty in countless British and American TV and films.. The Escapist is set in a prison, and is a salutary reminder that perhaps you shouldn't borrow more than is necessary from the Tennis Club Christmas Party fund, or carve up a senior bank executive however much encouragement you may receive, because you might end up in jail and if it's anything like the jail in The Escapist, woe betide ye. Brian Cox plays Frank, an old lag, who's in for life and is desperate to get out so he can see his beloved and estranged daughter, who is very ill. Frank with the aid of various fascinatingly shady pals, hatches a brilliant plan to escape through the sewers and tunnels of London, but will they even get out of the nick? It seems unlikely. There are so many evil characters within the jail conspiring to thwart anything they do, and the tension is properly cranked up. It's quite violent MA 15+. At one point, early on in the film I unpeeled a banana, and I was so gripped that when the DVD finished I was still holding half the banana, poised for a bite. Congratulations to all concerned.

freemantle_uk Rupert Wyatt is considered a hot directional prospect with his first feature film The Escapist being praised at Sundance and in the British and Irish award circuits. With a cast of top British talent Wyatt was able to impress and he has already landed himself the directional duties to a prequel for Planet of the Apes.Set in a unnamed prison near London Frank Perry (Brian Cox) is a lifer who keeps his head down and nose clear, avoiding trouble and getting into rifts. He accepts that he is not going to be released but when he receives a letter that his daughter is a drug addict and seriously ill he sets to break out for her. He recruits a team of prisons, Brodie (Liam Cunningham), his close friends who knows the local lay out, Leeny (Joseph Fiennes), a theft and lockpick, Viv Batista (Seu Jorge), the prison chemist and drug dealer and Lacey (Dominic Cooper), Frank's new cell mate. The Escapist tells two narratives, the lead up to the escape, with the team planning it and avoiding the prisoners and guards getting wind of it and the escape itself.Wyatt shows that he is a competent director, directing a fast paced film and editor Joe Walker was able to blend the two stories together. The scenes in the prison were grounded in gritty realism, in an almost period like setting, like the 70s. Wyatt shows that British prisons then to be violence, but people are not split on gang or racial lines nor like American prisons where rape is common. Men gambled library cards because it was the only thing they have. Though the bare knuckle boxing was a little less believable. The escape sequence was a bit more surreal and when you first see the film that Wyatt should have followed a traditional storyline, but it fits well together at the end. Benjamin Wallfisch also writes good music to the film and it was used to effect throughout. It is also so refreshing to see a serious British crime film seeing so many are willing take a comic or playful approach, like Guy Ritchie films and The Bank Job.There is an excellent cast and Cox really commands the film. I like Cox as an actor and it is refreshing to see him in something smaller. He is believable and is deliberately understated throughout. The supporting is strong, with Cunningham and Cooper being particularly good, but Fiennes and Damien Lewis obviously being talented. However, it was strange that a Brazilian actor was cast as Viv Batista and it would have been more believable and natural if the character was British (though Jorge was still decent).The Escapist is not Scum, one of the most brutal films ever or the Shawshank Redemption, but it is still enjoyable film in it's own right. The Escapist is the best British crime film since Layer Cake.