Lenny Drake (Joseph Fiennes), Brodie (Liam Cunningham), Viv Batista (Seu Jorge), James Lacey (Dominic Cooper), and Frank Perry (Brian Cox) are escaping from prison. The movie also keeps switching back to flashbacks. Lacey is a new prisoner as Perry's cellmate. Perry is a lifer and desperate to visit his dying estranged daughter. He recruits a group of prisoners on his escape plan. Rizza (Damian Lewis) is the ruthless leader of a prison gang. His brother Tony causes trouble for the escape group.New director Rupert Wyatt has an amazing cast of actors captained by the great Brian Cox. These are terrific actors doing solid work. The production is a little unreal. The Kilmainham Gaol prison looks ancient which makes a modern prison movie feel artificial. The two timeline tracks take some of the intensity away but it does create a poetic ending. The ending is not completely unexpected. It is well done for the most part.

not a bad film: good atmosphere, cast, acting & OST c/o Leonard Cohen.it bares a resemblance, and even a few lines, to Shawshank Redemption. but then a lot of prison films do now.however, the UK prison depiction was wholly inaccurate. British prisons have had in-cell lighting, kettles & tvs for over a decade. cons have never 'run' a whole prison, ever, anywhere. and the whole hazing/raping aspect - is a purely American phenomenon. and still you call us Brits fags!! also, there aren't any library cards as such, the common currency inside is drugs, tobacco & foodstuffs.also, kat is an African herb, with amphetamine like qualities - as opposed to something you could knock together in an ad-hoc laboratory with oranges & fruit cake.

This film uses the tired old trick of flashing back to try and keep us thrilled. It is used as a substitute for a decent plot. There is no depth to any of the characters other than the lead.I'm also confused as to why someone would cast pigeon-chested effeminate guy as top-dog in a prison. Or how we are supposed to believe someone is able to manufacture Class A drugs in prison from an orange an a fruit-cake. Yes, I know we are supposed to suspend our disbelief, but I think the director could have met us half way. Of course, they do put in the rape scene, which seems to be obligatory in every film set in prison now. Yawn.When you get to the final twist in the wafer thin plot, you realise you've just wasted another 102 mins of your life. Perhaps a few more if your daft enough to post about on a website.

On the surface it looked like being a standard prison break out picture. But come the end one can't help admiring the construction of the film and marvel at how the makers used the cons to con the audience in a wholly satisfying way. The set-up is simple enough, Brian Cox's old lag Frank Perry is mortified to hear that his daughter is mixed up with heavy drugs and death is perhaps one more hit away from her. Desperate to get out of prison to save her, he hatches a plan for escape and enlists some other like minded souls, each with their own special "skill" to see it through. What follows is a twinned inter-cut tale as we witness the escape attempt and the prior motivations leading up to said escape. All building towards what one can rightly expect to be a run of the mill ending so evident in most prison based movies......Directed by Rupert Wyatt, The Escapist thrives on claustrophobic atmosphere and grim prison reality to set the wheels in motion. Filmed at Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, this is a dank place, overcrowded and paint peeling from every wall; and of course there's an array of unsavoury characters just waiting to use violence or sexual proclivities to feather their respective nest. This place alone is reason enough for escape attempts, let alone the reasons put forward for our escaping protagonists. The audio on offer also enhances the mood, the clanking of metal or the rumbling of shuffling boots land in the ear drum with almost tenacious glee. There's also no overdose on dialogue, no filler conversations serving no purpose to the crux of the tale.The cast are (prison) uniformly strong, led by the great and weathered Cox, the roll call of escapees also contains earthy Liam Cunningham, a buffed up Joseph Fiennes, a youthfully fraught Dominic Cooper and black magic gusto from Seu Jorge. While within these walls menace comes from a weaselly Steven Mackintosh and the excellently chilling Damian Lewis as nick daddy Rizza. All in all, The Escapist, if you pardon the pun, is a break out movie two fold. Not just as a story, but also in offering up something different in the genre it belongs too. Much like Brian Cox himself, The Escapist is something of a British treasure. 9/10