Directed by:
Gillies MacKinnon
Starring:
Jonny Lee Miller ………. Denis
Andy Serkis ………. Ricky Barnes
Gary Lewis ………. Ron
Jodhi May ………. Christine
Paloma Baeza ………. Valerie
Vas Blackwood ………. Vin
Phil Barantini ………. Joey
The Movie
Made in 2001 this is the first time The Escapist has made its way to US shores and much like the rest of the world is a direct-to-DVD title, yet oddly enough it isn’t your average boring predictable fare. One thing many directors never want to hear is that their movie is going straight to store shelves because it generally gets brushed off by viewers as generic and if not worth a theatrical run then it’s not worth the rental. The Escapist is actually rather enjoyable if you give it a chance.
Denis is a man who has everything he could possibly imagine, a loving wife, a child on the way and a lucrative job as a pilot. He lives in a beautiful home and gets along with his in laws, he was living a perfect life. Until one single night that changed him forever. In the middle of an average night Denis and his wife Valerie are held hostage in his house by Ricky Barnes, an escaped convict who robs houses to get by while on the lamb from the law for the past six months. Over time he begins to get wreakless and careless and some may even say he becomes a downright maniac, it was only a matter of time before he cracked, Denis and his wife were just the unlucky ones. That night Denis lost Valerie and everything he had to live for.
The cops catch Ricky but his sentence isn’t good enough for Denis, he wants him to pay, and he’s going to get his revenge. Denis fakes his death and starts a new life with a mission to serve justice to Ricky that the courts didn’t give him. As the title implies, the movie is based around Denis who was first given a seven day sentence for vandalizing a cop car comes up with a plan to escape every prison he’s sent to until they have no choice but to send him to the maximum security prison that Ricky was sent to for killing Valerie.
The Escapist is about a mans journey of revenge and to get justice for his love who was wronged. He doesn’t want to feel better or leave the past behind him, he feels it would be a betrayal and does everything in his power to set things right. The deeper he gets himself the more he realizes just what obstacles he still has to hurdle through revealing real fears a person in his position would go through. For a relatively low budget movie The Escapist does an excellent job of telling an original story. While a little farfetched it’s still an intriguing movie that shows just how far a man will go.
Miller does a great job of deconstructing his character from a man who had everything he ever wanted to having one single objective in life. While Serkis who is given a small role, his performance as a mad man is spot on and at times terrifying how well he slips in to the character. Even if the reason this ever got released was due to its stars recently making names for themselves don’t pass this off as a blatant money grab by the studio, the movie is well worth a rental or blind buy.
score: 7/10
The Video
(Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
Acceptable is the only word that comes to mind while watching The Escapist, it has grain and dirt on the print along with an overall fuzzy picture. For a movie with such a low profile it’s understandable that the studio had no intention to give the film the full treatment for DVD but they could have at least tried to clean it up a little before sending it in to production.
The Audio
(English Dolby Digital 5.1)
Speakers aren’t used as effectively as they could have been but the movie still sounds good. As a dialogue driven movie the front speakers are used the most and everything comes out clear.
The Extras
None unless you count the obligatory trailers added to the disc. Included you’ll find trailers for The Tenants, London, The Net 2.0, The Hunt for Eagle One, Black Dawn, The White Dragon, Into the Blue, Underworld: Deluxe Edition.
score: 1/10
