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Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, The
Red Envelope Entertainment

Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, The reviews


10.0

based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

Gunner Palace

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some strong language and mature thematic elements

Starring Yunis Khatayer Abbas

In an absurd comedy of errors, a freedom-loving Iraqi journalist is mistaken as Tony Blair's would-be assassin and sent to Abu Ghraib Prison where he discovers the true meaning of liberation. (Red Envelope Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	Petra Epperlein Michael Tucker
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: March 23, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	72 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Germany / USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The style is brash, and it works. Tucker and Epperlein illustrate Yunis' account of his eight-month imprisonment, much of that time spent at the notorious Abu Ghraib compound, with literal illustrations--pages seemingly torn out of a Frank Miller graphic novel.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Eight months of interrogation and torture in fetid Abu Ghraib followed before he was released, innocent. None of The Prisoner's showy flourishes -- animation, sound effects, fancy editing -- can match the power of Abbas' stillness as he describes one man's agony in one huge hell.

Film Threat Merle Bertrand

War is chaos and confusion even under the best of circumstances, of which this current fiasco clearly ain’t. The Prisoner… underscores this fact, as well as muddying up the waters on such commonly accepted platitudes as "Support the Troops."

Time Richard Schickel

A modestly mounted, but curiously poignant little documentary... which somehow -- quietly, devastatingly -- shows and tells you more than you may perhaps want to know about the dehumanization implicit in the mighty, blighted Iraqi adventure.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

While the documentary isn't as compelling as its source material, Abbas tells an interesting story about his incarceration.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's an angry story, but also a strangely hopeful one, in the sense of new life sprouting through a battlefield. Above all, it's personal and specific, and that IS news we can use.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The film leaves us wondering about all the war stories we haven't heard.

Variety Joe Leydon

The Prisoner is in many ways a justifiably angry film, simmering with moral outrage. But it is also -- surprisingly, maybe even amazingly -- hopeful.

Village Voice Michelle Orange

Yunis, as he imploringly reminds us, is the Iraqi people, but he is also steeped in Hollywood references, pulling analogies for the U.S. occupation from "Rambo" and "Dirty Harry."

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

It is a film rich in detail, the kind that simply never emerges in the nightly news accounts of the war.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

What's troubling about the film's technique is its lack of context; we must take Yuris, who speaks serviceable English, pretty much at his word. What's troubling about his story is its ring of truth.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The very concept of such an assassination isn't so absurd as to be wacky – at least not since somebody fired a rocket at UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last Thursday.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

By recounting Abbas' ordeal as an endless inarticulate monologue, The Prisoner reduces it to a dull anecdote--timely and relevant, perhaps, but an anecdote all the same.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It is a depressing story, certainly, as well as moving, confusing and, at a fast 72 minutes, at once undercooked and overpadded.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

The film becomes a dizzying descent into a world of contradictions, military illogic and ineffectual bureaucracy.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

His story demands to be heard, though Tucker and Epperlein lack the material for a full feature and pad this out to 73 minutes with some incongruously playful elements (spy music, comic-book illustrations, scenes of Abbas frolicking at a beach).

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Adam H. gave it a10:
This film is a sequel of sorts to "Gunner Palace" the Iraq film that came out in 2005. Much like that film, The Prisoner is not overtly political, rather, it lets the characters tell the story. In Gunner Palace, the perspective is the American soldier. In The Prisoner, the perspective is largely Iraqi. The films should be watched together to fully appreciate. I don't want to give away too much, but I can say that you walk away from this film feeling like you know an Iraqi and have a new sense of just how much the Iraqi people suffered--both under Saddam and during this conflict. The film is also surprisingly funny and it should come with a disclaimer that gives the audience permission to laugh. It would be funny if it wasn't true.

Lara gave it a10:
I saw this film at a New School/WNYC hosted screening in New York last night and had to share how overwhelmingly moving nad strangely uplifting it was. Go see this movie if you want a glimmer of hope that people in this country can sympathize with people in others and we can actually come together in times of great trouble. The filmmaking was completely entertaining and the film funny, almost hilarious at times. 5 stars!

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Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, The Red Envelope Entertainment

Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, The
Red Envelope Entertainment