Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
The Escapist
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
view
per page
  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Mark Bell
    90
    On top of the tried-and-true prison genre formula coupled with the misfit gang formula, Rupert Wyatt's "he Escapist flips everything on its ear by playing out in two timelines simultaneously.
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jean Oppenheimer
    80
    A taut thriller that ends on a note of unexpected grace.
  3. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    75
    Hollywood used to make a fair number of films like The Escapist (sigh: remember grown-up dramas?), and it's a satisfying variation on a once-familiar theme.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    70
    It makes for an unexpectedly welcome form of dramatic escape: the character study breaking free from a hoary old movie genre.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    70
    Shapes a standard prison-break drama into a metaphysical study of freedom and reparation.
  6. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Stephen Farber
    60
    All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    40
    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.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    38
    It all leads nowhere. There are pull-the-rug-out endings, and then there are pull-the-floor-out endings. The Escapist leaves you standing on nothing, like Wile E. Coyote, wondering why you bothered to come this far.
  9. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    30
    All might have been forgiven were it not for a needlessly Shyamalanized ending that deserves to earn Wyatt at least 25 years for grand-theft cinema.
prev next
Page:
  • 1