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The skilled pilot Denis Hopkins (John Lee Miller) loves with his pregnant wife Valerie (Paloma Baeza) and has a comfortable lifestyle. When the gang of criminals leaded by the sadistic Ricky Barnes (Andy Serkis) breaks in his seaside house, he offers whatever the criminals want to protect his beloved wife but the evil Ricky kills Valerie. The baby is saved, and later the murderer is arrested and sent to the maximum security prison of Sullen Voe. Denis moved by the purpose of revenging the death of Valerie, gives Amy and his house to his sister-in-law Christine (Jodhi May). Then Denis breaks a police car and is arrested, but he does not reveal his true name and is called John "What" by the prisoners and guards. Denis successively escapes, forcing his transference to Sullen Voe. When he reaches his objective, Ricky schedules a confrontation, but things do not happen the way Denis expected.

"The Escapist" is a great thriller following the saying "Eye for an Eye". Laws with the soft sentence of twenty years for a brutal murder like the sadistic Ricky Barnes does in the movie will only change when societies proactively react, like for example, the character of Denis Hopkins does in the movie killing the criminal. Unfortunately the rushed flawed conclusion forgets the fate of the secondary characters of Christine, Ron and Ricky Barnes's son that could be easily associated to Denis, disclosing his true identity. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Escapista" ("The Escapist")

What can I say?! This film is under rated and the actors and actresses deserve all the credit in the world for a truly entertaining performance. Hats off to Johnny Lee Miller and Andy Serkis; they blew me away. This film has it all; comedy, (Johnny's face in the plane!), drama (his wife), and the bit with Vin is truly heart wrenching. I really felt for Johnny's character and how much he NEEDS revenge, amazing! This is a film for young adults/adults. Due to the sometimes graphic nature of the images shown I wouldn't recommend this for children of 12 or under.

From the opening scene it is beautifully shot, with a cool and hard style plus superb casting. Highlighting the senseless horror in our current society and one mans determination not to let sleeping dogs lie. It took me through several very strong emotions.

all i can say is "Wow!" this film took me totally be surprise. I found it for a tenner in my local Blockbuster, and i was inspired. It is proof that us british film makers, are capable of producing compelling stories, great action and high class performances in a blend that hollywood has trouble doing.

Indeed, it infuriates me that an excellent piece of work like this should go straight to video, whereas utter trash like Jackass the movie gets a full cinematic release worldwide.

This film brings hope to all of us independant film makers, that it doesn't take a huge budget to make a good film, and also reminds us that the primary reason people should make films is to entertain, not make money.

a Solid 9 out of 10

A pilots pregnant wife is killed by a band of thugs who break into their home. The gang is caught and sent off to prison. Wanting to see that "justice" is done the pilot stages his own death and then gets himself arrested so he can hunt the killers in the prisons into which they have been sent.

To be honest the story is a bit clichéd with the plot taking some obvious paths once things are set in motion. Normally that would be a bad thing but here the film works largely thanks to a very good cast of mostly unknown actors. The stand out is Andy Serkis, best known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Here he's the head of the nasty band and his vileness seems to drip off the screen. If you want to know why Peter Jackson chose him to play the tortured creature in the big budgeted epic look no further. Serkis isn't on screen much until the final portion of the film, but his evilness in the early part of the film hangs over everything like a dark cloud.

Definitely worth a look for those who want an undemanding thriller, and those who want to see what Andy Serkis is capable of when he isn't doing just a computer generated character. 6.5 out of 10.