The Escapist

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.