Escape from Pretoria

This is an intense tale of prison escape. It is psychologically intense, and makes you want to root for them. I am impressed by their knowledge, skills and determination.

Not two weeks after "Guns Akimbo" Daniel Radcliffe rewards us with yet another great performance, this time in a tightly made, old-school B-like jailbreak thriller set against a historically true background. Francis Annan's "Escape from Pretoria", while flawed in some areas, gives legitimate thrills and keeps you excited all throughout, as you follow the trio of men on the quest of freedom.

"Escape from Pretoria" is based on the prison escape of two political captives from Pretoria Central Prison in South Africa in 1979. The movie starts with an introduction of the political events taking place in South Africa during that time, more precisely the Apartheid. Soon after Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) get arrested and sent to prison for 8 or more years, there they meet politically related Denis Goldberg (Ian Hart) and their third accomplice Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter). Most of the time we spent inside the prison, following the routine and efforts of our three main heroes - the story focuses a lot on creating suspense and in doing so has it has created many good and very enjoyable sequences. It's all about the thrill of finding the means to reach freedom. "Escape from Pretoria" is a neat and successful exercise in a familiar formula, utilized since way back when, Clint Eastwood's "Escape from Alcatraz" has the same qualities. Includes also great attention to detail. The pacing's nice and even, with some great pick-ups here and there. With the focus being on atmosphere, excitement and genre mechanics, the script is lacking in the area of depth, more precisely the characters, there's not a lot of set-up or backstory for them. However, the performances make up for that. Visually, the movie excels as well, using various cool camera tricks and touching up the suspense with technical means, the cinematic language is on point all throughout.

"Escape from Pretoria" is a great procedural thriller, a successful execution of genre mechanics, a carefully planned movie about planning. If it lacks depth, it definitely possesses a good entertainment value, further fulfilled with great acting work. Good prison-set movies don't come out all that often. My rating: 7/10.

Story is interesting and (for me at least) sheds light on a lesser known part of the Apartheid movement. Movie utilized beautiful noir style lighting and interesting shot choices. The pacing was great and the tension build up kept me on the edge of my seat.

No long dialogues, no over acting, but a simple plain witty prison break film.

Watch the trailer and learn nothing more before watching, enjoy the film for what it is and not what you presume it should be.

Basically, some of these critics haven't a clue. This movie is a must-see; it dramatically illustrates the physical and psychological cruelty orchestrated by the Apartheid regime. Some aspects are subtle and horrifying. My only complaint is we didn't get the backgrounds of several fascinating characters. Of course, in many movies there's simply not enough time. And finally, Daniel Radcliffe and Mark Leonard Winter were mesmerizing expressing the horror of being incarcerated. Go see the film.

In terms of true story movies, this is probably one of the better ones I've seen.

Let's just jump into it. So, what I enjoyed the most was the built suspense throughout. It was done superbly well and it was real edge of your seat action. The reason why it's so good is, because the plot isn't something that you'd consider to have much going on. So the fact you're on edge for a lot of the film really illustrates how well written this is.

As with all movies like this, it's always worth asking if you need to know the true story in order to watch this? And to put it bluntly, no you don't. You can enjoy this for what it is, which is a prison escape thriller. I knew nothing of the people this film was illustrating and I really enjoyed this.

Couple of minor things to mention. I thought the characters could have had more of a back story. With them being important figures in South African history, would have been nice to have known them a little more. Instead you're thrown into the deep end within the first 2 minutes. And I know it's a true story, so obviously you can't just make stuff up. But, I felt the plot needed a little punch just to add a bit more, because it never goes out of its way.

I don't have much else to say other than I would recommend watching if you were debating it as it's a real good thriller. 7/10 today.