Lucky Break (2001 film)

Last updated

Lucky Break
Lucky Break quad.jpg
UK quad poster
Directed by Peter Cattaneo
Written by Ronan Bennett (screenplay)
Stephen Fry (lyrics)
Produced byPeter Cattaneo
Barnaby Thompson
Starring
Cinematography Alwin H. Küchler
Edited by David Gamble
Music by Anne Dudley
Production
companies
FilmFour Productions
Fragile Films
Senator Film
Distributed byFilmFour Distributors (United Kingdom)
Senator Filmverleih (Germany)
Paramount Pictures
Miramax Films (United States, Australia and New Zealand)
Release dates
24 August 2001 (United Kingdom)
8 November 2001 (Germany)
19 April 2002 (United States)
Running time
107 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Germany
United States
LanguageEnglish

Lucky Break is a 2001 crime comedy film starring James Nesbitt and directed by Peter Cattaneo. [1] The film is a co-production between the United Kingdom, United States and Germany.

Contents

Plot

James 'Jimmy' Hands and Rudy 'Rud' Guscott are two friends who used to play "Cops & Robbers" when they were young. Now adults, they plan to actually rob a bank, but the robbery goes wrong and Hands flees the bank leaving Guscott trapped behind the security shutters. Hands is caught and arrested not long later.

After being sentenced to do time in prison, Hands and Guscott make a daring escape plan as the prison is scheduled to put on a theatrical show of Nelson: The Musical. Hands and Guscott plan to use the show as cover their daring break-out attempt. During rehearsals, the inmates are unable to find a pianist for the show, until one inmate, Cliff Gumbell (Timothy Spall) volunteers and impresses them with his amazing piano skills. Hands is cast as Nelson (against his will) and Guscott is cast as Hardy, much to Guscott's dismay as his character kisses Nelson as he dies.

The escape plan proves difficult to proceed with, as one of the guards becomes very suspicious of Hands. Further complications arise when one of the more dangerous inmates threatens Hands to help him escape, as well as Hands warming to a prison employee named Annabel. During a prison visiting day, Gumbell is devastated to learn that his son is spending more time with his uncle, and that his wife is very disappointed being married to a criminal. Unable to live with the shame, Gumbell commits suicide in his cell.

The night of the show arrives and the escape plan is put into action. However, the dangerous inmate is tricked into going over the 30-foot prison wall and falls down the other side, where he is captured. Hands and Guscott are about to escape when Hands reveals his intentions to stay because of his feelings for Annabel. Guscott reluctantly lets Hands go and escapes with two other inmates, one of whom has a friend who arrives in a plane to help them escape.

Back in the prison, one of the guards resigns from his job over frustration of the inmates escaping and becomes a car park warden. Hands is later released from prison and starts a new life with Annabel.

Cast list

Production

Anne Dudley collaborated with Stephen Fry to write and produce songs for the send-up musical "Nelson".

Exterior prison scenes were filmed at Dartmoor Prison, Princetown. [2]

Reception

The film holds a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 reviews with the critics consensus: "Lucky Break fails to do anything new with The Full Monty formula". [3] On Metacritic, it holds a 48% rating based on 22 reviews, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". [4]

Dave Kehr of The New York Times said that "Mr. Cattaneo restricts himself to the smiling blandness that has become the stock in trade of British comedies made for export, turning in a film that is forced, familiar and thoroughly condescending". [5]

Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post wrote "Apart from the deja vu all over again, Lucky Break is no worse a film than Breaking Out , and [that film] was utterly charming". [6]

According to Derek Elley of Variety , the film is "[c]hained to the floor by a script that isn't particularly funny, direction that goes for realism rather than stylization and an almost complete lack of comic timing". [7]

Related Research Articles

The Texas 7 were a group of prisoners who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, on December 13, 2000. Six of the seven were apprehended over a month later, between January 21–23, 2001, as a direct result of the television show America's Most Wanted. The seventh committed suicide before he could be arrested. The six surviving members were all convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Irving, Texas, police officer Aubrey Wright Hawkins, who was shot and killed when responding to a robbery perpetrated by the Texas Seven. Four of the six sentenced have since been executed.

<i>The Chain Gang</i> (1930 film) 1930 Mickey Mouse cartoon

The Chain Gang is a 1930 Mickey Mouse animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions for Columbia Pictures, as part of the Mickey Mouse film series. It was the twenty-first Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the sixth of that year. It is one of a group of shorts of strikingly uneven quality produced by Disney immediately after Ub Iwerks left the studio.

<i>Kaante</i> 2002 Indian film

Kaante is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language action-thriller film directed by Sanjay Gupta, written by Milap Zaveri, and starring an ensemble cast including Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar, Kumar Gaurav, Namrata Singh Gujral, Rati Agnihotri, Rohit Roy, Isha Koppikar and Malaika Arora. Set in Los Angeles, the film follows six Indian men who are detained without evidence by the police. Feeling wronged and vengeful, they team up to plot a bank heist that would leave the Los Angeles Police Department penniless. However, once things go out of hand, they start suspecting each other's identities, resulting in violence and chaos.

<i>Brute Force</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Jules Dassin

Brute Force is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by Jules Dassin, from a screenplay by Richard Brooks with cinematography by William H. Daniels. It stars Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford and Yvonne De Carlo.

<i>Desperate Measures</i> (film) 1998 American film

Desperate Measures is a 1998 American action thriller film starring Michael Keaton, Andy García, Marcia Gay Harden and Brian Cox, directed by Barbet Schroeder. It was filmed in both the San Francisco Bay Area and downtown Pittsburgh with such landmarks as the BNY Mellon Center, the Allegheny County Courthouse and the Oakland Bay Bridge. The film was released on January 30, 1998 and was a critical and financial failure. However, Andy García won an ALMA Award for "Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film in a Crossover Role".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Nesbitt</span> Northern Irish actor (b. 1965)

William James Nesbitt is an actor from Northern Ireland.

<i>Reindeer Games</i> 2000 American action crime thriller film

Reindeer Games is a 2000 American action crime thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer in his final feature directorial outing before his 2002 death. It stars Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, Charlize Theron, Dennis Farina, James Frain, Donal Logue, Danny Trejo and Clarence Williams III. The film revolves around ex-convict Rudy Duncan, who is dragged into a situation against his will: he must help a group of thieves rob a casino in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, or he will be killed.

<i>Pardon Us</i> 1931 film

Pardon Us is a 1931 American pre-Code Laurel and Hardy film. It was the duo's first starring feature-length comedy film, produced by Hal Roach and Stan Laurel, directed by James Parrott, and originally distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1931.

<i>The Hole</i> (1960 film) 1960 French film

The Hole is a 1960 French crime film directed by Jacques Becker. It is an adaptation of José Giovanni's 1957 book The Break. It was called The Night Watch when first released in the United States, but is released under its French title today. The film is based on a true event concerning five prison inmates in La Santé Prison in France in 1947. Becker, who died just weeks after shooting had wrapped, cast mostly non-actors for the main roles, including one man who was actually involved in the 1947 escape attempt, and who introduces the film. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison escape</span> An inmate leaving prison unlawfully

A prison escape is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers. Escaping from prison is also a criminal offense in some countries, such as the United States and Canada, and it is highly likely to result in time being added to the inmate's sentence, as well as the inmate being placed under increased security that is most likely a maximum security prison or supermax prison. In Germany, and a number of other countries, it is considered human nature to want to escape from a prison and it is considered as a violation of the right of freedom, so escape is not penalized in itself.

<i>Plunkett & Macleane</i> 1999 British film

Plunkett & Macleane is a 1999 British historical action comedy film directed by Jake Scott, and starring Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Liv Tyler. Gary Oldman was executive producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riots, Drills and the Devil</span> 6th and 7th episodes of the 1st season of Prison Break

"Riots, Drills and the Devil" is the sixth and seventh episode of the first season of the television series Prison Break. A two-part episode, the first part constitutes the sixth episode of the series and the second part constitutes the seventh. They were aired separately in the United States on September 26, 2005 and October 3, 2005 consecutively. The first part of "Riots, Drills and the Devil" was written by Nick Santora and directed by Robert Mandel with the second part being written by Karyn Usher and directed by Vern Gillum.

<i>Lock Up</i> (1989 film) 1989 film by John Flynn

Lock Up is a 1989 American prison action film directed by John Flynn. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, Tom Sizemore, and John Amos. It was released in the United States on August 4, 1989.

<i>I Love You Phillip Morris</i> 2009 American comedy/drama film

I Love You Phillip Morris is a 2009 English-language French black comedy film based on a 1980s and 1990s real-life story of con artist, impostor and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, as played by Jim Carrey. While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his fellow inmate, Phillip Morris. After Morris is released from prison, Russell escapes from prison four times to be reunited with Morris. The film was adapted from the 2003 book I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks by Steve McVicker. The film is the directorial debut of John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. It grossed $20 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. For their writing, Requa and Ficarra received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

<i>Prison Break: The Final Break</i> 2009 television movie of the Prison Break franchise.

Prison Break: The Final Break is a 2009 television film of the Prison Break franchise. The movie covers the events which occurred in between the downfall of The Company, and the revelation of Michael Scofield's death. It details the manipulated arrest and incarceration of Sara Tancredi for the murder of Christina Scofield, the final escape plan which Michael devises for Sara, and the details surrounding Michael's death. It also reveals the ultimate fate of Gretchen Morgan. This was the initial ending for Prison Break, until the release of season 5.

<i>Escape Plan</i> (film) 2013 American prison action thriller film by Mikael Håfström

Escape Plan is a 2013 American prison action thriller film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and co-starring Jim Caviezel, 50 Cent, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio and Amy Ryan. It was directed by Swedish filmmaker Mikael Håfström, and written by Miles Chapman and Jason Keller. The first film to pair up Stallone and Schwarzenegger as co-leads, it follows Stallone's character Ray Breslin, a lawyer turned prison security tester who is incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, and recruits fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer, portrayed by Schwarzenegger, to stage a breakout. The film is the first installment of the Escape Plan film series.

<i>The Escapists</i> Strategy video game

The Escapists is a strategy game played from a top-down perspective. The game was developed by Mouldy Toof Studios and following a Steam Early Access release in 2014, was released in 2015 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It was released on iOS and Android in 2017. A Nintendo Switch version of the game containing all downloadable content was released in 2018. The game was launched on the Epic Games Store on 23 September 2021, with the weekly free game campaign of Epic Games. Players assume the role of an inmate and must escape from prisons of increasing difficulty.

<i>Escape Plan 2: Hades</i> 2018 film by Steven C. Miller

Escape Plan 2: Hades is a 2018 American direct-to-video prison action thriller film directed by Steven C. Miller. It is the sequel to the 2013 film Escape Plan, and the second installment in the Escape Plan film series. It stars Sylvester Stallone and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson reprising their roles from the first film, with Dave Bautista, Huang Xiaoming, Jaime King, Jesse Metcalfe, Titus Welliver, and Wes Chatham joining the cast. Escape Plan 2: Hades was released straight-to-DVD in the United States but received theatrical releases in such countries as Russia on June 28, 2018, and in China on June 29, 2018. The film received negative reviews from critics; it grossed $17.6 million in some theaters and $4.2 million in domestic home market against a production budget of $20 million.

References

  1. Smith, Neil (23 August 2001). "BBC - Films - review - Lucky Break". BBC . Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  2. "Prison to host film premiere. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  3. "Lucky Break". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  4. "Lucky Break". Metacritic . Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  5. Kehr, Dave (5 April 2002). "Film Review; Lucky Break". The New York Times . Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  6. O'Sullivan, Michael (18 April 2002). "Lucky Break". The Washington Post .
  7. Elley, Derek (14 August 2001). "Lucky Break". Variety .