Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Leofwine_draca BREAKOUT isn't bad for what it is: a typically tough '70s-era thriller, with innocent man Robert Duvall banged up south of the border and tough pilot Charlie Bronson the only guy with a chance of getting him out. It's a film shot through with style and character, and yet as a thriller, it's not particularly thrilling. As prison breakout movies go, this lacks almost entirely all of the suspense from something like ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and it does feel plodding and overlong in places.Still, the joy of watching Bronson at the height of his tough guy fame makes this worthwhile, and the addition of further interesting cast members like Duvall, Sheree North, Randy Quaid and Jill Ireland, only adds to that watchability. And it does finally start to pick up right at the end, including a truly jaw-dropping special effect involving a plane that you wonder how they managed to get past the censors. A win, then, for director Tom Gries, but the various scriptwriters needed to tighten things further to make this a true great.

lost-in-limbo This ready-made Charles Bronson vehicle with a better then expected cast (Robert Duvall, John Huston, Randy Quaid, Jill Ireland and Sheree North) doesn't really take flight and ends up being nothing much but ho-hum charades. Bronson's bright, casual performance and Lucien Ballard's scenically polished cinematography are what eventually carries this highly systematic, limp and basically no frills prison breakout get-up. The light, old-fashioned story stays direct, even with its muddled sub-plot involving why the captor is in prison, but in the long run it's by the numbers. There's nothing wrong with providing us something that's not original, but there's very little suspense and action drawn upon the cracking situation. Tom Gries' direction is static, and plodding, as the momentum slowly increases to end with a memorable climax with a plane repeller. Gries is well served upon striking up a rough appeal, but lacks a slam-bang attitude. It stays quite talkative, and the breezy script flows with humorous jibs that Bronson seems well suited to. The music score might not me be anything special, but Jerry Goldsmith does a resourceful job in orchestrating some titillating cues. The support cast of John Huston, Randy Quaid and a buoyant Sheree North are an enjoyable attraction of fun. Robert Duvall plays it dreary, and confused and Jill Ireland came across superficially bland. There's an interesting bunch of minor support parts by Paul Mantee, Alejandro Rey, Roy Jenson, Jorge Moreno and Alan Vint. Bronson is the major draw-card, and deservedly so as it's his well lit performance (and his constant urge for a can of beer) manages to keep you watching. Modest at best.

Jonathon Dabell Charles Bronson was pretty old when he became a star. He'd done small supporting roles for years in westerns and war movies, but quite late in his career he was suddenly propelled into the super-star category following The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen. The biggest irony is that once Bronson became a star, his actual acting became much lazier and more wooden. He spent the "superstar years" – from the late 1960s until the late 1980s – giving monosyllabic performances in largely simple-minded films. His output during these years was prolific to say the least, but very few of the films rose above mediocrity. Breakout is just one more Bronson vehicle from that era – better than some, worse than others, a totally unremarkable and easy-to-watch time filler.Jay Wagner (Robert Duvall) is arrested for a murder he had nothing to do with and thrown into a Mexican jail. His wife Ann (Jill Ireland) is devastated and wants desperately to help him be free, but she quickly realises this is only going to happen if Jay can break – or be broken – out of the prison. She believes that she can count on the financial support of Jay's grandfather Harris Wagner (John Huston) in mounting a rescue operation, little suspecting that it is actually Harris himself who - for various personal and greedy reasons - arranged for his grandson to be busted on the phony murder charge. Eventually Ann pleads with a bush pilot called Nick Colton (Charles Bronson) to help spring Jay from jail. Offering quarter of a million bucks as incentive, Ann persuades Nick and his buddy Hawk Hawkins (Randy Quaid) to take on the job of pulling off this audacious escape. But Ann's big mistake is telling Grandpa Harris all the intimate details of the plan, therefore making the whole rescue operation doomed to fail before it begins. Except that Nick and Hawk don't like losing, and won't let a few mishaps along the way stop them from carrying out their courageous plan…..The reasons for watching Breakout are that it moves quickly, cramming incident and action into its relatively brief 96 minute duration. Huston as the villain and Duvall as the prisoner are clearly a cut above the material and give enjoyable performances, even though they are slumming. Jerry Goldsmith adds yet another catchy score to his list of catchy '70s film music. The reasons for not watching Breakout are that if you've seen many Bronson from the era, there's not a whole lot to make this one discernible from the rest. The film is put together with little obvious style of its own in a strictly by-the-numbers manner. Lastly, the periodic attempts to add a humorous edge seem generally ineffective. If you're channel hopping one day and you happen to come across Breakout, give it a go. It won't disappoint you in any great way, but neither will it be a film that has you racing down to the nearest DVD store to add it to your collection.

inspectors71 Someday I'm going to sit down and count all the dopey little movies I saw at the North Cedar Drive-In Theater in Spokane in the 1970's. I'm going to come up with about 100, some good dopey, some dopes. Breakout is good dopey! Robert Duvall does something or another that gets him locked up in a Mexican prison and Charles Bronson is hired, along with his trusty sidekick Randy Quaid (How many times does Bronson yell over his shoulder, "HAAAWWWWKKK?"), by Duvall's wife (who is really Jill Ireland, Bronson's wife; are you getting all this down?) to spring him, and the baddies led by John Huston (yeah, that John Huston) keep getting in the way along with Bronson and Quaid screwing up right and left. By the end of the movie, Duvall is safe, Ireland is relieved, the head baddie in the field (you don't expect Huston to do any direct killing, do you?) has been turned into confetti, and I can't even remember if Bronson gets paid.It's all entertaining, mildly humorous, modestly gory, dopey fun and I can't think of a reason not to rent this piece of fluff for 90 plus minutes of mindlessness.