ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

SnoopyStyle In a WWII POW camp, an allied prisoner attempting escape is met with bullets. Capt. Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) presents a naked plan to the escape committee. English Captain John Colby (Michael Caine) is one of the prisoners and a former professional footballer for West Ham United. Maj. Karl von Steiner (Max von Sydow) challenges him to a game. Colby accepts the challenge and starts building a team but he rejects any escape attempts. He doesn't want to get his men killed and would rather wait for the war's end. Hatch is desperate to escape and Colby reluctantly allows him to join. The Germans see the propaganda potential and set the game in Paris. Real football players are included in the movie starting with Pelé.It's a rather standard POW film. The actors are solid. Stallone does not embarrass himself as the brash American. There is no equal to Max von Sydow. John Huston is doing yeoman's work but not much more. The soccer stars would be appealing to fans but I don't recognize anybody other than Pelé. I'm surprised at his natural charisma coming through the screen. He's very effective at being Pelé. Tension isn't that high. The main problem could be the Nazis. The movie needs scary Nazis to elevate the intensity and they don't mistreat their prisoners enough. As for the soccer game, I'm sure it's appealing to see these great athletes on the pitch and the bicycle kick is beautiful but it has no drama. The drama is the escape and therefore, the score is actually meaningless. The game has no rooting value. The only way to make it meaningful is to play it in Berlin in front of Hitler with no chance of escape. The stakes becomes pride but the stakes here is escape. Overall, it's not boring but it could be better. I like the final escape which has a fun element. However, it is yet another example of the lack of ruthlessness by the Nazis.

Leofwine_draca Although it's a well-remembered film – particularly here in the UK – I found watching ESCAPE TO VICTORY to be a hollow experience. It actually turns out to be a hollow, rather soulless viewing experience. Yes, it's a feel-good film about a football match between an international team and the Nazis during WW2, but in truth? The script isn't very good. The prison drama stuff just kinds of happens without the viewer ever getting too involved or emotionally attached to the plot, and none of the characters have a great deal of sympathy, either.Perhaps it's one of those movies where there are so many characters, we don't have time to care about them. So we get Michael Caine as the token movie-star hero, Max Von Sydow as the token sympathetic Nazi, Sly Stallone as the token macho American idol, and a bunch of real footballers like Pele and Bobby Moore doing their bit on the pitch.The football scenes themselves are great. They're portrayed humorously, with maximum drama and skill. The final few minutes of the final match are truly nail-biting, and all this is from a guy who typically hates football. But other than pride, what's the film all about? The prison escape drama strives to be on the same level as the one in THE GREAT ESCAPE, but I never cared about whether the characters made it or not. Well-remembered it might be…but unlike other well-remembered movies, this one's no classic.

Prismark10 Escape to Victory is really a far out film trying to be a kind of movie they do not make anymore with a casting that requires some stretch of the imagination.Taking its inspiration from The Great Escape the film is set in a World War 2 prison camp. Michael Caine plays an ex England football international who receives a proposition from Max Von Sydow, a Nazi officer and a former German footballer for match against the POWs and the German Officers.Sylvester Stallone who takes on the Steve McQueen type role is the goalkeeper of the team and although some of the Allied officers think that the game will be a German propaganda victory they also see this as an opportunity to organise an escape.Film legend John Huston directed this film with some old fashion war spirit and he assembles a cast that not only sees Stallone and Caine but famous footballers such as Pele, Bobby Moore and some current soccer players of the era such as Ossie Ardiles.Its football, its escape from a prison camp, its a little bit of Rocky with music from Bill Conti and its a lot of fun, simply because you know you will never watch a film like this again.Film critics sharpened their knives when this film was released but years later its still very enjoyable hokum.

Johan Dondokambey The story is one of the unique tales to be based on World War II, The basic premise departs from the love of the game of football in both the sides of Allies and Axis, despite there's a war between them. The added weight of having the Nazi will be very tempted to use the game as a great propaganda against the rest of the world and the Allied POW will be tempted to use the game as a cover to escape makes the story more interesting. However, the story develops rather unpredictably weird, having Hatch willing to go back inside to convey the info to Colby, and having the mob rush in without the Nazi shooting a single bullet. There's also all the little hiccups here and there such as the alarm didn't sound when the light hit Hatch's face when he's escaping, and also the football game rather played stupidly despite being designed by Pele. The acting is surely an average one, despite the big names of Stallone, Caine, and Von Sydow here. From all the roles, I only see Michael Caine delivers a quite convincing acting, although is also refuted by the sheer weirdness of how the story unfolds.