You can't deny the fact that Escape from Pretoria is a neat little jailbreak thriller, but it could have been so much more had more light been thrown on the film's lead characters. These guys have essential roles in apartheid history. The impact of their escape could have had a much greater payoff if writer-director Francis Annan had given us more character development. That's what makes good thrillers great: giving audiences reasons to care for the protagonists to succeed, even if they're doing something illegal. Escape from Pretoria is tremendous fun to watch, especially in its final 30 minutes, when the actual jailbreak is in progress.

For a good portion of the first two acts, the makers focus solely on the aspect of trial & error key-making. Radcliffe (as Tim Jenkin) is the clear main-man here, with Webber (as Stephen Lee) playing more of a side-kick role. Mark Leonard Winter (as Leonard Fontaine) rounds off the lead trio, remarkably showcasing his desperation to escape. The thrills are effectively placed and shot, with David Hirschfelder's score raising the stakes during tension-filled scenes. While it's a far from perfect jailbreak thriller, Escape from Pretoria manages to retain your attention all through and delivers a mostly enjoyable fare.

"Escape from Pretoria" will never win any Oscars but this heartfelt, social-conscious thriller, based on a true story and set in a South Africa under Apartheid, is a lot better than I thought it was going to be. As the title tells us, it's an escape movie, (obviously),and by their very nature, escape movies usually make for good thrillers and this is no exception. It's very exciting while not afraid to show the horrors of the South African prison system at the same time.

Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber are the two young white members of the ANC imprisoned for distributing anti-government propoganda and Francis Annan's film is about how they escaped from Pretoria Prison. Ian Hart and Mark Leonard Winter are other prisoners in on the plan. It's a very compact little movie though it's unlikely to cause Bresson's "A Man Escaped", "The Shawshank Redemption" or "Papillion" cause for concern. That said, this is still edge-of-the-seat stuff, very skillfully done, and the performances throughout are first-rate. In the end, you might just say, it does what it says on the tin.

In 1978, Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) are two white members of the ANC setting off harmless pamphlet bombs. They get arrested and imprisoned with other white political prisoners. They are agitating to escape but longtime respected political prisoner Denis Goldberg (Ian Hart) counsels against it. French prisoner Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter) is not like Goldberg.

It needs more about their work and their struggle before prison. It also needs more after the escape. The prison and the escape is well done. It has a very good tick-tick of their escape plan. It has very good bones but the body around it is a little scrawny.