Lucky Break (2001)

48% of critics liked it
(44 reviews)
50% of users liked it
(1,373 ratings)

The first feature by director Peter Cattaneo since his award-winning British smash hit The Full Monty, Lucky Break is another comedy in the same mold, this time taking place in prison. Small-time crooks Jimmy (James Nesbitt) and Rudy (Lennie James), after years of no success, decide to pull a bank… More The first feature by director Peter Cattaneo since his award-winning British smash hit The Full Monty, Lucky Break is another comedy in the same mold, this time taking place in prison. Small-time crooks Jimmy (James Nesbitt) and Rudy (Lennie James), after years of no success, decide to pull a bank job, where they are both captured and incarcerated. Jimmy is then transferred to Long Rudford, run by the steely security chief Perry (Ron Cook). Jimmy again runs into Rudy (whom he left to take the initial rap) and shares a cell with Cliff (Timothy Spall), a portly man prone to depression. The prison warden, Mortimer (Christopher Plummer), is heavily into Broadway musicals and offers Jimmy an opportunity to stage his long-unproduced work, "Nelson: The Musical," which Jimmy will use as a means to bust out of the prison. After working hard on the new tuner, the boys try to find a way both to do the show and to continue their arduously planned escape. The Sixth Sense's Olivia Williams co-stars as a guard Jimmy falls for, and British comic actors Bill Nighy and Frank Harper appear in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 47 min.
Directed By: Peter Cattaneo
Written By: Ronan Bennett
Genres: Comedy

In Theaters: Apr 5, 2002 Wide
On DVD: Oct 22, 2002
Studio: Paramount Pictures

Critic Reviews

Loren King, Chicago Tribune
The formulaic script, stocked with not one truly menacing inmate, echoes far too many sentimental post-Full Monty imports.
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
A prison comedy that never really busts out of its comfy little cell.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
It's what the Brits themselves might call fair to middling.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
No worse a film than Breaking Out, and Breaking Out was utterly charming.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
A pleasing but routine British comedy set in an English prison.
Peter Howell, Toronto Star
While we can forgive Cattaneo for succumbing to temptation, we must also damn him and screenwriter Ronan Bennett (Face) for failing to attempt to improve on the original idea.
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette
Well, this is definitely a disappointment.
Scott Weinberg, Apollo Guide
If you adored The Full Monty so resoundingly that you're dying to see the same old thing in a tired old setting, then this should keep you reasonably entertained.
Ron Wells, Film Threat
Overall, it's good, not great. This is a pleasant enough but small English romantic comedy.
John Patterson, L.A. Weekly
The end result is like cold porridge with only the odd enjoyably chewy lump.