slightlymad22 Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to the sorts/war drama Escape To Victory. Plot In A Paragraph: In World War II, a group of Nazi officers come up with a propaganda event in which an all star Nazi team will play a team composed of Allied Prisoners of War in a Football game. The Prisoners agree, planning on using the game as a means of escape from the camp.Whilst every male of a certain generation loves this movie, it's a shame the movie was ignored upon its release, as Stallone gives one of the more enthusiastic performances of his career. Michael Caine and Max Von Sydow are as reliable as always, and the professional footballers are all adequate actors when needed, and are a joy to watch during the main match. Once again Bill Conti delivers a triumphant score to a Sly Stallone movie. You can see why he is a favourite composer of the actor.It's horribly inaccurate, given a Hollywood ending. Reportedly, once again Stallone meddled with the script and insisted that his character score the game-winning goal in the film, as he felt he was the biggest star in the film. The non-American crew was finally able to convince him of the absurdity of the goalkeeper scoring the winning goal, and the penalty shot was specifically written to keep him happy.

cultfilmfreaksdotcom Perceived as a GREAT ESCAPE clone, and somewhat resembling THE LONGEST YARD, this John Huston directed Sylvester Stallone project winds up a WWII version of an obscure Vietnam War flick titled THE BOYS IN COMPANY C.Within a German POW camp, Michael Caine plays Major John Colby, a once-great British soccer star heading a ragtag prison team, viewed by Max Von Sydow's Major Steiner, who, recognizing Colby, sets up a YARD style scrimmage between the cons and the guards… But this initial plan doesn't go far.The Nazi propaganda machine wants a legit game to occur in occupied Paris. Here's where the escape wheels spin by the imprisoned intellectual Brits… Yet American Sylvester Stallone, as the new Steve McQueen style Cooler King, Captain Robert Hatch, likes this game plan most of all… only Caine's Major Colby wants nothing to do with him. An aggressive Hatch, who eventually winds up a better goalie than kicker, begs to join the team… they get a cozy barracks and three square meals a day… but for selfish reasons only – he desperately yearns for a solo breakout.The best sequence has the rogue American given a tactical pre-game mission while director John Huston keeps the suspense edgy and unpredictable: as Hatch sneaks around and about the prison, the camera's kept low and dark, as if we too were escaping. This is followed by a brief pocket of downtime after Hatch is safe within the confine of a French Resistance group, wherein a disposable love interest is introduced. The anticipated rivalry takes up the entire third act and, like soccer often can, the match is stretched-out, hard to follow and not as involving as, for instance, the football game in THE LONGEST YARD or even Robert Altman's M*A*S*H… Here's where the climactic BOYS IN COMPANY C plot line unveils: a 1978 film in which a group of American soldiers in Vietnam take part in a soccer match against the enemy, and wind up choosing possible triumph over probable freedom.A semi-conceived halftime escape, surreptitiously tunneled out by the Resistance through a THIRD MAN style underground sewer, seemed much too easy to begin with: Leading back to the game involving shots of real players highlighted by Brazilian star Pelé (an impressive back-flip goal-kick is repeated three times in slow motion), whose exploitative "special guest" appearance made more sense to audiences than was logical to the storyline...The iconic athlete's casting trumped even the A-list Stallone, who, with help from the always-capable Caine, turns in an above par performance, shining brighter than his usual action fare and yet, like other Sly flicks, you'll suspend the same amount of testosterone-pumping disbelief backed by another ecstatic (though hardly as catchy) Bill Conti score.

TheLittleSongbird I quite enjoyed Escape to Victory. It is not one of John Huston's best, and it is not a perfect movie. It can get silly and implausible, the plot has its predictabilities and there is the odd cliché every now and then. That said, it was very enjoyable. The film looks good, and coming from a non-sports fan the football scenes are great fun to watch. John Huston's direction is memorable, the script was snappy and while the characters have their clichéd moments they are also somewhat credible. The acting is fine too, the cast do give it their all here and it shows. Sylvester Stallone surprised me in a good way and Michael Caine is always good value. All in all, an enjoyable and fun movie even with its problems. 7/10 Bethany Cox

mark-whait This film is best viewed through the eyes of either a) an eight year old boy or b) an England football fanatic. So if you are neither of those when you either saw this movie or have yet to see it, then that is pure bad luck but not something I will account for. As I was very much an 'a' then it is my prerogative to like this movie when many do not. I even believe it gives me the right to smirk at some of the cheesier moments with ease because when all is said and done I am still very fond of this presentation and always will be. Right. Happy? So where shall we start. Well how about John Huston? One of the most legendary cinematic monoliths ever to come out of Hollywood, ends up directing a movie about football or, as Huston would have said at the time, 'so-ccer'. It's akin to Martin Scorcese directing a Tom And Jerry episode or Clint Eastwood appearing in Celebrity Big Brother. Quite how much 'direction' Huston had over the football scenes is highly debatable, but that is the first shock over with. The plot is utterly ludicrous of course. An allied Prisoner of War camp just happens to house some of the worlds most infamous footballing legends, and they put together a team to play a German side, with much of the outcome designed to further progress Nazi propaganda. Inevitably, the Germans punch, kick and cheat their way through the game whilst 'our boys' look on helplessly. The sub plot here is that during half time, the Allies will make a daring bid to escape and not return for the second half. But you guessed it, whilst still believing the game can be won, the English led team decide not to take an ideal opportunity to escape from a POW camp and instead return to the field for the honour of a football match. Given that they entertain the crowd so much with their football that it sparks a pitch invasion at the end which precipitates their escape anyway, this gives the wafer thin plot even more ridicule. But do you know what? I don't care. This is how football movies should be made. I don't care that 'we' have Sylvester Stallone in goal. I don't care if a pushing-fifty year old Michael Caine mixes it with the football heavyweights like Booby Moore and Pele. I don't care if every sporting cliché is visited shamelessly to great effect. We even get 'Nazi' softie Max Von Sydow eventually applauding the breathtaking football skills of the Allies to the evident brow furrowing of his superiors. It's just a good romp through a genre we've seen so many times before. In fact, giving a war film a footballing theme could be seen as being dynamic and ahead of its time. Actually, I've just thought of an idea - how about a war film set in a POW camp that gets visited by ruthless aliens? Steady on now, I'm in full flow. This is popcorn cinema at its best - nothing to take very seriously and all good fun. Yes, that seems ridiculous even now when you consider the backdrop the movie is set against, but it is the case that nothing more preposterous yet at the same time compelling came out of Hollywood in the eighties. Then again, there's always The Hand.