Stallone's take on the Great Escape.

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2005)

So I'm no expert on World War II, but the idea of some German prison officers being even remotely interested in a game of soccer between themselves and their prisoners seems pretty ludicrous to me. Nonetheless, this movie does a good job of justifying that idea, presenting it as a huge propaganda event, something that would not have been too much of a stretch coming from Nazi Germany.
The similarities to Steve McQueen's Great Escape are extensive, of course, but mostly in theme. i.e. the prisoners are duty-bound to constantly attempt to escape, and there are not a lot of different plot options that can come out of that duty other than a lot of officers planning tunnels and a lot of Germans trying to figure out what escape plans are being hatched under their noses.
In the movie's defense, even though the pairing of soccer with WWII prison camps is an uncomfortable match, the movie certainly does create tension and the ending is very, very good, I must say. When Stallone is first asked to return to the prison camp after having escaped, it was almost a mirror image of what Steve McQueen did for his fellow inmates in the 1963 version, but what unfolds in the rest of the movie is fairly original. The half time "escape" scene was very good as well. Having already returned once, Robert Hatch (Stallone) is faced with a choice that is much, much deeper than is commonly found in movies as low grade as many people are sure to judge this one.
The closing scene is by far my favorite. You may have seen it coming a mile away, but I have to admit that it didn't even occur to me and, while I was kicking myself for not having seen it coming sooner, it's one of those things where it seems perfectly natural that the events were leading there all along. And having an ending that seems perfectly natural and yet is not completely predictable is one of the more difficult balancing acts that need to be pulled off in screen-writing. For my part, I was impressed, it's just a matter of getting over that hump of accepting the basic premise. I was sure able to.