Do you want to see ‘Lucky Break’?

Add to Netflix

Lucky Break (2001)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 23

Lucky Break fails to do anything new with The Full Monty formula.

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 9

Lucky Break fails to do anything new with The Full Monty formula.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 1,363

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

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

PG-13, 1 hr. 47 min.

Comedy

Directed By: Peter Cattaneo

Written By: Ronan Bennett

In Theaters: Apr 5, 2002 Wide

On DVD: Oct 22, 2002

Paramount Pictures

The formulaic script, stocked with not one truly menacing inmate, echoes far too many sentimental post-Full Monty imports.

July 20, 2002 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

| Comment

Loren King

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

A prison comedy that never really busts out of its comfy little cell.

May 31, 2002 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press

| Comment

Terry Lawson

Detroit Free Press

Top Critic

It's what the Brits themselves might call fair to middling.

May 13, 2002 Comment

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

Top Critic

No worse a film than Breaking Out, and Breaking Out was utterly charming.

April 24, 2002 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Michael O'Sullivan

Washington Post

Top Critic

A pleasing but routine British comedy set in an English prison.

April 24, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

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.

April 19, 2002 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

Well, this is definitely a disappointment.

November 7, 2003 Comment

Eric Lurio

Greenwich Village Gazette

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.

December 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide

| Comment

Scott Weinberg

Apollo Guide

Overall, it's good, not great. This is a pleasant enough but small English romantic comedy.

December 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Ron Wells

Film Threat

The end result is like cold porridge with only the odd enjoyably chewy lump.

October 21, 2002 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly

| Comment

John Patterson

L.A. Weekly

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Lucky Break

View All

What an entertaining find this was! Sure at times the plot is predictable and some sub plots are not fully fleshed out, perhaps they should've been axed all together...but on the whole Nesbitt and Williams carry the movie and it is a comedy with enough drama that invites you to see what happens. A fun flick!

July 17, 2008