Does Son of a Gun have Australia’s best on-screen prison escape ever?

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Son of a Gun’ — this violent new Aussie crime thriller peaks early with a great jailbreak scene, then tapers off.

Son of a Gun (MA15+)

Director: Julius Avery (feature debut)

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Brenton Thwaites, Alicia Vikander, Jacek Koman

Rating : **1/2

A muffled bang for your buck

Best on-screen Australian prison escape ever?

There are worse legacies a local movie can leave behind in 2014.

While there is more to Son of a Gun than just an audacious breakout sequence — young rising star Brenton Thwaites certainly proves he is an actor going places — it never quite scales the same peak of adrenalised excitement again.

Before we get to that well-staged scene, Son of a Gun places the audience in not-so-solitary confinement within a brutal WA jail.

The clientele in this slammer are not the welcoming kind, as a young new arrival is finding out the hard way.

JR (Thwaites) is moving rapidly towards the front of the queue for a bashing, and worse. The kid needs a connection that can offer protection.

BRENTON THWAITES: ‘I’m not born to fit into Hollywood lifestyle’

Brutal and violent ... Sterlo (Matt Nable), Brendan (Ewan McGregor) and Merv (Eddie Baroo) in Son of a Gun.

Enter Brendan (Ewan McGregor), a bearded badass who can keep the tattooed torturers at bay. Of course, he wants something in return, and JR is in no position to refuse.

Once he completes a relatively short sentence, JR must track down some of Brendan’s most dangerous acquaintances.

They will assist the kid in his bid to execute an elaborate escape scheme that, as they say in the classics, is just so crazy, it just might work.

After this very striking start, Son of a Gun loses its pinpoint aim and begins spraying willy-nilly at some easy and familiar targets.

Rising star ... Brenton Thwaites as JR with Brendan (played by Ewan McGregor) in a scene from Son of a Gun.

Ben Affleck’s superior heist thriller The Town is a clear influence on proceedings here, and not always for the better.

The scripting here isn’t clever enough (Russian mobsters yet again, really?) to keep us caring who might be holding the upper hand as the white lies and black eyes just keep on coming.

While the violence is excessive — in terms of both physical force and forensic aftermath — it never strikes the intimidating notes of danger first-time filmmaker Julius Avery thinks it will.

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Originally published as Does Son of a Gun have Australia’s best on-screen prison escape ever?