'Escape From Pretoria (2020)' is essentially an old-fashioned prison escape movie with a political dressing, being set in apartheid South Africa and focusing characters who fight for an anti-apartheid cause. It doesn't really have anything especially deep to say about its subject matter other than, well, racism is bad. Still, it's an interesting setting for a tried-and-true narrative, even if this one is based on real events and follows them relatively closely according to the actual man involved with the eponymous escape. It doesn't necessarily convey the hardships of prison life or create any compelling characters, aside from perhaps its three most major ones. What it does do, though, is provide a handful of genuinely suspenseful and exciting sequences. It presents its prison as a sort of multi-layered puzzle for its protagonists to unravel, with each successful solution usually being followed by another conundrum that requires even more intelligence to overcome. The format works better than you might think and it makes for an especially satisfying final movement. Ultimately, though it's relatively predictable and probably won't linger in your memory for too long, the flick is an enjoyable prison piece with solid performances and decent direction. 7/10