Cheesy and uneven, but 'Early Release' manages to sufficiently entertain. It's another one of those American television network films that is held back by the usual age rating etc. stuff. This type of story told with a much darker and menacing tone would've been potentially excellent, instead we get a very watered down version of events. The casting is good, it's nothing spectacular but Kelli Williams (Taylor), Sarain Boylan (Meghan), Niamh Wilson (Bianca) and Justin Mader (Jeff) all work together pretty well - Boylan probably gives the standout performance. Happy to say I enjoyed this, the ending is fairly poor but even then it has one or two things in it that I liked. 3*.