» K-11 (2012, USA)
K-11 sounded to me like a submarine, or a lubricant. I hadn’t realised that it is a real segregated housing option for gay and transsexual men at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, around which this drama is based. Loosely based, and with extra salaciousness, one hopes.
Posted on May 20th, 2013 at 10:46 pm. Updated on May 20th, 2013 at 10:47 pm.
» Escape from New York (1981, USA)
In 1988 the crime rate in the US rises by 400% and New York City becomes the sole maximum-security prison for the entire country, with a 50-foot containment wall around Manhattan Island and its bridges and waterways mined. The prison has no guards. And just one rule, apparently: ‘Once you go in, you don’t come out.’ Which sort of defeats the need for a prison, doesn’t it? If the prisoners are never coming out, why would a ruthless Government sacrifice New York to keep them alive? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 12th, 2013 at 6:44 pm. Updated on May 12th, 2013 at 6:44 pm.
» Présumé Coupable / Guilty (2011, France)
There are lots of films about innocent men and women in prison. Few show the toll that false charges can have on an individual as this one does. And to make it even more troubling, it’s based on a true story. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 6th, 2013 at 9:36 pm. Updated on May 6th, 2013 at 9:36 pm.
» Laughing Gor - Qian Zui Fan / Turning Point 2 (2011, Hong Kong)
Just in case a cop in prison who is actually an undercover cop in prison isn’t complex enough, this also boasts a prison guard who is undercover as a guard but who has worked for the undercover cop and is now working to keep him undercover, and, in the next cell to the undercover cop, a university professor (who at one point also claims to be an undercover cop) who is also a psychologist who has, as an ongoing client, a woman who thinks that he is her dead husband whom the undercover cop is convicted of killing. Phew!
Posted on April 28th, 2013 at 8:55 pm. Updated on April 28th, 2013 at 8:55 pm.
» Shapeshifter (2005, USA)
Shapeshifter is brought to us by the same production company that produced Dead Men Walking (2005). Same year, same filming location (the old Lincoln Heights Jail), same terrorising of guards and prisoners by non-humans showing the same flesh-eating techniques, same inexplicable removal of her shirt by the heroine to reveal the same singlet top, same low budgets. Why not combine those budgets and make one better movie, one wonders? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 25th, 2013 at 10:15 pm. Updated on April 25th, 2013 at 10:24 pm.
» Pressure Point (1962, USA)
If, like me, you love every one of those people the police wish to interview on Law & Order who find something with which to busy themselves (rather than just sit) while being asked questions by detectives, you’ll love the psychiatrist (Sidney Poitier) in this movie. The Poitier character clearly went to the same school as the Law & Order people, but took Distracted Filing During Psychiatric Consultations 101 instead of Preoccupied Activity During Questioning about a Homicide 101. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 18th, 2013 at 9:30 pm. Updated on April 18th, 2013 at 9:30 pm.
» Kyûka / Vacation (2008, Japan)
Vacation is one of those rare prison officer-centred prison movies. If it were not so understated, it would celebrate ordinary men - plodders, the unambitious, and a murderer - acting with honour.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 10th, 2013 at 10:46 pm. Updated on April 10th, 2013 at 10:46 pm.
» Dead Men Walking (2005, USA)
I’m not overly conversant with the horror genre, but I think that what this movie is trying to say is that it is an horrific job being a prison warden. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 31st, 2013 at 1:22 pm. Updated on April 25th, 2013 at 8:47 pm.
» Cell 2455, Death Row (1955, USA)
“So, the story of this man is not yet over. Nor is the story of Cell 2455, Death Row. Whether Whit descends to the gas chamber or whatever the future holds for him, Cell 2455 still stands - ready and waiting for the next Whittier.” Thus the film and its subject both stop - mid-sentence. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 29th, 2013 at 3:12 pm. Updated on March 29th, 2013 at 3:12 pm.
» So Young So Bad (1950, USA)
Not to be confused with So Evil, So Young (1961) or The Weak and the Wicked (1954). But it does share something with both of those British movies - the young women in this reform school are not particularly bad, or wicked, or evil. Some, surprisingly, are even youngish. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 26th, 2013 at 9:42 pm. Updated on March 26th, 2013 at 9:42 pm.