Prison stuff. In prison movies.
Ringo Lam (who directed the Hong Kong Prison on Fire movies) directs this as well, but if that gives you some optimism, the fact that it stars Jean-Claude Van Damme probably won’t. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 7:25 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:43 pm.
The product description promised English sub-titles, the DVD itself teases by allowing English sub-titles to be selected… but nothing. So it’s a bit difficult to rate, this one; my Spanish is very poor indeed, and half the reviews of the movie on the web very earnestly outline the plot of an entirely different film and so offer no help at all. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 7:22 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
This is not a film that you would ever watch twice. It’s a low-budget offering that offers realism (the writer and director, Sean Wilson, has seemingly done time and the movie is based on his experiences) but forgets that ‘real’ doesn’t necessarily translate to ‘interesting’. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 7:18 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
There are some who have watched this grainy, low-budget, independently-released blaxploitation movie with poor production values and have elevated it to cult status. I’m afraid I just saw a grainy movie with poor production values and an uninventive storyline. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:38 pm. Updated on January 25th, 2010 at 8:54 pm.
Written by Edward Bunker (who did 20-odd years in prison himself) and shot partly in Philadelphia’s closed Holmesburg Prison and several working prisons (substituting for San Quentin, where the film is set), this film about survival in prison should at least have some authenticity. And it does – to a degree. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 4:27 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
A confronting black-and-white film version of the 1977 play by Ray Mooney, which purports to depict the struggle of Christopher Dale Flannery in ‘H’ Division, Pentridge, and his campaign which resulted in the Jenkinson Inquiry in 1972. Mooney, an ex-‘H’ Division prisoner himself, should know what he’s talking about, but one suspects that he also uses just a touch of artistic licence. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 4:21 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
Yes, that’s right; ‘Nu zi jian yu’ becomes ‘Women Prison’… and that sets the standard for the sub-titling throughout. It’s an entertaining prison movie for traditionalists: a fight for top dog, a naïve first-timer, a brutal, corrupt officer, an escape, some sexual assaults, and even a disturbance that requires the use of tear gas. Not unlike the 1987 Hong Kong film about a male prison, Prison on Fire, in some ways. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 3:16 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
This is your line-and-length type prison movie, scoring awfully high on the cliché count. Which is a shame because it’s co-written by Truman Capote and is filmed grainily on location in a prison in Salt Lake City (I just can’t work out which one) with plenty of prisoners as extras. The backdrop is stunning and the film should be better. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 2:51 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
‘A Song of Love’. Jean Genet had all the credentials to write and direct a prison movie - in his younger years he was a petty thief, vagrant and prostitute and spent a number of years in juvenile and adult penal facilities. This 26-minute, soundless, black & white film draws on some of that experience, and no doubt his experience as a gay man in prison. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 2:04 pm. Updated on October 12th, 2009 at 8:36 pm.
Having been very critical of Midnight Express for its xenophobic vilification of the locals, I was keen to see a slightly more trustworthy portrayal of the Turkish prison system. And the two films are different; while Midnight Express has not one prison guard who is neither corrupt nor brutal, Duvar has… one! (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:38 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.