Prison stuff. In prison movies.
If you can get past the notion that a prison guard can be stabbed to death and then, rather than have it investigated by the Police, the Warden is able to brutalise twelve prisoners for six months in the hope that one of them will falsely confess to the killing, you may well enjoy this film. (more…)
Posted on March 5th, 2011 at 10:23 pm. Updated on March 5th, 2011 at 10:23 pm.
Remember when ‘Made in Taiwan’ instantly suggested an inferior copy of the real thing? Perhaps you don’t, but Island of Fire evokes that era perfectly; it is a woeful agglomeration of martial arts action drama, crime thriller, and unashamed rip-offs of other films, notably Cool Hand Luke (1967). (more…)
Posted on February 27th, 2011 at 6:01 pm. Updated on February 27th, 2011 at 6:01 pm.
It can be difficult when the three main characters in a movie are all morally reprehensible, but here it’s part of the attraction. There are demons on both sides of the prison wall, parallels in the lack of willingness to wrestle with them, and plenty of moral ambiguity. (more…)
Posted on February 24th, 2011 at 10:14 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:48 pm.
This is a curious film. Curious because it implies that it is based on a true story and most probably isn’t, because it is one of the few westerns (replete with Cowboys and Indians) to cross over into the prison movie genre, and because it is a pretty blatant rip-off (sorry, re-telling) of The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). It also features arguably the best underground prison in movies before Fortress (1992). (more…)
Posted on February 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm. Updated on February 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm.
I’ve broken my own rules here and included a futuristic prison movie. Partly because I happened to chance upon it for $6.98 in my local DVD store, and partly because when prison operators talk of correctional innovation, it remains such a solid reference point. (more…)
Posted on February 13th, 2011 at 7:59 pm. Updated on February 13th, 2011 at 7:59 pm.
Given the choice of five nights in the box in this unpleasant island prison or being forced to watch this piece of feculence, you might just choose the former. (more…)
Posted on February 6th, 2011 at 7:06 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:04 pm.
Now, I don’t play computer games but I imagine that this is pretty much what they are like: two cartoonishly muscled protagonists in 3D-animation-enhanced combat, with a rather flimsy plot to justify the fighting. But probably without the mushy ending. (more…)
Posted on January 17th, 2011 at 9:45 pm. Updated on April 9th, 2011 at 5:57 pm.
The opening scene of this movie has two naked men entwined in a prison bed, being woken by an early morning siren. Rouse! Rouse! One jumps up, hurriedly gets dressed in his Prison Officer uniform, and lets himself out of the cell. I think that it was at that point that the film lost me. Perhaps the officer’s supervisor, a colleague – someone – would have noticed that he’d gone missing for the entire night-shift… No? (more…)
Posted on January 10th, 2011 at 9:42 pm. Updated on January 15th, 2011 at 9:30 pm.
A trans-Atlantic Scum, this is… based on that acclaimed British movie from 1979, and every bit as bleak. (more…)
Posted on January 3rd, 2011 at 5:15 pm. Updated on January 3rd, 2011 at 5:18 pm.
“I really do admire how you change these girls’ lives,” says an opposition coach to Lt Cleveland Stackhouse, just after trying to get the prison team coached by Stackhouse banned from the schools’ track and field championships to which they’ve been invited. “You got it backwards,” replies Stackhouse. It’s that sort of movie; a bit soppy, corny.. but competent enough. (more…)
Posted on January 3rd, 2011 at 9:42 am. Updated on March 25th, 2016 at 11:17 am.