Prison stuff. In prison movies.
I’m not keen on sci-fi prison movies, so it’s good that while this is set ‘sometime in the future’, it’s hardly futuristic, with very 1980s-90s cars and fashion and people speaking on pay phones. But like Fortress (1992), it provides a wonderful illustration of real prison innovation. (more…)
Posted on September 25th, 2012 at 10:16 pm. Updated on September 25th, 2012 at 10:20 pm.
I have no idea what this is about, but if you only watch prison movies for the shower scenes, this could be the film for you. (more…)
Posted on July 24th, 2012 at 9:07 pm. Updated on December 1st, 2012 at 4:56 pm.
This is, quite frankly, a pretty ordinary film. I have, however, given it an extra half-star for containing the only punishment I have seen, on film or elsewhere, involving a prisoner being forced to wear three large teapots. (more…)
Posted on June 30th, 2012 at 8:16 pm. Updated on June 30th, 2012 at 8:16 pm.
This is a cold, cold film. An escapee is returned to the prison, barefoot in the snow. Young men shiver in the forest, huddling together in the freezing rain, unable to find shelter. It is the unrelenting cold, as much as anything, that serves to remind us of how estranged these boys are from the warmth of people who care for them – and which constantly underscores the brutality of their existence. The cold… and the practice of referring to the boys only by their number, not their names.
Posted on June 4th, 2012 at 10:39 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:49 pm.
“I have one rule in my prison: There are no rules.” So says Warden Preston (Derek McGrath), but he’s not telling the truth; there are quite a few rules, including one which says that if you are in a fight-to-the-death you are not permitted to refuse to kill your opponent. (more…)
Posted on May 27th, 2012 at 8:11 pm. Updated on May 27th, 2012 at 8:12 pm.
One of the better things that can be said about this film, also known as ‘The Jailbreakers’ or, more properly, ‘Huo shao dao zhi heng hung Ba dao’, is that this time Chu Yen-Ping directs an original script, rather than stringing together scenes from his favourite prison movies as he did in Island of Fire (1990). Some things however remain very similar; same island, same prison, same format of four (or five) prisoners with interwoven stories. (more…)
Posted on April 24th, 2012 at 11:20 pm. Updated on December 16th, 2016 at 8:20 pm.
The Experiment opens with scenes of various animals engaged in alpha male battles for superiority, some other animals killing others that are less strong, and humans engaged in acts of degradation and abuse of others. The message seems clear: men are no different to animals, and it is the natural order of things for prison guards to brutally assert their power over prisoners. We soon learn that this natural order involves things such as guards urinating on prisoners, demanding sex from them, and finding justification to deny an ill prisoner access to life-preserving medication. (more…)
Posted on February 25th, 2012 at 10:03 pm. Updated on February 25th, 2012 at 10:03 pm.
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Histoire charts the decline of Claude (Emmanuel Auger), a clean-cut, good-lookin’ 19-year-old serving 10 years for an armed robbery. He’s so clean-cut and so good-lookin’ and is so missing his pretty girlfriend, Karine (Karyne Lemieux), that we can’t really believe he belongs in a harsh maximum-security prison. But then we could be wrong. (more…)
Posted on February 3rd, 2012 at 10:17 pm. Updated on February 3rd, 2012 at 10:17 pm.
The collective wisdom seems to be that this is a remake of Caged (1949). Even my Warner Bros DVD says so, and I guess they should know, having made both movies. But maybe they didn’t watch past the first few scenes. (more…)
Posted on January 1st, 2012 at 6:52 pm. Updated on January 1st, 2012 at 6:52 pm.
It appears, to my surprise, that some people actually enjoy watching kickboxing movies. They may even like Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, who was apparently a kickboxing champion of some note. That, of course, makes neither Wilson an actor of any ability, nor this film which features him a movie of any merit. (more…)
Posted on December 12th, 2011 at 9:24 pm. Updated on December 12th, 2011 at 9:24 pm.