» Locked Down (2010, USA)
If you think you could have seen this movie before, you’re probably right. Even if you haven’t. (more…)
Posted on September 28th, 2011 at 7:24 pm. Updated on September 28th, 2011 at 9:52 pm.
The New Fish
» Sciuscià / Shoeshine (1946, Italy)
This is a remarkable film, partly because of when it was made (in the months immediately after the end of World War II), partly because of the story it tells – a tragedy at many levels – and in even greater part due to the quality of the storytelling. (more…)
Posted on September 27th, 2011 at 11:45 am. Updated on September 27th, 2011 at 11:48 am.
» Gagooman / The Twilight (2002, Iran)
It seems that this is a faithful recreation of a true story featuring real prisoners playing themselves. It brings a different meaning to ‘all the events, names and characters are real’. (more…)
Posted on August 29th, 2011 at 10:00 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2011 at 10:10 pm.
» The Weak and the Wicked (1954, UK)
One presumes that potboiler title was designed to drag scandal-seeking customers through the theatre doors. My guess is that the story’s creator, Joan Henry, would have seen only irony in it. (more…)
Posted on August 16th, 2011 at 10:13 pm. Updated on August 16th, 2011 at 10:20 pm.
» Ghosted (2011, UK)
I haven’t yet seen Screwed (2011) but The Escapist (2008) would seem to have set a bit of a trend for modern British prison movies; observing all the conventions of the genre, exploring very traditional prison themes… but with a twist. (more…)
Posted on July 27th, 2011 at 11:13 pm. Updated on March 8th, 2016 at 12:39 pm.
» Big House, U.S.A. (1955, USA)
This is something of a companion piece to Canon City (1948), matching the earlier film for mountain location and smugness… though in this case the smugness doesn’t belong to the prison, but to the FBI. It features an impressive cast and Charles Bronson’s muscles. (more…)
Posted on May 14th, 2011 at 11:25 pm. Updated on May 17th, 2011 at 10:19 pm.
» Alias ‘La Gringa’ (1991, Peru)
This is quite a fascinating film, as much for the caution with which it treats (or rather side-steps) the churning political turmoil which serves as a constant backdrop to the action, as the main story of a prison escapee being pulled in several different directions. (more…)
Posted on May 1st, 2011 at 12:09 am. Updated on December 17th, 2013 at 9:41 pm.
» Chinese Midnight Express (1997, Hong Kong)
Whoever decided to give this film the English-audience title of Chinese Midnight Express would seem not to have seen the original Midnight Express (1978). For starters, this flick features a Chinese national – bunged up not in some awful foreign jail, but in a Chinese prison. What’s more, he’s an innocent Chinese national in a Chinese prison, and an innocent Chinese national who doesn’t catch the Midnight Express (that is, escape). In fact, no-one escapes, or even tries. It’s a bit bewildering. (more…)
Posted on April 22nd, 2011 at 4:02 pm. Updated on April 22nd, 2011 at 4:18 pm.
» 46-oku-nen no koi / Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Japan)
This is a simple murder mystery based in a prison, suspended in dense allusions to the past and the future, and lapsing in and out of an avant garde stage play. ‘Homoerotic’ is the word most commonly used to describe it, and the Japanese title apparently translates literally into ‘4.6 Billion Years of Love’, creating anticipation of a monumental love story, or preparing one for a passion which is a mere speck in the universe. As it turns out, it is love which ends not with a Big Bang but a whimper. (more…)
Posted on April 5th, 2011 at 10:30 pm. Updated on April 9th, 2011 at 5:59 pm.
» Ring of Death (2008, USA)
Burke Wyatt (Johnny Messner) used to be a cop before he got a little rough with a child abuser. Now driving trucks and no longer living with his wife, he is recruited by his ex-partner, now with the FBI, to go undercover at California’s Cainesville State Prison, where there have been a lot of unexplained deaths. In prison he is soon drafted into no-holds-barred fights (shown live on the internet) where the prisoners are sometimes so badly beaten they die. He gets badly hurt himself. That could explain the deaths, then. “Got some leads,” he says in a smuggled message back to the FBI. “Need more time.” No doubt he was a good cop, just not the sharpest. (more…)
Posted on March 28th, 2011 at 8:41 pm. Updated on March 28th, 2011 at 8:41 pm.