I’m not aware of any other psychology experiment that has spawned three films; I don’t think that poor Ivan Pavlov can boast even one movie, notwithstanding Pavlov’s Dog (2005). And I’m not sure why, after two perfectly sound movies in Das Experiment (2001) and The Experiment (2010), it was seen to be worthwhile to make yet another film based on Dr Philip Zimbardo’s famous 1971 experiment examining the psychology of prison – its impact on prisoners and guards. (more…)
Posted on March 28th, 2016 at 11:59 am. Updated on March 28th, 2016 at 11:59 am.
Vendetta has all the standard ’80s trademarks you’d expect – prisoners with big hair and wearing workout gear like they’d just stepped out of a Flashdance or Let’s Get Physical video – but no-one (at least in prison) seems to be held accountable for much. Wasn’t glasnost an ’80s thing? (more…)
Posted on March 21st, 2016 at 8:00 pm. Updated on March 21st, 2016 at 8:00 pm.
The first Boys Behind Bars (2013) was a cheap and nasty film saved from being solely an exercise in debasement by an engrossing performance by Wade Radford as the most diabolical of three prisoners who prey on a younger, vulnerable fourth. While Radford reprises his role as Darrell from the original film, this sequel has absolutely nothing to commend or redeem it. It is a very strong contender for the worst prison film I’ve seen. (more…)
Posted on March 14th, 2016 at 4:23 pm. Updated on March 14th, 2016 at 4:32 pm.
I’d seen several ‘top prison movie’ lists that include Toy Story 3, but was a little dubious. I’d imagined toys escaping from a toy box and had guessed it was a very long bow to liken it to a prison breakout… a bit like trying to draw an analogy between the whale in Free Willy and a prisoner’s quest for freedom. But I was wrong; a prison escape (of sorts) it is. (more…)
Posted on March 9th, 2016 at 11:23 am. Updated on March 9th, 2016 at 11:29 am.
Why is it that I have less difficulty with an absurd action flick out of Hong Kong – replete with series of extraordinary coincidences, implausible plot twists, and heroes and villains alike being shot, stabbed and pounded to little or no effect – than a similarly ludicrous movie out of Hollywood? I have no idea. (more…)
Posted on March 5th, 2016 at 7:36 pm. Updated on April 27th, 2016 at 8:31 pm.
It’s the underpinning socio-ethical positions here that I find even harder to fathom than the whole action-movie-implausibility thing. Which is saying something. (more…)
Posted on February 22nd, 2016 at 2:02 pm. Updated on February 22nd, 2016 at 2:02 pm.
A warden with a past he’d rather forget. An idealistic psychiatrist running a new psycho-support program for prisoners. A prison not fit to house prisoners. A wrathful ghost of a former warden. And a film that mixes comedy and horror, but misses the mark on both counts… while remaining sort of amiable. (more…)
Posted on February 15th, 2016 at 1:12 pm. Updated on February 15th, 2016 at 1:25 pm.
“Comic icons Pat Morita (The Karate Kid) and Demond Wilson (Sanford and Son) star in this hilarious tale of bumbling prison guards, who on their first day let two dim-witted bank robbers escape during a jail transfer.” So says the blurb on the back of my DVD – so staggeringly wrong that you have to marvel at its audacity. (more…)
Posted on February 9th, 2016 at 8:35 pm. Updated on April 18th, 2017 at 8:57 pm.
There were several disappointments in this for me. The first (bearing no reflection on the film), was that the disc I watched skipped and stumbled and distorted and froze for much of the second half, so I think I may have missed a few key moments. Thankfully, there were too few prison scenes to make that a major disaster. That there were too few prison scenes to make that a major disaster was a disappointment. (more…)
Posted on January 25th, 2016 at 8:54 pm. Updated on July 9th, 2020 at 4:14 pm.
It’s been said before that the idea of being thrown into a Turkish prison is so much more evocative than being banged up any other country’s prisons. But just as a foreigner, perhaps, and maybe ignoring a lot of other serious and exotic contenders. Pardon, a farce said to be based on a true story, shows a different sort of terrible experience in a Turkish prison for three locals. (more…)
Posted on January 18th, 2016 at 8:42 pm. Updated on January 18th, 2016 at 8:48 pm.