Prison stuff. In prison movies.
It is the absence of men that one first notices in the visitors’ queue. There are resigned wives, dutiful girlfriends, tired mothers, teary grandmothers. But no men. (more…)
Posted on April 30th, 2012 at 9:30 pm. Updated on August 5th, 2012 at 5:24 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.
1986, and two first-timers are received into a maximum-security prison. One, Yonatan (Idan Alterman), is placed in a big shared cell which includes an imposing drug boss (played by the film’s director, Arnon Zadok), who wastes no time in imposing himself sexually upon the young man. From his first day, he is enslaved. Clichéd, yes, but through Yonatan, everyone’s worst fears about prison are quickly realised. (more…)
Posted on April 19th, 2012 at 10:56 pm. Updated on April 19th, 2012 at 10:56 pm.
The storyline of VIP is apparently borrowed from a real-life Guatemalan corruption case. Which one, I don’t know. Based on the depiction of Guatemalan life in this film, there could be a large number from which to choose. (more…)
Posted on March 28th, 2012 at 9:06 pm. Updated on April 23rd, 2020 at 8:22 pm.
As the opening credits of Con Games roll over, we see a prisoner being led into a cell (in order that he might be raped by a waiting prisoner, it turns out), and the cell door doesn’t have a locking mechanism. Maybe such details are unimportant. But it doesn’t augur well. (more…)
Posted on March 19th, 2012 at 10:29 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:00 pm.
I’m not sure why this wasn’t called ‘Bad Choices’. Most of the critical choices are arguably not that hard: “Do I join my brothers in a robbery?”, “Do I allow myself to be sprung from jail by a social worker who is pointing a gun at the sheriff who has treated me decently?”, “Do I become a drug trafficker?” – but not all the answers are straightforward in this morally challenging tale.
Posted on March 11th, 2012 at 8:55 pm. Updated on December 16th, 2013 at 8:21 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.
This is a heartwarming tale – full of stabbings, rape, murder, drug dealing, slash-ups, suicide and corruption. But heartwarming nonetheless. (more…)
Posted on January 28th, 2012 at 10:02 pm. Updated on February 3rd, 2012 at 10:29 pm.
Prison hell is a bit subjective: just look at In Hell (2003), or Bangkok Hell (2002) or Hell in the City (1959). The only thing that’s certain is that it is a worse hell in someone else’s prison system. Like Midnight Express (1978) or Brokedown Palace (1999). Hunger (2008), even. Or Hell in Tangier. (more…)
Posted on January 9th, 2012 at 9:28 pm. Updated on December 30th, 2019 at 8:44 pm.