Prison stuff. In prison movies.
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.
How many versions of the one film do you need? Within These Walls borrows very heavily from The Criminal Code (1931) and Penitentiary (1938), films that were to be remade a second time in Convicted (1950). Maybe it was an austerity measure imposed during the war: re-use old scripts rather thhttp://staging.prisonmovies.net/convicted-1950-usaan waste munitions money on new ones. The best that can be said of this apparent lack of imagination is that at least this offshoot has a slightly divergent plot line. (more…)
Posted on July 17th, 2011 at 7:55 pm. Updated on July 9th, 2020 at 4:01 pm.
Let’s face it – for a movie supposedly about a riot in a juvenile prison there’s precious little rioting, far too few juveniles, and way too much sententious guff about prison reform. Not that that detracts from the film in any way… (more…)
Posted on July 11th, 2011 at 10:34 pm. Updated on July 11th, 2011 at 10:34 pm.
Some films are timeless. This isn’t one of them.
Posted on July 8th, 2011 at 10:37 pm. Updated on July 8th, 2011 at 10:37 pm.
“I’ve been waiting for my father to show up for 20 goddamn years, and you the fuck showed up!” So says a tiny-bit-disappointed Darius (Terrence Howard) to his once street-respected (ie outrageously violent) father who gets out of prison after a long stretch, only to have become a man disappointingly committed to eschewing crime and being an advocate for “smart, not tough”. (more…)
Posted on July 4th, 2011 at 9:42 pm. Updated on July 4th, 2011 at 9:42 pm.
This a good, old-fashioned escape story. And an unheralded one at that. It’s a thriller and a noirish love story, rolled into one. With a twist – as all good, old-fashioned escape stories should have. (more…)
Posted on June 25th, 2011 at 10:33 pm. Updated on June 25th, 2011 at 10:43 pm.
This bears about as much connection to Chinese Midnight Express (1997) as that movie bears to the original Midnight Express (1978). Like CME I, however, it is supposed to be set in the 1960s. Not that there is anything really of the sixties about it (other than one prisoner with a short-lived Beatle haircut), but it does allow the filmmakers to pretend that this depicts the treatment of prisoners in the bad old days, rather than risk incurring the Government’s wrath by suggesting that any nastiness could still occur in the more enlightened nineties. (more…)
Posted on June 16th, 2011 at 10:27 pm. Updated on March 9th, 2016 at 3:07 pm.
When a movie about a brutal juvenile detention camp is made by Walt Disney Pictures, you know two things: it’s not going to be too brutal, and it’s probably going to end happily. (more…)
Posted on June 12th, 2011 at 8:30 pm. Updated on June 12th, 2011 at 8:30 pm.
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.
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state…
So starts Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29. But the outcasts in this gritty prison drama spend little time beweeping and much time bringing further disgrace upon themselves. (more…)
Posted on May 7th, 2011 at 10:56 pm. Updated on May 7th, 2011 at 10:56 pm.