Prison stuff. In prison movies.
It can be difficult when the three main characters in a movie are all morally reprehensible, but here it’s part of the attraction. There are demons on both sides of the prison wall, parallels in the lack of willingness to wrestle with them, and plenty of moral ambiguity. (more…)
Posted on February 24th, 2011 at 10:14 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:48 pm.
This is a curious film. Curious because it implies that it is based on a true story and most probably isn’t, because it is one of the few westerns (replete with Cowboys and Indians) to cross over into the prison movie genre, and because it is a pretty blatant rip-off (sorry, re-telling) of The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). It also features arguably the best underground prison in movies before Fortress (1992). (more…)
Posted on February 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm. Updated on February 15th, 2011 at 9:51 pm.
I’ve broken my own rules here and included a futuristic prison movie. Partly because I happened to chance upon it for $6.98 in my local DVD store, and partly because when prison operators talk of correctional innovation, it remains such a solid reference point. (more…)
Posted on February 13th, 2011 at 7:59 pm. Updated on February 13th, 2011 at 7:59 pm.
Given the choice of five nights in the box in this unpleasant island prison or being forced to watch this piece of feculence, you might just choose the former. (more…)
Posted on February 6th, 2011 at 7:06 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:04 pm.
I am seriously naive at times. I’d never appreciated the reach of these international crime bosses, who are so powerful that they can draft in eight murderers from prisons all around the world, have them fight against each other, award the winner his freedom and shoot all the losers, just so they can make large sums of money by gambling on the result, which they have pretty much fixed. Does the UN know about this? (more…)
Posted on January 26th, 2011 at 5:24 pm. Updated on January 26th, 2011 at 5:24 pm.
Now, I don’t play computer games but I imagine that this is pretty much what they are like: two cartoonishly muscled protagonists in 3D-animation-enhanced combat, with a rather flimsy plot to justify the fighting. But probably without the mushy ending. (more…)
Posted on January 17th, 2011 at 9:45 pm. Updated on April 9th, 2011 at 5:57 pm.
“A little too full of the joy of life, eh?” says the sadistic Justice of the Peace, Squire Meadows, to a miserable female prisoner who has been charged with unruly conduct (to wit, singing in her cell). “We must curb that! No doubt five days of bread and water will tend to take the happiness out of your disposition!” (more…)
Posted on January 15th, 2011 at 9:28 pm. Updated on January 15th, 2011 at 9:28 pm.
The opening scene of this movie has two naked men entwined in a prison bed, being woken by an early morning siren. Rouse! Rouse! One jumps up, hurriedly gets dressed in his Prison Officer uniform, and lets himself out of the cell. I think that it was at that point that the film lost me. Perhaps the officer’s supervisor, a colleague – someone – would have noticed that he’d gone missing for the entire night-shift… No? (more…)
Posted on January 10th, 2011 at 9:42 pm. Updated on January 15th, 2011 at 9:30 pm.
A trans-Atlantic Scum, this is… based on that acclaimed British movie from 1979, and every bit as bleak. (more…)
Posted on January 3rd, 2011 at 5:15 pm. Updated on January 3rd, 2011 at 5:18 pm.
It doesn’t bode well, does it, when a film needs a wacky long title to entice you to watch it. (more…)
Posted on December 30th, 2010 at 8:57 pm. Updated on April 19th, 2020 at 11:38 am.