» Jailhouse Rock (1957, USA)
It is said that this is the best of the Elvis Presley films, which in itself is a worry. (more…)
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:56 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm.
Clichés
» Bandits (1997, Germany)
I know it doesn’t pretend to represent real life, but as a prison movie it’s hard to take at all seriously from the point at which the newly-arrived prisoner is given a pat down search while naked. What does one hope to find by running one’s hands over a bare armpit, one wonders? They obviously do lots of things differently in Germany. (more…)
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:47 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:15 pm.
» Ek Hasina Thi / There was a Beautiful Girl (2004, India)
This is sort of a Hindi version of Brokedown Palace (1999), but where Brokedown leaves lots of questions, this answers the lot. (more…)
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:42 pm. Updated on April 18th, 2020 at 4:25 pm.
» American History X (1998, USA)
While one of the dramatic turning points occurs in a prison, most of this movie occurs outside. Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) becomes a white supremacist pin-up boy after his father is murdered by black youths, and when his car is broken into by some young blacks who he kicked off the local basketball court (in a winner-owns-the-court game), he kills two of them. (more…)
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:39 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:10 pm.
» American Me (1992, USA)
Fine drama, directed by and starring Edward James Olmos, which charts the life of Santana, an East Los Angeles Hispanic crime boss from – well, before he was born, really – through his teenage years, his time in juvenile detention and later Folsom Prison, then back out on the streets and back in jail. It follows a very similar path to Bound by Honour (even sharing features like the main character having a blonde, white-skinned right hand man and a young teenager dying from a drug overdose) but does everything better, including selling the message that gang life is destroying the potential of young Hispanic kids. (more…)
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:37 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:10 pm.
» Teen Deewarein / 3 Walls (2003, India)
I had a bit of trouble with this film. I don’t know whether it was that I’d read somewhere that it was the Indian Shawshank Redemption (not that I entirely understood what that meant), or that I kept thinking that the charismatic leading man was Leonard Cohen. Maybe it was the plot. (more…)
Posted on May 17th, 2009 at 1:29 pm. Updated on April 19th, 2020 at 10:04 pm.
» Der Heiße Tod / 99 Women (1969, UK / West Germany / Spain / Italy)
Literally ‘The Hot Death’, and an absolute shocker. Made by a director who apparently went on to make some ‘legendary’ exploitation movies, this is a boring, limp-scripted, horribly acted, and uninspired effort. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 11:57 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:02 pm.
» Ernest Goes to Jail (1990, USA)
It sadly says much about the world that there could be ten Ernest P Worrell movies. This is the third or fourth, and I’m pleased to say that I haven’t seen any of the other nine. It seems that the character was created for a series of TV ads and just grew from there; how remains a mystery. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 11:52 pm. Updated on August 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 pm.
» Leonera / Lion’s Den (2008, Argentina)
There’s so much to like about this film – its authenticity, its subject matter, compelling performances, beautifully filmed… and yet, for some reason, it doesn’t hit you quite like it should. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 11:39 pm. Updated on March 6th, 2016 at 4:26 pm.
» Let’s Go to Prison (2006, USA)
Mediocre comedy starring John Lyshitski as an habitual criminal who wants to get back at the judge who kept sending him to prison by ‘helping’ the judge’s son who has been wrongly convicted and sent to prison. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 7:32 pm. Updated on September 1st, 2009 at 9:39 pm.