Prison stuff. In prison movies.
Shadow: Dead Riot appears to be based on a premise that the same sort of people who watch salacious Women-in-Prison films with shower scenes and predatory lesbian guards will also like zombies and gore and exploding body parts. It’s probably solid thinking from a marketing perspective, but the two elements here have rather clumsily been patched together. (more…)
Posted on June 28th, 2015 at 1:34 pm. Updated on June 28th, 2015 at 1:34 pm.
There are a few departures from the 1939 film on which this is based, The Big Guy, chief among them the deletion of the original version’s most interesting character, the insolent trustee, Dippy. But the story of a warden in an ethical dilemma of his own making still stands up. (more…)
Posted on June 8th, 2015 at 8:34 pm. Updated on June 8th, 2015 at 8:34 pm.
Corrupt wardens don’t normally come like this one. (more…)
Posted on June 6th, 2015 at 3:27 pm. Updated on June 6th, 2015 at 3:27 pm.
James Cagney played the role of reformist warden in the 1933 film The Mayor of Hell, of which this is a remake. Humphrey Bogart has the same role here; it clearly requires a tough guy to bring some credibility to the task of prison reform. (more…)
Posted on May 12th, 2015 at 10:03 pm. Updated on May 12th, 2015 at 10:03 pm.
To say that this is the best prison zombie movie I’ve seen is not saying much. But it is, even if it doesn’t contain any zombies. (more…)
Posted on March 16th, 2015 at 7:35 pm. Updated on March 16th, 2015 at 7:35 pm.
Roby Schmucker (Bruno Cathomas) has found himself back in jail, again. He is awaiting trial on a ‘heavy’ robbery, and on Day 1 in the mess room is confronted by the prison’s top dog, African-Swiss Charles ‘Chief’ Müller (Kyle Popooda). Schmucker doesn’t appreciate Müller’s welcome and makes some unkind comments about his ethnicity. It’s not received well. One of Müller’s men spits in Schmucker’s food, onto which Müller then empties an entire salt cellar. Schmucker sticks it out for another mouthful or two but then launches into a face-saving rant: “Chicken Mexicaine! This muck’s called Chicken Mexicaine!” before reminding everyone that he’s an old hand. It’s a quirky, off-beat title for one of the wackier, more off-beat prison movies. (more…)
Posted on January 27th, 2015 at 8:38 pm. Updated on January 27th, 2015 at 8:50 pm.
Surely the chief joy in watching futuristic movies of any sort is examining the bits of contemporary culture that have survived in the filmmaker’s vision of what the future might look like. “Besides, the ship won’t fly without this,” says the spaceship pilot, Wilson, smugly holding aloft a 3½” floppy disk. It is supposed to be the year 2251. Wonderful. (more…)
Posted on December 26th, 2014 at 10:15 pm. Updated on December 26th, 2014 at 10:15 pm.
I don’t quite understand these extra-judicial prisons, juvenile or otherwise. They seem to be somewhere in between a strict boarding school for which parents pay exorbitant fees, and out-of-control prisons where the brutality comes for free. (more…)
Posted on December 7th, 2014 at 11:45 am. Updated on December 7th, 2014 at 11:45 am.
The crossover between westerns and prison movies is not a common one; Hellgate (1952) and There was a Crooked Man… (1970) being the only other examples I can readily bring to mind. Even in this film, once the scene-setting shootout between men in ten-gallon hats is dispensed with very early in the piece, it settles down into a standard prison movie. Well, as standard as you can get where there is one female prisoner in an all-male jail. (more…)
Posted on October 5th, 2014 at 5:01 pm. Updated on October 14th, 2014 at 9:48 pm.
Also known as The Circuit 2: The Final Punch. Except it’s not the final final punch – the temptation to make Circuit III being just too great. (more…)
Posted on August 29th, 2014 at 10:00 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2014 at 10:00 pm.