This third offering in the Black Cat series is closer to The Joy Luck Club (1993), it seems, than to the original Black Cat (1991). After the opening five action-packed minutes it’s decidedly light on in derring-do and prison movie-staples such as intimidation, intrigue and violence (although there is some of the latter), preferring to focus on the journeys of four women in prison and the bond they develop. (more…)
Posted on November 14th, 2009 at 11:40 pm. Updated on November 15th, 2009 at 7:45 pm.
Eduart (Eshref Durmishi) is a young Albanian who travels to Greece, hoping to become a rock star. He has the looks, but not the talent, it seems. To keep alive, he thieves. He also hustles. At a gay bar, he is picked up and taken home by a rich bloke who is not really his type. He is caught rifling through this bloke’s desk, but that seems to not to dampen the older man’s ardour once an initial attempt to get him to leave is out of the way. Eduart, more appalled than panicked, strangles him and flees. (more…)
Posted on October 21st, 2009 at 9:37 pm. Updated on January 11th, 2010 at 10:39 pm.
As a prison film, this is disappointing. But it’s disappointing because it is so faithful in its retelling of the story of the Georges Bizet opera (or the Prosper Mérimée novella, if you want to go back further), and the film’s prison scenes account for such a tiny proportion of the screen time. (more…)
Posted on October 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2019 at 8:05 pm.
Yeah, it’s a bit schmaltzy at times, but this is an under-rated (or at least undeservedly less well known) addition to the prison sporting contest genre. It has its formulaic elements, too, but is a much better bet than the other rodeo movie of which I’m aware (Stir Crazy, 1980) and the series of The Longest Yard movies (which aren’t about rodeos but take prison sporting events to some very strange places). (more…)
Posted on October 4th, 2009 at 6:10 pm. Updated on January 12th, 2010 at 9:06 pm.
Moon Jones is the writer and director of this awful, awful mockumentary. He also stars as Luther ‘Satan’ Little, the father of three teenage boys who follow him to prison. Satan is a bad, bad dude. He’s killed people, he sells drugs, he snarls and says ‘bitch’ a lot, and he laughs when another inmate suggests that instead of playing dominoes for cigarettes, they should play for the right to have sex with the cleverest and most sensitive of his sons. Well, step-son. Satan sure is mean, but the scariest thing about the film is when, as the final credits roll over, there is a suggestion that a sequel might be in the offing. Aaaargh! (more…)
Posted on July 11th, 2009 at 6:55 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:09 pm.
A curious mix of British prison architecture (well, Dublin’s Kilmainham Jail), the look and feel of a US reality TV show (think ‘Britain’s Unruliest Prisons’ with prisoners dressed in thin beige boilersuits), and some very un-American and unexpected plot twists that unapologetically break faith with the genre. (more…)
Posted on May 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm. Updated on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm.
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.
This is not a film that you would ever watch twice. It’s a low-budget offering that offers realism (the writer and director, Sean Wilson, has seemingly done time and the movie is based on his experiences) but forgets that ‘real’ doesn’t necessarily translate to ‘interesting’. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 7:18 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
Written by Edward Bunker (who did 20-odd years in prison himself) and shot partly in Philadelphia’s closed Holmesburg Prison and several working prisons (substituting for San Quentin, where the film is set), this film about survival in prison should at least have some authenticity. And it does – to a degree. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 4:27 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
Early in the film ‘Chopper’ Read stabs Keithy George in the neck in a labour yard in Pentridge’s ‘H’ Division in 1978. When staff arrive, Read helpfully confides in them: “Keithy seems to have done himself a mischief.” Then, turning to his flailing victim as he is being taken away, he asks, “You all right, Keithy? Off you go, mate. Off to the sick bay. Whinge, whinge..”. It is the blackest of humour, but pretty well sums up the man on whom the film is based, and if that dialogue doesn’t appeal, chances are you won’t like the film. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm. Updated on May 7th, 2020 at 9:55 pm.