It’s not easy to take this drama seriously, whether it’s watching hardened convicts bait a first-timer for being a ‘husband killer’ (parricide is apparently abhorred by the female prisoner population), or the warden allowing his inmates to press against the (cyclone wire) perimeter fence so that they can hear a press conference held in the prison car park and called to broadcast the shortcomings of his management to a national audience. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 13th, 2011 at 9:41 pm. Updated on March 13th, 2011 at 9:41 pm.
If you can get past the notion that a prison guard can be stabbed to death and then, rather than have it investigated by the Police, the Warden is able to brutalise twelve prisoners for six months in the hope that one of them will falsely confess to the killing, you may well enjoy this film. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 5th, 2011 at 10:23 pm. Updated on March 5th, 2011 at 10:23 pm.
Remember when ‘Made in Taiwan’ instantly suggested an inferior copy of the real thing? Perhaps you don’t, but Island of Fire evokes that era perfectly; it is a woeful agglomeration of martial arts action drama, crime thriller, and unashamed rip-offs of other films, notably Cool Hand Luke (1967). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 27th, 2011 at 6:01 pm. Updated on February 27th, 2011 at 6:01 pm.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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). Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 26th, 2011 at 5:24 pm. Updated on January 26th, 2011 at 5:24 pm.
“Do you believe in fate?” Terry Griff is asked. “No,” says the newly-released ex-prisoner, whose cards, quite frankly, have not been dealt kindly. “Nobody’s born to lose. It can go either way. Just depends which side of the fence you’re on.” But Terry’s on the wrong side of that fence 99% of the time. It’s a bit like fate, one suspects. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 22nd, 2011 at 5:14 pm. Updated on January 22nd, 2011 at 5:14 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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 17th, 2011 at 9:45 pm. Updated on April 9th, 2011 at 5:57 pm.