Prison stuff. In prison movies.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm. Updated on September 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm.
It’s my fault, or Amazon.com’s. I thought that this was the 1986 prison movie, but it is a black-and-white film of the same name which contains very few prison scenes. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:57 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:31 pm.
It is said that this is the best of the Elvis Presley films, which in itself is a worry. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:56 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm.
This is the worst sort of prison movie; clichéd and predictable, with dialogue that would make even Magnum PI blanch. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:55 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:19 pm.
Susan Hayward won an Oscar (for Best Overacting, surely) for her portrayal of Barbara Graham in this vehicle for the anti-death-penalty campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:18 pm.
This is a prison escape movie, but it’s the antithesis of an action film, and probably not even a prison film, really. Filmed in stunning black and white, it is deliberate, slow, and consciously off-centre. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:51 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:17 pm.
This is about as far as you can get from being a prison movie for a film that has the words ‘goes to jail’ in the title. Not to be confused with the 2009 flick of the same name but with a completely different plot, this is a film of a Tyler Perry play. Perry is the writer, producer, director, and creator of the character, which he plays in drag. He is a tall man and Madea, an elderly, bosomy, gun-totin’, chain-smokin’ matriarch is a formidable presence. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:49 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:16 pm.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:47 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:15 pm.
Alternatively known as ‘Blood In, Blood Out’. Described as an ‘epic’ story by the film’s publicists; for this, read ‘long’. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:44 pm. Updated on August 27th, 2009 at 10:14 pm.
This is sort of a Hindi version of Brokedown Palace (1999), but where Brokedown leaves lots of questions, this answers the lot. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:42 pm. Updated on April 18th, 2020 at 4:25 pm.