I’m afraid I don’t really get the Hong Kong film genre. This sequel to the wholly dramatic Prison on Fire again stars Chow Yum Fat as Ching, although this is the engaging Ching, not ‘Mad Dog’ Ching of the last part of the first movie (even in the fight scenes), and is a curious blend of drama, farce, comedy, whimsy, fighting, unintentional humour and even a song or two thrown in for good measure. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:58 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
A limp comedy directed by Sidney Poitier. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:55 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
When even some of the Stallone-friendly sites suggest that this isn’t one of Sylvester Stallone’s best movies, you are entitled to approach it with trepidation. But it’s no worse than many other prison action flicks. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:53 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
It sounds interesting: a white prisoner on death row and his African American guard learning about themselves through the bond they develop. But things start badly in this visually murky, made-for-TV drama, and don’t get much better. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:51 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
My kids tell me that I don’t know how to watch action movies. They’re right. My main problem with this movie is the guns. I know I should just go with the flow, but I wonder how the guns get into a super-max prison, how criminals can’t shoot straight from several metres, and why the desperate bad guy, when he has the heroes at gunpoint after already shooting one in the stomach, would (a) not shoot them dead when they are the only people standing in the way of a successful escape bid, and (b) put down the gun so he can have a fist fight with the injured man. I know, I know. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:48 pm. Updated on March 8th, 2016 at 3:02 pm.
Mildly entertaining action flick that starts with the hero Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) absurdly copping a 7 year whack for manslaughter while defending himself and his pregnant wife in a fight against three men, and gets more preposterous from then on. He serves his time and is required to fly back home on a prison plane with a collection of caged psychopaths being transported to a new high security prison. Oh oh. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:46 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.
‘What is society’s responsibility for ever increasing murders? What shall be done with the murderers? The Last Mile does not pretend to give an answer. Society must find its own solution. But murder on the heels of murder is not that solution.’ The Last Mile kicks off with this quote from Lewis E Lawes, Warden of New York’s Sing Sing Prison, and writer of another 1932 film, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing. If you’re looking for a film that extols the virtues of the death penalty, this ain’t that film. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:44 pm. Updated on May 22nd, 2010 at 8:37 pm.
I remember that I loved this book back in the early 1970s – a rollicking yarn, and a supposedly true account of Henri Charrière’s nine (?) escapes from prison in and around French Guiana (and notably from Devil’s Island) in the 1930s and 40s. Perhaps I was still young and impressionable when I read it, and the book is really as tedious as this long and largely uninspired film. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:40 pm. Updated on December 1st, 2018 at 8:53 pm.
There are some who have watched this grainy, low-budget, independently-released blaxploitation movie with poor production values and have elevated it to cult status. I’m afraid I just saw a grainy movie with poor production values and an uninventive storyline. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:38 pm. Updated on March 7th, 2016 at 11:04 am.
I know that this claims to be an action movie, but it’s really a love story. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 6:36 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm.