Prison stuff. In prison movies.
This is a long way from being a prison movie, even though many of its key moments occur in prison. Or more specifically, in two visit rooms in two prisons. And involving just one prisoner. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 18th, 2016 at 12:45 pm. Updated on September 18th, 2016 at 12:53 pm.
A teenage thief, Jakub Bartoš (Otakar Prajzner), tells a court that he is the ‘sheriff’ or boss of his gang – hoping to both protect and curry favour with its real leader. He gets two years in a youth detention centre but hopes that through good behaviour he might get out in one – and share much sooner in the spoils that the gang has hidden. It doesn’t quite work out that way.
Posted on September 13th, 2016 at 10:16 pm. Updated on September 13th, 2016 at 10:16 pm.
Red Heat has an (undeserved) reputation as an exploitative Women in Prison film. Not surprising, perhaps, given that’s how it’s marketed these days. But its standout feature is not sleaze, but the same sort of xenophobia that characterises prison films like Midnight Express (1978) and In Hell (2003). Who would have thought? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 6th, 2016 at 9:02 pm. Updated on September 6th, 2016 at 9:02 pm.
This is a traditional thriller set in a fairly traditional outer space prison. So it’s only proper that, despite the film being set hundreds of years into the future, the plot turns not on some fanciful 24th Century technology, but on the artisanal searing of a prisoner’s identification number into his flesh with a red hot poker. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 1st, 2016 at 10:16 pm. Updated on September 1st, 2016 at 10:16 pm.
The Traveling Executioner depicts what may be the earliest example of outsourcing correctional services; I can’t, off the top of my head, think of an earlier one. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on August 26th, 2016 at 9:51 pm. Updated on August 26th, 2016 at 9:51 pm.
Aiman (Firdaus Rahman) is a prison officer. He is in his late twenties and lives with his older sister, Suhaila (Mastura Ahmad), in a modest flat. He doesn’t approve of her Australian boyfriend, and she doesn’t approve of his job. And she has good reason; their father was convicted of a gruesome murder committed before Aiman was even born, and then hanged. All those years on, it’s still raw. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on August 20th, 2016 at 8:27 pm. Updated on August 20th, 2016 at 11:36 pm.
Bret Michaels, one time lead singer of the glam metal band Poison, wrote this movie, directed it, produced it, starred in it and wrote and performed the soundtrack to it. He might also have done the makeup and manned the food van. If you’re a diehard fan of Bret Michaels, you’ll probably like this. If not… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on August 8th, 2016 at 9:59 pm. Updated on August 8th, 2016 at 9:59 pm.
“The most exciting breakout movie of all time,” the DVD blurb claims. Well, not quite. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on July 23rd, 2016 at 10:45 pm. Updated on July 23rd, 2016 at 10:45 pm.
The Last Castle has many of the hallmarks of a Shawshank; a classic battle of strategy between principled prisoner and corrupt warden, an imposing prison setting (the magnificent, fortress-like Tennessee State Penitentiary), and similar production values. But it doesn’t quite have the same impact… maybe because its message is a little muddier. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on July 21st, 2016 at 9:14 pm. Updated on January 1st, 2017 at 9:02 am.
You’d think that after a long 2½ hours watching one woman’s painful journey towards self-realisation that I’d have some idea of what the facility was that she left her husband and child to run. But I didn’t.
Posted on July 14th, 2016 at 10:35 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2019 at 7:58 pm.