| Title: | Movie Reviews and Discussion |
| Notice: | Please do DIR/TITLE before starting a new topic on a movie! |
| Moderator: | VAXCPU::michaud o.dec.com::tamara::eppes |
| Created: | Thu Jan 28 1993 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1249 |
| Total number of notes: | 16012 |
This is the latest work from Stuart Gordon. Not sure if it's released yet, and a caveat here that I saw the director's cut, which will not be the released form. I feel obligated to warn you that this is not for the squeamish; several people explode, for instance, in full detail... Fortunately, if you can take it (and I found this easier to take than From Beyond, for instance -- the gore is widely spaced and mostly appropriate), there's a pretty good movie here. In the future, couples are permitted only one child and law enforcement has been privatized. Our heroes are caught in violation and taken to an escape-proof prison set deep underground in the desert. Discipline is imposed primarily by an "intestinator" which can inflict pain or death. Naturally, our heroes struggle to escape the escape-proof prison. Gordon handles the material very well here, rarely giving us time to question (for instance) how the intestinator device manages to stay put...there's at least one excellent fight sequence, and some interesting sub plots. I'd rate this as very good, if you can stand the gore.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46.1 | Eh | RNDHSE::WALL | Show me, don't tell me | Tue Sep 14 1993 12:56 | 28 |
Well, maybe the director's cut was different.
Basically, this movie is pretty goofy. It has its moments. The prison
set is very forbidding. Kurtwood Smith goes a long way with a role
that was not written all that well. The parts of the movie that show
you what a hellhole this prison and the society in general have become
work. From my perspective, these little bits were considerably more
discomfiting than the exploding bodies. But .0 is right -- it's not
for the squeamish.
The basic problem with the movie is it isn't written all that well.
The plot depends on the people who built this prison being fairly
boneheaded in a couple of key areas. Basically, they did too good a
job making the prison an escape-proof nightmare, and the necessary
gymnastics to get the heroes and heroine out from under fall under the
heading of Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmm.
From the acting perspective, only Kurtwood Smith stands out. Lambert
sleepwalks, or maybe he just isn't capable of evoking the necessary
feeling. An interesting twist might have been to simply do away with
his role, and have the heroine have to cope with all this. If the
movie was originally written with Arnold in mind, though...
I'd give it one star out of four, one and a half if dystopic futures
are your bag.
DFW
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| 46.2 | *** out of ***** (a 1/2 star higher if not for the gore)) | OCTAVE::VIGNEAULT | Minister of chiles | Mon Feb 19 1996 11:26 | 12 |
Well, since I seem to be going against the grain with a lot of the
movies lately, I'll mention that I actually liked this flick. It was
a bit graphic in a couple of the more violent scenes, but I found the
story entertaining. Of course, I'm a sucker for prison flicks, and I
also like sci-fi so there were two plusses for me there. I thought the
sets were very well done, and effective. Like any of this genre of
movie, there's always the "Hmmmm..." factor, but I can dismiss that
if I'm enjoying the movie. I definitely would recommend that you don't
watch this movie with children around due to the graphical violence.
Lv
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| 46.3 | Another Fortress? | HOTLNE::SHIELDS | Sat Dec 07 1996 23:54 | 8 | |
| 46.4 | Haven't seen it, but... | QUARRY::reeves | Jon Reeves, UNIX compiler group | Mon Dec 09 1996 14:27 | 3 |
| 46.5 | That is the one! | HOTLNE::SHIELDS | Fri Dec 13 1996 02:42 | 4 | |