★ 5 / 10
**This average quality film has creativity and some
Filipe Manuel Neto
**This average quality film has creativity and some good qualities, but it can't overcome all the problems it faces.** I didn't have very high expectations…
**This average quality film has creativity and some good qualities, but it can't overcome all the problems it faces.**
I didn't have very high expectations when I decided to see this movie. I knew that it was a film set in a future that, for us, is now past (the year 2017) and that it was yet another film about a prison break. I also knew that it had been a success in Europe, especially on the VHS market, and that it had been forgotten since the end of the tapes and no one was talking about it anymore. So, I decided to take a look, see if it was worth it, and I liked what I saw. It is a creative film, made by people with ideas and the ability to come up with imaginative solutions, based on a competent cast, and which made good use of its short budget.
The script takes us to a high-security prison, built underground in the United States desert, in order to accompany a couple who have just been arrested for trying to have a second child, something prohibited by the “one-child policy” then in effect. strength in the USA. Sentenced to the outrageous sentence of 31 years in prison, they are placed inside that place, where everything is controlled by a computer and depends on a vicious and sadistic director, and on the computer system itself, which sometimes seems to have a life of its own. Even the dreams of these inmates are controlled and censored via a mechanism installed in the gut, and that could kill them if they step over the risk (literally).
The script has a serious problem: it is based on an old premise that is prison escapes. We've seen a lot of them already, because almost every great fugue in history has been adapted for the screen in some way. However, the film tries to get around the problem with doses of imagination and creativity that futurism accepts well. The graphic violence of some scenes can also bother some people, but I think I've even seen worse. But be warned: we have everything from exploding intestines to half-human androids with a misshapen appearance. There is an investment in visual effects, special effects, make-up, quality sets and costumes, and this investment has paid off. Unfortunately, the cinematography is not very good, it is even below the standard of the time the film was made, but I coped well with it.
Stuart Gordon gives the film a well-executed, effective direction, managing to take full advantage of what he has to work with. Christopher Lambert, the eternal McLeod, is in excellent shape here and does a solid job, even if the role is simple and effortless. Kurtwood Smith is an efficient villain, cold and worthy of our contempt, but he also provokes some sympathy for his quest for a certain warmth that his character has lost. Loryn Locklin is also a welcome addition, but I felt several times that the character had little to do and was limited to being a damsel in distress. Tom Towles, Clifton Collins Jr., Vernon Wells, Jeffrey Combs and Lincoln Kilpatrick provide effective support, but they can do no more.
Read full review
★ 7 / 10
Futuristic riot!
hitchcockthelegend
2017, a dystopian future, and US Army officer John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen S. Brennick (Loryn Locklin) are expecting a second…
2017, a dystopian future, and US Army officer John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen S. Brennick (Loryn Locklin) are expecting a second child. Strict one-child policies forbid any couples having a second child, but the Brennick's first child died at birth so they attempt to get away with a second pregnancy. They are caught trying to cross the border and sent to a maximum security prison that is owned and run by the "MenTel Corporation" A place where dreams are not your own and all thoughts of escape are dealt with severely by futuristic methods unheard of in the civilised world.
You got Connor MacLeod, Herbert West, Clarence J. Boddicker and one of the finest female bottoms in cinema, all crammed into one riotous, hokey and immeasurably fun movie. It probably wont come as much of a surprise to anyone to learn that this Christopher Lambert starrer is not going to have you scratching the cranial matter and pondering the future of mankind. But it does have some interesting ideas both in terms of its prison setting and in the technological advancements used. I mean hey, would you try to escape if you had an intestinal bomb set to go off outside the perimeters? {think The Running Man's neck braces but in your belly}. It can also be said of Fortress that it's not over ambitious, where director Stuart Gordon is aware of his restraints and keeps it simple but sparky, of which this is aided by Lambert buffing up and throwing punches left right and off kilter. Tho nothing much as an actor, Lambert none the less gives the likes of Sly and Arnie a run for their money here and looks every inch and sinew an action hero.
Kurtwood Smith, Jeffrey Combs, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Clifton Collins Jr. and of course,Loryn Locklin's bottom, all add varying degrees of fun and frolics to the occasion. While the set design for the interiors is really rather snazzy. It's B movie berserker time folks, a dystopian world where Christopher Lambert can beat the crap out of blokes twice his size, where half humanoids have flame throwers for arms, and Kurtwood Smith is in charge of a prison. Great fun really, truly. 7/10
Read full review
38%
TOMATOMETER
· 16 reviews
40%
AUDIENCE
· 10K ratings
5.9/10
32.5K
•••
no seeds, impossible to dowload