Untitled Document
The Condemned Running time 1:40 Rated R Parkway Pointe
Four new movies are opening nationwide this week, but
you wouldn’t know it if you were to scan your newspaper for reviews.
Seems that the studios behind Next, The Invisible, and Kickin’ It Old Skool decided, the less you know, the better. What’s ironic
is that the one film shown to critics makes no bones about the fact that
it’s total schlock. The Condemned is nothing more than B-movie fare suffused with liberal
and regular doses of glorious gore. Not for the squeamish, The Condemned is targeted at
teenage boys and movie geeks, all of whom will be satisfied with the
film’s constant action and broad-strokes storytelling.
In this futuristic tale, media mogul Ian Breckel
(Robert Mammone) is set on delivering an extravaganza. Combining the old
with the new, he proposes to bring back gladiator fighting in which 10
contestants will fight to the death on a remote island, with the contest
broadcast over the Internet. Who would be foolish enough to enter such a
contest? Why, condemned criminals plucked from the worst international
prisons, of course, all of whom we meet in rapid succession. One of the
combatants, Jack Conrad (Steve Austin), has been imprisoned unjustly and he
just happens to have a pretty wife who frets over his every move. Although the film is utterly predictable, the fact
that it embraces its exploitation roots does make it entertaining. Any film
that contains an allusion to Escape from New
York (bombs attached to the warriors’
legs to ensure that they don’t escape the island) is on the right
track, as far as I’m concerned. The action is solid, the pace is
blistering, and director Scott Wiper takes some nice potshots at the media,
reality programming, and right-wing politics. Don’t get me wrong; The Condemned doesn’t
make you think (heaven forbid!), but it does take the time to point out
that it’s smarter than the run-of-the-mill actioner.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2007.
