| Film Review | Dana Place |
The
Condemned
Steve Austin
Vinnie Jones
Rick Hoffman
Robert Mammone
Tory Mussett
Directed by: Scott Wiper
It only makes sense that “Stone Cold” Steve Austin would get
his own action vehicle. If WWE films was going to put
premier wrestlers John Cena in an action movie and “Kane” in
a horror flick, then why not put one of your most famous
wrestlers in a no holds barred brawl of a movie. The
Condemned follows the story of a millionaire megalomaniac
who decides to take death row inmates from various prisons
around the world and pit them against each other in a battle
to the death. The winner gets his freedom. The world gets to
watch the action over the internet. Unbeknownst to the
producers, one of the contestants is wrongfully imprisoned
special-forces soldier Joe Conrad (played by Austin).
Every once in a while we all need a film that doesn’t
promise high art, or any kind of art for that matter. It is
always nice to turn off your brain and watch guys beat the
crap out of each other on film. No pretense at all, just
pure violent, fun. And at first glance that is exactly what
you get in this film.
Sadly though, the film unravels on itself. During the making
of the film, it seems that the cameraman had an epileptic
fit every time he had to shoot any kind of fight scene. You
would expect a film about killing each other and nothing
more would be more violent, and more than a few completely
painful subplots completely defiled such a simple premise as
“ten men enter, one man leaves”. The director seems to be
under the impression that watching Vinnie Jones beat up
someone else was is only worth watching in quick cut edits
and Stone Cold Steve Austin’s bests fighting moves involve a
leg lock and sleeper hold. In a film that actually promotes
the idea of people killing each other for sport, it seems
imperative to me that there should be more than a few
instances of bloodshed. The creators of the film came up
with an idea to limit the actual amount of blood that should
have been creative but actually seems to water down what
action there is in the film.
Between fight scenes, we get the pleasure of watching one
dimensional characters fight about whether or not is morally
reprehensible to watch convicted felons kill each other. If
you want a moral debate about violence from a group of
throwaway characters cut between annoyingly edited knife
fights, this movie might be an enjoyable experience for you.
This film may not be a total disappointment as long as you
walk in knowing that a film advertised as an action packed
fight to the death really devolves into a generic action
flick complete with bad editing and enough awkward moments
to make any enjoyable action secondary. I’m not bitter about
that at all.
