Civil Brand

Civil Brand is a mediocre prison film. It is trying to class up the much-maligned so called "Women in Prison" flick. This isn't like "Caged Heat" and "Chained Heat". Rather this is a drama about changing your life for the better.

The redeeming parts of this film are: any scene with Warden Alan Deese (Clifton Powell) and Mos Def's character. Everything else is very clichéd and has no originality. All the prison stereotypes are in force. Also there are too many jump cuts and editing tricks. The acting for the most part is just a lot of yelling. On the downside, the ending feels a bit tacked-on. On the upside, Lark Voorhies of "Saved By the Bell" fame is in it.

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"Civil Brand" is a horrible attempt at making a serious film about the exploitation of women in prison. Using "slave labor" as a topic to impart some dignity to this abysmal flick, "CB" gets in our face with stereotypes such as the sadistic guard to the profiteering warden to the usual bunch of babes behind bars. The unfortunate downside of this directorial disaster is the obvious low budgetness, awful dialogue, terrible screenplay, etc. One for the dumpster. PU! (D+)

I'm pretty sure a lot of movies we watch contain errors that were honest mistakes. This movie may have a few major mistakes, but overall we understand where the author was trying to go. Last year I began writing a script myself and after proofreading several times I still may have over looked a few mistakes. The bottom line is Civil Brand was a good movie. I believe the director used the right actresses to star in the movie because they fit the characters easily. Acting is something you have to feel and I believe this is why the movie is considered to be one of our best. There's a major difference between Black Movies and movies with Black stars. Civil Brand is a black movie all the way through. It may be a beginning for us who knows, but most importantly it's something done by us. A $500.00 budget is nowhere near enough to make a movie without pressure, so I say please keep up the good work women. All of the women in this movie are setting the path for aspiring, actresses/ writers like myself.

Actually, I thought this B-film was somewhat of a throwback to the Black expolitation era of the 70s with Lisa Raye as a modern-day Pam Grier. The setting takes place in a female prison with disenchanted convicts feeling "exploited" or enslaved by an opportunistic warden who uses their labor to produce clothes for merchants. However, when you consider the fact that prisoners are wrongdoers who are in jail to pay their debt to society, it's rather hard to sympathize with their "plight" in this film.

The warden and captain of the guards are the bad guys of the movie, but their demeanors are too iniquitous. So much so that the film becomes predictable and you know what will inevitably happen.

The casting could have been better. Mos Def portrays a law student who works as a part-time corrections guard in the prison. However, his dense mentality makes this portrayal very unconvincing.

Perhaps the best part of the movie--at least for guys--are the scenes in which voluptuous Lisa Raye and N'Bushe Wright appear barely clothed in the "hole." In spite of anything else, it's enough entertainment to merit the movie's viewing! To any of the ladies out there who are reading this, yeah, I know what you're thinking. But c'mon, you'd get your jollies too if you were to see LL Cool J in a movie bearing his best!

This is a typical time of movie. Prisoners pay their debt to society only to find out they're being used as a pawn to the corporation games? When the usual thing happens to offenders, they get arrested send to prison by the courts and do time. However, everything in prison isn't all what it's cracked up to be. When the prisoners lose their friend who was also pregnant, that's when actions take place. It goes to show in the movie that the real bad guys weren't the prisoners, it was the captain and the guards. When law, order and discipline is abused in prison, they will join the prisoners as well. For their part the prison was shut down, thanks to the efforts of a lawyer and a couple of inmates. It goes to show that to system isn't always what it used to be, you got to fight for your rights guilt or innocence isn't the key, right and wrong is. This movie is for guys, and I think is a keeper along with other blaxportation films as well.