The System

Jeremy Piven was unrecognizable. Wow. Terance Howard popped up. Again, wow. Standard script. Watching these former A-listers bring the whole movie up a star was fun. Gibson is not a leading man. He mumbles and poses his way through. Just not a very good movie. Found myself checking email and surfing while it was droning on. The fact an inmate carries a cell phone around for an hour was not beyond me. The fact all the bad guys were white and all the heroes were black was not missed. Just a paint by numbers, straight to DVD and streaming movie about a former soldier who gets into trouble and has to go underground. Meh.

Almost worth it for a scene where Jeremy Piven's character is pretending to be in the same room as the rest of the cast. The budget was certainly blown on the couple of recognisable faces present. Unfortunately it's a low bar all round for this one. The costumes look a bit naff and the acting is largely terrible. There's an under current to the script which isn't too bad an idea addressing the corporation of the prison system in the US coupled with the treatment of ex-army Vets however direction, location, lighting and the juxtaposition of over earnest with plain bad acting unfortunately ends up delivering a difficult watch. A couple of funny moments (maybe not intentional mind) and a few passable fight sequences.

This movie left me wondering if I was supposed to take it serious or if it was intentionally mocking prison and action movies? I found myself laughing out loud several times either because of the lousy acting by Jeremy Pevin as the warden, or the absurd scenarios laid out by the director and writers. What warden would put himself in a "dungeon" with a bunch of convicts and encourage them to fight with just one guard by his side and nothing between him and the inmates but a few guards? Also, his interraction with the inmates was odd. He seemed to be reasoning with them all the time, and when he did finally get forceful with them, he came off as weak imo. I don't know if it was the actor chosen, the director, or the writer, or all of the above, but that was the worst portrayal of a warden in all of the prison movies I have seen to date. I gave it a 3 out of 10 only because of the acting by Terrance Howard and Tyrese Gibson. They were the only reason I watched this movie. In the end, I wish I wouldn't have wasted my time, because they were unable to carry this poorly executed prison flick.

This is a good film, people are thinking it's low budget and poorly made, it's not, the director is clearly paying homage to all the 70's 80's action films and at the same time making it his own. Look at the wardens chair watching the fight! Look at padding they wear it's MEANT to look like this! I watched it, I think everyone's acting was perfect for the type of film! Dallas Jackson has made a new fan right here! And I can't wait to see what comes next! Ignore all the hate ignore all the haters! Go watch this film! Tell a friend tell all your friends! It's brilliant! Hope there's a follow up to this!

Who is kidnapper holding Gibson's and Howard's family members hostage??? It's the only reason I can afford for them being tied to this piece of trash. Really bad acting, writing, cinematography, sets, etc...etc... The eighties A-Team or Hardcastle and McCormack had better production value and scripts!!! The prison laundry scene looked like a laundromat. The prison yard looked like a high school gym area with temp fencing. Low budget doesn't begin to describe this terrible film... A more appropriate title would be 80 minutes of Tyrese Making Stinkface... I want my 80 minutes back with interest!