Penitenciaría III

A prison/boxing movie that has to be seen to be believed. It's almost impossible to explain. Too Sweet ends up in prison again because he violently pummels a boxer to death during a boxing match after his drink was spiked with some sort of drug that made him crazy and more violent. The prison has a dungeon(!!!) where a midget is kept like an animal and who is routinely left out of by the prison wardens whenever they want to get rid of a prisoner. The prison is basically controlled by a blond man who's prison cell is decorated with tacky red curtains and paintings. And he's got a "girlfriend," a man in complete drag. At one time, the killer midget is sent into Too Sweet's cell and the two fight a *really* long fight that's a real head scratcher. BTW, during this long fight Too Sweet is only in his underwear! This scene is the "highlight" of the movie.

There are more fights during the rest of the movie but I lost track of everything afterwards. The whole thing is just too weird. Everyone involved must have been on drugs or something. PENITENTIARY 3 exists in its own alternative Cannon universe.

There is no way that this movie could have been made to be taken seriously. I won't give away the plot(because it is so ludicrous that your mouth will be agape for the entire running time, I kid you not!), but ask anyone who has seen this about "The Midnight Thud" and get ready to see that person collapse in a fit of laughter. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION FOR SHEER STUPIDITY!!!

How can you go wrong with a plot like "A man is framed for murder and sent to prison. He is beaten and tortured, then forced to fight the prison's worst killer, a martial-arts fighting midget called Thud." ??

This is a B-grade pen movie but it is so bad that it's actually a lot of laughs. I saw this movie ten years ago when I was 16 but I bet I'd enjoy it again if I were to watch it now.

7/10

This film begins with "Martel 'Too Sweet' Gordone" (Leon Isaac Kennedy) once again in the boxing ring fighting against an opponent that he highly respects. Unfortunately, unknown to him, his manager slips a drug into his water bottle between rounds which causes him to go into an uncontrollable rage and results in the death of his opponent. Not only does this death fill him with extreme regret afterward, but he is then sentenced to prison as a result of lab tests done after the fight which showed the presence of an illegal substance. Although he declines the offer made by "the Warden" (Ric Mancini) to fight on his boxing team, he soon learns that refusing to fight on a rival team headed by an inmate named "Serenghetti" (Anthony Geary) has severe consequences. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I didn't honestly care for this movie at all as the plot was much too silly to be taken seriously. As a matter of fact, although it is billed as an action film, some of the scenes are so ridiculous that it should probably be listed as a comedy instead. And even then the comedy wasn't that good. That being said, those who enjoy bad films might find some value in it, but otherwise I would recommend avoiding it altogether.

This is the third part in what must be one of the strangest, most specific movie franchises ever. The 'Penitentiary' series is about a prison where boxing tournaments seem to be par for the course. Despite the clearly unlikely set-up, the first film was actually a reasonably good blaxploitation prison drama. This third instalment, despite covering much the same ground, adopts a much different approach. It isn't so much a drama as a comedy, with all manner of ridiculous scenes. There is even homage to the most famous scene from the first film where the hero Too Sweet engages in an extended fight with a scary fellow inmate within the close confines of his cell. In this flick, Too Sweet again fights another adversary in his cell but this time it's a deranged midget! Like the scene from the first movie, this is also the best sequence in the film. Except this one really seems like a parody of the first in its sheer silliness. The midget is a psychotic madman who lives in chains in a dungeon underneath the prison, and he is brought out to batter prisoners who go against the grain. It's monumentally daft of course but is in keeping with the general tone of the entire film which is consistently ridiculous. To be fair, the movie does have some genuine funny parts too, such as when Too Sweet is driven to jail at the beginning to the melancholic sound of a saxophone, only for the camera to pan down and see that some fellow inmate is actually playing this music in the van. Penitentiary III is a film for those who want to watch a film for a few laughs with a couple of beers. It has its moments but overstays its welcome.