Lockdown

Right - another prison flick. Another movie about a young black man, in this case 3 young black men, wrongly accused of a crime, convicted and sent to prison. The statement behind that injustice is bold enough. It's a bit "Boyz n the Hood" up to that point. Once it hits the prison - there are few comparisons to match some of the intensity (how's that for ambiguity?).

This movie has a few valuable segments worth the rest of its deficits. A few scenes may take you to a place you do not want ever to be. There are moments in the prison scenes where the actors are so credible it might as well be real. The directing had flickers of greatness to capture that intensity.

But just like that, in a flicker you're back to watching a $2 film worth a penny. Just watch it for the acting and directing behind a few prison scenes that fairly represent "Lockdown".

I am a big fan of prison movies but this movie really did not work for me. The plot was not very interesting with cookie cutter characters on top of that the acting was pretty poor. It rates four beers on my beer/movie rating system.

Many references to HBO's Oz have been made about this movie. The two are similar, but the gangs focused on here are limited to the Blacks and Aryans. The colorful actors are convincing in their roles. Master P comes across as a worthy heavy. Craig T. Jones provides the great contrast of clean cut protagonist. With a plethera of unwatchable exploitive black urban videos, Lockdown is a high quality cut above.

I've always felt "Escape from Alcatraz" starring Mister Eastwood was the best PM ever made but this one is just as good though a much different story. Some black dudes in their early 20s are convicted of a crime even though only one of them did anything wrong. Anyway, they get sent up for 10 years or so and the movie follows their experiences. Lots of fighting and action and, bless his soul, the director allows no talk unless it pertains to the action. Solid ending.

Lots of anti-white racism in the movie. The guards are all white and they are bastards and the white inmates are monsters. Graffiti, played by David Fralick, is really bad. Good-looking, super-fit guy and vicious as they come.

Needless to say, the movie portrays prison life as ultra-violent but that's just Hollywood for you. It makes for a good movie but prison is mostly about boredom not violence. Hell - you've got guards and cameras everywhere; you can't get away with much in prison and real convicts know it.

Lockdown is a great movie. Sad but real. Lockdown is a story about an aspiring swimmer named Avery (Richard T Jones). One of his main goals in life is to become a swimmer One night while he and his two friends Dre and Cashmere ( Gabriel Casseus, Deaundre Bonds) are driving in Cashmere's car they find a gun. The gun is linked to a fast food robbery earlier that night. The Police tracks them down and finds the gun on them. They all get sentenced for armed robbery and murder.

Gabriel Casseus's performance of the hyper and thuggish Cashmere was brilliant. Bonds role of Dre was not bad, but it didn't live up like the roles of Richard T Jones and Gabriel Casseus. Master P is also great as Clean Up, the vicious inmate who has security guards working for him, his drugs being brought in and out of the prison a ho of a girlfriend who Cashmere gets a piece of, and he wants Cashmere to do his dirty work.

The supporting cast was brilliant. Melissa De Sousa as Avery's girl Krista; Sticky Fingaz as Broadway the ex drug dealer turned inmate; Bill Nunn as Avery's scouter for college and his attorney; And Clifton Powell who was the OG of the prison, and I felt he should've had a longer part in the movie.

Lockdown is Master P's best movie to date.