A Warden's Ransom

Gloating serial killer Devon Sawa, a media-friendly and fabulously wealthy playboy, is sent to Roundwood, a medium security prison in Michigan run by glamorous warden Diane Neal. It's a dead end for Final Destination kid Sawa, but is it a step up or down for Ms Neal, who played assistant DA Casey Novak in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? From scene one, this ridiculous prison flick's dismal script is guilty of so many cardinal cliché sins (does Neal's 'difficult' teen daughter Jodelle Ferland live with her at the prison – you bet). And it's yet another shame-faced Canadian TV time-waster coyly pretending to be American. Fair warning: producer-director Mike Elliott also made Blue Crush 2 and Scorpion King 4.

I can live with the endless errors and absurdities because it moves along at a brisk pace. But the story line is far fetched with stereotyped characters although the acting is still pretty good. It must be a challenge to give a good performance when your scripted character spouts clichés and has all the depth of a worn out (Canadian) dime. Here, once more, is a Canadian film doing its best to hide that fact. I'm still puzzling over the fact it was shot in Manitoba but all the cars have (what seem to be) Michigan licence plates. (Nor does the Manitoba countryside looks anything like any part of Michigan I've seen.) Why do Canadian actors continue to demean themselves by participating in these embarrassing charades. If you are any good at the film business, you end up in Hollywood. If you are a no talent writer or director, you do one of these embarrassing, government subsidized Canadian clones.

Although the actors are talented the script is full of cliches and unrealistic storytelling.

I turned off when the first guy to try and break him out brings a single shot pellet gun out of the truck and they dub in multiple shots from a from it, killing a guard....hilarious! Was the budget to cheap that they couldn't have afforded a real rifle as a prop?

Then the instant approach of the already kitted out swat team complete with helmets and full face masks while the shooter is still active 10 seconds after he starts. And their heads cranked over so that they can see the rifle sights with their face masks on. It gets worse!

Poor directing, bad writing but the actors did well with what they had to work with .... The studio could have done better.