The Escape of Prisoner 614

Came across this on Amazon, it's a hidden gem.

Jake McDorman and Martin Starr are two bumbling, inept, deputies - Doyle and Hayford - who stumble into a World O' Hurt when they encounter "Prisoner 614" (George Sample III).

Ron Perlman shows his redneck side as, well, in the whole film, his name is "The Sheriff", as he plays a type of person who he usually speaks out against. I can even see a few people that Ron may have based his performance on, people he digs into daily. In this film, he gets to show us a valid portrait of the worst kind of people, and succeeds in holding us up a kind of mirror as we judge ourselves.

At first I thought this was going to be a western, although it is indeed a period piece. Probably taking place around late 60's-ish, I thought I had heard Prisoner 614 say "(19)58" was when he was arrested. Either way, this country had not developed socially very well and the Civil Rights movement was still happening strong. But this aspect of the film is played down, focusing more on the ineptitude of our Deputies. And a few choice words or phrases are inserted, just enough to make us remember the slow burning tension of those days. But we do see a few forward-looking people, one of them played by the true treasure of this film, Sondra James - Who although has been in Movies and Television since 1982, is most known for her voice and ADR work. Here, she plays the hostess of a Diner and turns out to be the most progressive thinking person of the whole film, positively affecting Deputies Doyle and Hayford.

The other treasure of this film is George Sample III, who is not really a man of many words, at first. But he also positively affects our two deputies. His mute style of comedy is effective.

This film is full of ironic humor, at some points is as uncomfortable to watch as Laverne and Shirley or even Lucille Ball with the level of sheer ineptitude reached by Doyle/Hayford. We are not talking about slapstick, but in fact, real, accurately portrayed dumbness.

The magic is what happens as we focus our attention on these two boys, suddenly, something larger happens.

Oh Yes, the main Irony of this film is it's production company: Saban, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Saban (And X-men, the Animated Series).

Martin Starr and Jake McDorman are a couple of dumb deputies. When they let George Sample III escape from custody, hard-as-nails sheriff Ron Perlman fires them. To recover their jobs, they decide to track Sample in the huge wildlife preserve.

Set in picturesque country during winter, it is adequately photographed by Adam Lee. Writer-director Zach Golden has made what is essentially a hillbilly comedy, run at a pace that is too slow for my taste, but which will appeal to some.

Are you gonna take your badges or guns?

If you like conversation between 2 guys who can't tell how dumb they are this is for you.

20 minutes is enough for me... Hey, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

REVIEW - THE ESCAPE OF PRISONER 614

I've been meaning to watch this film for a while and finally got around to doing so.

I saw the trailer while waiting for another movie to start and I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised.

The trailer makes the film seem to be one genre of film but upon watching the film itself you quickly realise that it's actually both, again I'm not going to give too much away, but needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed this.

It's slow, as its set in a small town where nothing ever happens, this fact is true to the whole essence of the story, the film and the location.

Personally I really enjoyed this but I'm aware that others may not.

Acting is excellent, story excellent, just an interesting bit of fun for a Sunday evening.

Rating 8 out of 10

...but the scenery is very scenic; the music is quite tuneful. Two stars. Words fail me. This is an abysmal movie. Devoid of humour. Surely this should go straight to video.