Haute Sécurité

Off the bat, straight away, let's disregard those acting razzie's, unjustly earned. The thing about Lock Up, it's a fresh movie turn for Stallone, in between his bigger films. This one's not written by him, and like me, you'll see why he can act on emotional levels, as a low security prisoner, put away for a minor offence, whose last six months are upgraded to ones of hell, when he's transferred to a s..thole of a prison, run by a vengefully vindictive warden (Sutherland) really good, who's really got one hell of a score to settle with Stallone, which involves his standing of work place. He's not Stallone's only problem, as corruption seems to run high, through the not so through nice prison officers, some of the most merciless you'll see, as their treatment of Stallone, almost got to be too much. There are some tender, and thankfully gentler moments, as in Stallone's girlfriend (Fluegel, perfect) who really becomes a beacon of shining light, near the end, in that intimate visit, among the hell Stallone,has endured. The uncompromising officer make the ones in Chained Heat look tame. The other nicer moments, ones I really liked, were Stallone and score of buddies hanging out in the auto repair shed, really bonding, where convict, Sizemore's admittance, becomes quite a twist or a bad aftertaste. Sutherland's intention of course, is to break Stallone, and keep him there for an indefinite period. I really liked John (Good Times) Amos as one of the better, more humane, yet still stout headed guards, and his presence in this film, is a much welcomed grace. This is not your typical shoot em' up Stallone film, and there are some Rocky moments int his, but it does make a change of pace with an interesting structured story and really good performances from really capable actors, Sutherland's, you won't forget easy. Great cover poster and end credit song, make for great night, near two hour viewing. Go Sly.

Great… just look at the cast who director John Flynn gets us locked up with. Sylvester Stallone plays the ideal prisoner - a rock, Tom Sizemore an edgy inmate, Larry Romano the naïve kid, Frank McRae the friendly man mountain, Sonny Landham dominates with a snake-like turn, John Amos a hardened prison officer captain and finally Donald Sutherland looking down on them as the menacing prison warden using his inmates like chess pieces "That's no game man. It's a lesson". You'll love to hate him, as Sutherland is picture-perfect in his delivery. The cast are outstanding, as the performances of all simply engage. Also making the cut is Darlanne Fluegal, William Allen Young, Jordan Lund and Danny Trejo makes a brief appearance here or there. The story follows that of Frank Leone having only 6 months of his sentence to serve, but then one night he's whisked away and he finds himself in a high security penitentiary with a warden Drumgoole (who he shares a past with) that tends to break his spirit within that time by using brutality, intimidation and humiliation. However despite Drumgoole's grudge to see Leone's spirit smothered, he'll find out it won't come too easy. Habitual structure, but quite a tense, grim and barbaric prison-yard story with director Flynn's durably taut handling rising above the predictability. It does seem to move from one sadistic act to another (as the warden tries about anything to break his man), but the plot installs some genuine companionship's between the characters and provides a mind-set of how these inmates truly get through the days so to keep from sinking in to insanity. Unpleasant, but also affecting. Bill Conti strings together an effective music score.

"You won't break me."

Lock Up is a pretty good movie for Stallone fans, although it could easily have been much better had he not been basically a saint behind bars. Stallone plays Frank Leone, who faces multiple prison terms total, beginning with an 18-month sentence he was given for avenging the vicious beating of an old man who took him off the streets when he was a teenager. So back then he wasn't allowed to leave the prison to see his dying father (when we meet him, he is on a weekend leave from a minimum security prison, a weekend that he spends playing ball with his kids while his charming wife looks on approvingly), so he breaks out to go to the funeral.

So his minor prison sentence turns into a big one, although one that he spends at a comfortable minimum security joint with all kinds of perks, including weekends and conjugals and even friendships with the guards. His release is approaching when suddenly he is awakened in the middle of the night and taken to a brutal, maximum-security prison where he is to spend the rest of his sentence. It's called a "routine transfer," although he has done nothing to deserve such an upgrade in security status and even his wife is not informed of what happened to him.

Ultimately he learns that he is being transferred to the prison of Warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland at his creepy best), who was in charge of the prison that Leone escaped from, which in turn made it into the papers and ruined Drumgoole's career. Now he has his chance for revenge, and he plans to arrange for Leone to spend the rest of his life in this prison.

The movie carelessly glosses over the ease with which Drumgoole plucks Leone out of his own prison with no explanation to those in charge there, and the conflict immediately switches to Leone trying to survive in this violent prison and stay out of trouble so he doesn't screw up his chances of getting released on time so he can go back to his family.

Drumgoole pulls out all the stops in violating the law that his institution is designed to uphold so that he can keep this one guy down, and Leone faces all manner of challenges ranging from shank-laden inmates to one of his inmate buddies who steals the Mustang they've all restored together and tears all over the prison yard doing doughnuts.

The movie is definitely entertaining although there are times when the cheese factor is through the roof, such as the spray paint fight and the downright school-girlish friendship that Leone forms with a small group of other inmates. On the other hand, it also has a much wider target audience than your average prison movie, and it manages to generally avoid most of the gaping pitfalls that prison movies are in danger of falling into when they shoot for a wide audience. There's nothing realistic about it, but for good Stallone entertainment, this is not a bad way to follow up the massive success of the Rambo and Rocky films.

Also keep your eye out for a young Tom Sizemore, but be advised that the movie features violence, unnecessary cheesiness and may leave you with an overwhelming desire to go out and get some doughnuts

The mechanic Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone) is a model inmate in a low security prison and has only six months to serve. He intends to spend the rest of his life working in his garage and with his beloved girlfriend Melissa (Darlanne Fluegel). Out of the blue, Leone is brutally transferred during the night to the maximum security Gateway Prison without any explanation. Soon he learns that Warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland) is the responsible for his transference.

Leone had been sentenced to Treadmore Prison after beating the punks that hit his mentor and friend that taught him his profession of auto mechanic. When his mentor was dying, he asked permission to Drumgoole to go to visit his friend but the request was denied. Leone fled from Treadmore and his lawyer went to the press to expose Drumgoole's behavior. The result was Leone in a minimum security prison and Drumgoole sent to Gateway. Now the warden is seeking revenge and will do anything to keep Leone behind bars.

"Lock up" is an entertaining prison drama full of action with Sylvester Stallone after the successful Rambo trilogy. The story is flawed and shallow, and the viewer shall not think how a prisoner is transferred the way Frank Leone is and his lawyer simply does not exist in the story. The characters are not well developed and there is no explanation for the sadistic behavior of the prison guards. However this type of movie is not to think and entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Condenação Brutal" ("Brutal Conviction")

Have to say right off that I can't believe the low rating for this one here, because it delivers everything that a Stallone fan would want, if one is loading this into the player then surely they know what to expect?

Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone) only has a few weeks to go before being released from prison, he is no hard core offender, he is a loving man and is ready for a new life with his gorgeous girlfriend Melissa (Darlanne Fluegel). During the night he is whisked away to a maximum security prison on the orders of a sadistic warden out for revenge because Leone was the only man to have ever escaped from his prison, thus setting in motion the wheels of revenge.

We then follow Leone as he is pushed to the limits by crazy warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland) and all the sadistic guards under his command. He also enlists the help of resident inmate beefcake Chink Weber (Sonny Landham), and they all in turn try to break Leone at all costs to ensure that he never leaves prison again. There certainly is nothing here that hasn't been done before in the prison film genre, and only an idiot would expect anything other than the ending we get, but this is a Stallone movie and it's full of guts, testo macho action, and it should be noted that Sly here puts some depth to the character of Leone. He garners our sympathy quite quickly, and considering the bloke is built like the proverbial brick outhouse, it's quite an achievement.

The supporting players are a mixed bunch, this is Tom Sizemore's first motion picture and he does really well with the character of Dallas, Sonny Landham is his usual scary menacing self, whilst Frank McRae as Eclipse does just enough right to make his mark. So it's something of a surprise to me that the best actor on show is actually the film's weak link. Donald Sutherland does overplay it to the point that he goes beyond pantomime villain, it's a real teeth itching performance that he would only outdo with the dreadful Jamie Lee Curtis starrer, Virus, 10 years later, but in a film with such primal fun/action intentions, it doesn't ruin the film and leaves it all told as a fine genre piece.

No awards here for sure, but when I watch a film about a man played by Sly Stallone in prison then I think I know what to expect, and it delivers all that I hoped for, so hooray for the beefcake I say. 7/10