vbacon-111-578329

Given the Sixth Sense, Signs and some others, MNS has earned his place in film history as one of the best. Sadly, his bombs are pretty bad bombs and this, in my opinion, is one of them.

The action is there to a pretty good degree so it's not like you're bored during the movie. But the plot seems to go in one direction and doesn't have the unexpected twists and turns that you expect in an MNS movie.

The actors all do a good job with what they're given. A special callout has to go to Dave Bautista. My son was into wrestling so we always kind of laugh at his presence in any movie. But his acting here playing such an odd character shows he belongs in Hollywood.

I don't believe in demonic possession but I still found the film to be rather entertaining. Did people watch The Exorcist for entertainment or because they wanted to better understand demonic possession? I don't know.

I watch movies about aliens that I find entertaining, even though I don't believe in them either. (Well, I don't believe we know enough about any possible aliens to put them into a movie.)

What I found impressive is that this was rather low budget meaning it relied more on good dialogue as opposed to things like car chases and shootouts. It definitely succeeded in provide captivating conversation.

For me, the ending was predictable. As a result, the movie kind of lost my interest near the end.

Seeing Glenn Beck in the move was a turnoff as I don't like him. I also read that this was supposedly a pro-Christian movie and some reviewers panned it for that. I don't see how this movie would move someone one way or another.

Sometimes just sad, but usually mean and you never see him smiling.

Sadly, this movie deserves the 3.5 rating it currently has. I gave it a 4 as I'm a sucker for prison movies. The plot is unoriginal and unrealistic with gaping plot holes. The shocking plot twists are predictable and boring.

Have we ever seen a movie where the upstanding guy ends up in a prison with an unscrupulous warden? But this is no Shawshank Redemption. Have we ever seen a secret fight league run by the guards/warden? Yeah, but I can't even remember those movies names. This is worse than those.

One oddity is that they have the fighters wear body armor. Just weird. One stupid goof is they have Tyrese benching what looks to be 135 lbs. And struggling at it. I'm 5' 6", in ok shape, and I can do that easily.

They pulled in two actors with credible resumes; Jeremy Piven and Terrence Howard. Neither have decent showings. Pivens' fake southern accent and clownish behavior are amateurish. Howard's big brother teacher role is average at best.

Anyway, it was mildly entertaining for what it is.