MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Condemned'


Movie review in the April 27 Oregonian …




At what point does "The Condemned" turn from a stupid-fun action movie into something grim and unpleasant and totally hypocritically uncool?

Is it shortly after the goofy setup -- when ten death-row inmates (including wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) are shipped to an island to fight for their lives on an Internet reality show -- and a woman is promptly smacked around and nearly raped?

Or maybe later, when she's shot with an arrow and explodes?

Or maybe when Vinnie Jones, as one of the prisoners, tortures, rapes and kills another woman?

Or maybe when Jones machine-guns a room full of crying women?

You may detect a pattern.

There are some nicely over-the-top moments in this puree of "No Escape," "Battle Royale" and "The Running Man" -- most of them involving people falling from great heights and blowing up. But the choppy action edits and rampant misogyny spoil the fun in a hurry.

Plus -- in a feat of spectacular lameness after all this voyeruistic carnage -- co-writer/director Scott Wiper tries to turn "The Condemned" into a message movie. No, really. Late in the film, a TV journalist asks viewers: "Are those of us who watch -- are we -- the condemned?"

Uh, yes. Yes we are.
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D; 113 minutes; rated R for pervasive strong brutal violence, and for language.

Pinned by its brutality (The Oregonian, April 27, 2007)

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Posted: Fri - April 27, 2007 at 12:00 AM        

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