"Crime does not pay." - Director Poe
A man tries to escape a futuristic prison to save his wife.
Starring: Christopher Lambert, Kurtwood Smith, Loryn Locklin, Jeffrey Combs, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Link to IMDB
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| John |
We meet John and Karen Brennick as they're attempting to cross the border into Canada, concealing the fact that Karen's pregnant with their second child. They get busted, and both are sent to an underground prison run by the mega-corporation MenTel.
It's a high-tech prison called The Fortress, and every inmate is fitted with an internal device that inflicts pain if they do any bad behaviour. The prison is crowded and dangerous and everyone is forced into hard labour, but John is a tough man and he hopes to reunite with his wife someday, but he soon finds that no one is safe from trouble in this jail.
The prison in run by the sadistic and intelligent Director Poe. He enjoys torturing prisoners and can even steal their dreams with help from his ever-watchful robot droids. Poe takes an interest in studying John because he can tolerate more pain than most men, but the true nature of Poe's "experiment" is revealed when he takes Karen to be his personal slave!
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| Karen D-Day Abraham Poe |
Now John is eager to rescue his wife and escape The Fortress, but even with help from his cell mates, D-Day and Abraham, the odds are stacked heavily against him. No one has ever broke-out of this prison, and Director Poe sees everything his with electronic surveillance and cyborg guards!
John: "Getting out won't be fun."
D-Day: "No, but man, it's gonna be a trip."
Bolstered by the excellent cast, this movie delivers pretty much everything a good B movie should. It even takes itself seriously enough to be a gritty prison movie, using the sci-fi elements as story devices instead of just for the sake of being "in da future."
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| Prison fight ! |
It doesn't shy away from the violence, so we get the bloody fighting that you'd expect from a prison movie. There are also some surprises along the way as we learn more about how the Fortress works.
I think a few aspects suffer from having a low budget and being constrained by its genre, because some of the ideas and themes could have been explored a bit more... But hey, this is a crazy B movie, not high-brow drama, so I guess I did get exactly what I was hoping for.
Be sure not to miss:
- Take a drink every time Director Poe says "Crime does not pay" or "Intestinate."
- I wish I dreamed in psychedelic colours like John does.
- Vernon Wells has a small role.
Internet review:
"Fortress is impossible to dislike." - Carlofornia Raisin
Should I watch it?
Recommended!
Where can I find it?
Links here.
Fortress gets...
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