The Condemned - Review

Discuss this movie on our message board!

Length: 113 min

Rated: R

Distributor: Lionsgate

Release Date: 2007-04-27

Starring: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Rick Hoffman, Robert Mammone, Tory Mussett and Madeleine West

Directed by Scott Wiper

Produced by Joel Simon

Written by Scott Wiper and Rob Hedden

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Jason Morgan : 2007-04-25 12:57:58

While thousands of Romans filled the Colosseum to witness the glorious brutality of gladiatorial events, the idea of man hunting man classed itself up in the 20 century with the novel “The Most Dangerous Game,” in which a wealthy hunter invited a big-game hunter to his island for the ultimate hunting experience. After several screen incarnations, the basic storyline was given a shot of satirical extremism for 2003’s Battle Royale, which turned middle school students against each other with explosive neck collars for reality TV viewing pleasure. For the concept’s latest rendition, The Condemned doesn’t attempt to inject anything new into the story. In fact, it takes Battle Royale’s basic framework and strips it of its satirical strengths, making a dumbed down, manufactured movie product and bringing the spectacle back down to the level of gladiator barbarics.

Instead of a reality TV show, The Condemned is a reality show that is streamed over the internet by a multi-millionaire who contracts 10 death-row prisoners to fight to the death for their freedom. Instead of explosive neck collars, the contestants are rigged with explosive ankle collars that blow up if they are tampered with, someone pulls the red tag or 30 hours pass, whichever comes first. Mixed into this basic framework are several contrived subplots revolving around Jack Conrad (“Stone Cold” Steve Austin) that add nothing but length to the movie. The inmates are quickly dropped onto a remote island rigged with hundreds of cameras and the story proceeds as predicted – violence ensues, characters both liked and dislike die, and the end doesn’t come soon enough.

Although there is no doubt that The Condemned is a dumb as dirt action movie with fight sequences that were apparently filmed by a zoom-happy, five-year old with Tourette’s, there is a sliver of a satirical undercurrent. As the millionaire goes about airing brutality on the internet, he defends the project (also named “The Condemned”) by saying it's manufactured entertainment created to meet a demand. Meanwhile, a moralistic journalist confesses that it’s not the show’s producer that saddens and angers her, but the tens of millions who paid to watch “The Condemned” (*wink*). Perhaps the writers are smarter than we give them credit for. It’s a bold move to tell your audience that you are taking their money and showing them crap.

By all accounts, the movie is right -- don’t waste your time or money on trash. Don’t support movies that are nothing more than a cash cow. The Condemned makes it crystal clear that WWE Films is in it for the money; to find another way to package its soap operatic violence and sell it to the masses. See No Evil (starring Kane) and The Marine (starring John Cena) proved there is an audience clamoring for insulting movies that glorify violence, and The Condemned capitalizes on it. Despite the in-film warning, there will still be laughs when Steve Austin calls another man “sweetheart” and there will still be people eager to get a seat in The Condemned’s crowded theater on opening night.

Latest Movie Reviews:

Public Enemies

The Boat That Rocked (UK release)

My Sister's Keeper

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs 3D

Image Gallery for The Condemned

Comment on “The Condemned”

Note: This website is not meant for use by minors. The views expressed in the comments section below are not our own. This section is intended for discussion of the topic in the post above. Disagreement is encouraged, however comments which attack, insult, or threaten the author in a personal manner won't be published. Similarly, comments that we deem to be poorly worded, or wildly off topic will also not be approved and may be mocked. For free, uncensored, unfettered, and possibly dangerous discussion visit our forum.

Subscribe to topic comments

0 0 / 0
y n

harshil
August 15, 2008 at 19:05

u can't expect that much from Austin brothers! its a good try! and really good movie.. i love this movie.. very much!

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Onesimus Jones
November 19, 2007 at 03:19

crap........ crap...... crap...boring n boring.........WWE u are a big disappointment....... Stone Cold brush ur acting please..... thanx 4 the one liners rattle snake........overall it was a boring movie......lacked gud acting n direction

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

calmdownacidremix
October 2, 2007 at 02:10

Wow acidremix, with expectations like those you are bound to never have a good time at the cinema. You seem like more of a pretentious film student than an actual normal everyday human. Enough about you though and more about the movie: It really was not all that bad, I went into it with low expectations and was presently suprised! Of course the plot is predictable and Steve Austins acting wasn't profound, but that was the whole god damned point.... how else were you expecting him to act? I could think of far worse performances than his.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

acidremix
September 19, 2007 at 13:58

Are these people serious? This movie was painful! I'm not even going to give them the ironic credit that this reviewer does. The film has the messesge that violence for entertainment is wrong, and the main character (like in every other movie like this) refuses to kill people. At the end, it completely disregards all of that nonsense as he goes on a killing rampage. Watch Battle Royale for something with more of a realistic feel, and less whining about violence. Either that or keep jerking it to WWE.

BTW Steve Austin's acting=worst performance ever.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Adrian
September 5, 2007 at 18:46

In my view the condemned is one of the best action movies that was recently produced and is a lot better than the marine and see no evil!

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

amin619
May 2, 2007 at 13:06

the condemmed is actully the best action film ive seen for a while it shows how the name of entertainment can be done for anything even death i am one of the supervisers at odeon cinema and i already have over 20000 people who have booked the film and its not even out!!!

Reply

Subscribe to topic comments

Please login or sign up to post reply

Back to The Condemned

The Condemned - Review

Comment on “The Condemned”

Leave a Reply