The Condemned DVD: Review By Shelley

THE GOOD:

Believe it or not, Steve Austin was very good in this film. I guess a lot of that has to do with the part he was playing, but typically wrestlers turned actors are horrible no matter how they are cast. He was convincing and believable with better than average acting throughout. Austin has been cast in The Expendables coming out next year and after seeing this I look forward to see how he does in that film. I also enjoyed Vinnie Jones (Midnight Meat Train) who always is well cast as a psychopath.

The Condemned is a very good action film with well choreographed fight scenes and good special effects. I was happy to see that there was no CGI used because it would have cheapened the movie. I like the fact it is straightforward and does not try to make it something it is not. The soundtrack is pretty good as well with songs performed by Nickelback, Prodigy, The Eels, among others.

THE BAD:

The photography leaves something to be desired and as with most movies of this type, it is predictable. It would have been nice because of the filming location, Australia, if it had a ‘high-definition’ look but unfortunately the DVD failed to deliver.

As you may expect this is a predictable film with several ‘over the top’ scenes and performances, but hey it is still a lot of fun to watch.

THE FILM:

Television producers Breckel (Robert Mammone) has an idea for a worldwide internet reality show, place ten death row inmates on a desolate island and have them fight to the death with one ultimate winner who will get to go free. He goes about ‘purchasing’ these individuals and looks for the worst offenders or those the audience will tune in to see like a husband and wife team. Breckel is willing to invest most of his savings into this venture because he expects ratings to be as high as the Super Bowl (40 million) and at a cost of $49.95 to view the ‘contest’, it will make him a very rich man. One of the men ‘purchased’ for the show is Jack Conrad who is being held on death row in a Central American prison. As soon as the contest begins it is obvious Conrad is not like the others but can he survive long enough for government authorities to figure out who he actually is?

SPECIAL FEATURES: Widescreen Edition

Five-part featurette - "The Making of The Condemned"

Audio commentary with Stone Cold Steve Austin and director Scott Wiper

Audio commentary with director Scott Wiper

Stone Cold at Movie World - exclusive footage

"Capital Carnage Reunion" - a look at the first meeting of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones in 1998

Storyboard sequences

Theatrical trailer

16x9 widescreen version

5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX audio

English and Spanish subtitles

English closed captions

The special features really surprised me as well, you would not expect this many on a movie like this. I would not go so far as to say they are exciting, but some of them are interesting.

REPLAY VALUE:

Average replay value for The Condemned, I can see it being entertaining more than once.

BOTTOM LINE:

Normally I would rate this film three stars (average) but because I was surprised by how good it was I am giving it 3.5. I really thought it would be a terrible film and expected the worst. I would not say it is a film that is ‘theater worthy’, but definitely worth renting on DVD, especially if you like violent films with interesting characters. Like I said previously, it is a predictable film with a ‘cheesy’ ending, but it is a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading.