Well throughout film history we've all enjoyed a good prison movie watch am I right?! Stallone bringing it in with Lock Up, that was my first looks into the prison life setting. Relatively young, with no prison experience behind or in front of me fortunately this film made you never commit a crime. there has been many others through out film history that have stuck with us over the years, one of this generation that just might stick for a while is Brawl in Cell Block 99 staring Vince Vaughn. This hard look and rough life of the main character is brought to you by the man behind Bone Tomahawk, if you haven't seen Bone yet please do so, building quite a following from cult fans and Hollywood actors is steadily growing. this man is S. Craig Zahler, writer, director, even composer of this film which is great. Normally wearing many hats in the industry means you have too because your an independent filmmaker, the budget is there so I'm sure its for creative control of the film, written and directed I'm sure its creative control of the film that is produced is exactly what you've envisioned. Now onto Brawl in Cell Block 99, don't be deceived by title, its sort of a brawl throughout multiple locations. We start with the main character Bradley Thomas who is a repo man that gets fired at the start, just in the first 10 minutes you surely get the feel that this character is going to battle throughout, life is going to throw it at him one punch at a time. after being fired and going home he sees his wife lauren Thomas played by the very talented Jennifer Carpenter, looks like she's had a long night sort a speak and he see's this and loses his temper. Its evident at this point that Bradley is going to go through it for sure. Bradley looking for a new job and a way to pay the bills, has to resort to his past life, running drugs, guns, etc. you name it for his employer Gil ( Marc Blucas) and his associates. needless to say things go south while taking one of these jobs and costs a few people a lot of money, thus going to prison on a plea would've been nice, at first its a minimum security prison, very lax and some of the others there are friendly and warm up to him, then Bradley receives a visitor at the prison Placid Man ( Udo Kier) and tells him that his wife and they're unborn child would be harmed in a most gruesome way if he does not kill a fellow inmate in the prison, but not this one, a different prison that is a high security maximum penitentiary run by warden Tuggs (Don Johnson) and its a lawless place basically void of life for the worst of the worst criminals. Ill let who ever reads this extend their time to watching it because it is a decently directed, well acted film, but let me forewarn you, just like his other films S. Craig Zahler has under his belt he shows you not a quick story to be rushed through, these films build characters, locations, and more importantly the will to watch a longer film and feel like its not dragging you across concrete, little pun there. Overall Vince, Jennifer, Udo, and many other cast members truly bring this universe to life for Bradley Thomas, so enjoy the ride, or should I say the Brawl in Cellblock 99.
Review of Brawl in Cell Block 99
