A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Val Kilmer, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I noticed that this movie had a solid reputation on IMDb and I would have to agree on this. Indeed, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a grim realistic and convincing jail drama. The first thing that they did right was the introduction. Indeed, I don’t think it’s was unjust that Wade had to go to prison for what he did and his sentence actually seemed to be fair. I mean, the guy meant well and wanted to protect his family but he could have just as well let the guy go and call the cops. Basically, he was just an average guy who made a terrible decision and everything happening to him afterwards actually made sense. Indeed, somehow, he got entangled into the prison gangs system against his will which was obviously sad but also quite believable. Unfortunately, the whole thing got slightly derailed from the moment he got involved in some kind of Fight Club. Sure, I can imagine that some disillusioned and/or sadistic prison guards would let the inmate fight with each other but the way it was presented in this movie seemed to be too far-fetched. The fact that it led to a really unlikely happy-ending probably didn’t help. Still, most of it worked really well and I can’t remember the last time I saw Val Kilmer delivering such a solid performance in a movie which was actually watchable. On the other hand, even if he was never one of the worst actors I knew, I was never really impressed by Stephen Dorff but I have to admit that he was actually fine here and he probably delivered the best performance of his career. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not the best movie in this genre, it was still pretty good and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.