A lot of fun.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Blistering performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I can't say that the director is good, but he filmed it at least in a acceptable way. And the cinematography is beautiful, whitch helps. The script is predictable. The protagonist as every other character are bad. The movie even tries to create a backstory for the protagonist, but just make it worse. The cast are horrible, Vinnie Jones almost make it enjoyable but the dialogues don't help in any way. I saw this movie when I was a kid (yes, totally wrong), and in that time I was able to visualize that this movie isn't a big thing, but I actually enjoyed. I rewatch it this year, I was not able to reach the end. If you like to see strong people killing each other you can give it a try. Maybe you enjoy it.

Jack Conrad is awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. He is "purchased" by a wealthy television producer and taken to a desolate island where he must fight to the death against nine other condemned killers.These condemned are from all corners of the world, with freedom going to the sole survivor......You get an awful sense of déjà Vu when you see this film for the first time, because it's nothing more than a heavily blended version of better films that you have seen a thousand times before.The most noticeable 'homages' are obviously 'Battle Royale', and then it has elements of 'The Running Man' and 'No Escape', but the difference is where those films had originality, and were topical, this is nothing more than a vehicle for its star.Stone Cold does what he does best, scowls, fights, says incoherent one liners, and a owls a little bit more at Vinnie Jones.And that's the film, lesser known actors getting blown up, no surprises, and obviously it's the man behind the curtains who is the biggest villain of them all, because as we all know, money, money, money, is the root of all evil!!.It's way too long, by a good 30 minutes, so it can get a little maundering at times, there was no need to include a love interest, she's never in any danger, and it could have trimmed so much fat from the film.Jones tries hard, but hard to the point where he's worse than a school pantomime villain, he's really awful. So awful, that he's just as irritating as Jack Blacks faux Rastafarian in I Still Know.But if your after a quick action fix, with a really terrible villain, you could do a lot worse.

The Condemned (2007): Dir: Scott Wiper / Cast: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Madeleine West, Emilia Burns: Typical action film about those weighted down by sin. Simple plot has ten death row convicts placed on an island with explosives attached to their ankles. The key to survival is to kill until one is left alive to claim freedom. Broadcast via Internet by a big T.V. tycoon. Basically one violent showdown after another until reaching the obvious conclusion. Director Scott Wiper does an innovative job. Wrestler Steve Austin does exactly as expected and that is play a wrestler in prison. His first scene has him tested by beating the snot out of several guys before being chosen for this nitwit scheme. He will continue to fight as if in a WWE title tournament except this junk will reward him with nothing but loads of negative reviews. Vinnie Jones as a sadistic convict will be the ultimate boring showdown that we can predict before Austin is placed on location. Supporting roles are just targets for brutality including the idiot tycoon who will obviously get his in the end. The criminals are your standard hard faced brain dead zombies who are there to die for nothing. This is a pathetic excuse to showcase scene after scene of mindless violence and brutality. The film trades a potential message of media violence for the very thing it supposedly condemned. Score: 3 / 10

A hardened bunch of violent criminals are sent to a remote wooded island for an internet contest. There is only one rule: kill all the other contestants and the lone survivor will be given an amnesty Did someone mention BATTLE ROYALE ? What I find interesting is the large number of films I've seen recently that seemed directly - or should I say too directly ? - inspired by other works . Some of them are direct pastiche/homages to other films so I guess post modernism is at play . However some of them just seem to be lazy cash ins of much superior movies . What one do you think THE CONDEMNED might be ? I'll give you a clue . It stars Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones so that drops a very large hint that it's low grade straight to DVD fare when it gives hints it could have been so much better It does get off to a relatively good start with a biting comment on the state of Western culture that we seem a little bit too interested in both the internet and reality TV . A station merges the two morbid obsessions and sets up a pay site where viewers can access the ulitimate gladiatorial contest featuring a group of violent psychos kill one another . It's not original and it's a little bit loud and in your face but again it does give a hint at social commentary . This quickly becomes forgotten as the story then concentrates on the violence . There's a problem with using this as a story and that is if you're watching a film centered around people killing one another you need to draw a clear line between the good guys and the bad guys because who wants to watch a totally amoral film ? This means it becomes predictable in that the good guy is someone innocent of the terrible crimes he's been convicted of while the bad guys are bad guys because they're guilty of their crimes and just enjoy violence for the sake of it . The characters are merely walking clichés lacking any depth and the film's selling point is the violence which means it ends up becoming very ironic as the station chief argues that violence is what the audience want . Want one wants is a new cerebral twist on a familiar story