Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Davis is a 16 year old caught with narcotics. Angel is a 15 year old sentenced for assault and car theft. Butch is 17 year old who assaulted a corrections officer. All three are sent to Enola Vale Youth Correctional Center. Davis and Butch are targeted by bully Banks and his guys. Butch has anger issues and fights back.The actors are a little older than the characters. It's a noticeable difference and an important difference for this particular movie. As a prison movie, it rehashes all the standard characters. The leads Adam Butcher and Shane Kippel are pretty good. This is a fine prison movie but there's nothing new.

From what I have read Dog Pound is a film influenced by the British film Scum and is not a remake but if the truth be told it is almost exactly the same. Even some re-makes of other film's are not as close as these two film's are and because I seen Scum first and thought it was brilliant, Dog Pound has a lot to live up to. So does it then? The answer is no it doesn't, it's not even close. I suppose if I hadn't off seen Scum first I would of though this was a slightly above average film. The main character Butch is no where near Ray Winstone's character Carling and as I watched him, I just felt like I was watching a man trying to act tough. Maybe it is just me but I think he made the film worse. No spoilers here though and if you watch or have seen Scum then there is no need to tell you anyway. Not a lot more I want to say about this film really, it is no where near the level of Scum and having said that I would recommend that film but not Dog Pound. I warn you in advance mind, it's not for the faint hearted. Dog Pound 6.5 out of 10, Scum 9.5 out of 10.

In various aspects, Dog Pound fulfills with its purpose: bringing us a raw and intense look to a "juvenile detention center", supposedly dedicated to the juvenile delinquent's rehabilitation, when it is in fact a sadistic and brutal environment which stimulates the cruelty, the intolerance and the violence as the solution to every problem. I have to say that Dog Pound kept me interested; however, its story is almost non-existent, and it's reduced to a series of vignettes which follows the experience of three young interns of a recent entry.The main problem from Dog Pound is that it doesn't provide too much to the "prison cinema". On the positive side, the performances are very good, and I also appreciated the fact that none of the performers are models/actors, something which helps to the realism of the story. The only problem with the cast is that the actors are too old for the characters they interpret. If director Kim Chapiron had selected 15 or 16-year-old actors, Dog Pound would have been more shocking and subversive. Unfortunateley, he let that chance go.In conclusion, Dog Pound entertained me; it brings an interesting message; the performances are solid; and Chapiron's direction is agile and efficient, with the emphasis on the clarity and free of stylish distractions. However, it didn't leave me completely satisfied, mainly because it doesn't bring anything new to the "prison cinema". I consider it worthy of a moderate recommendation by itself, but there are much better "prison films" out there, such as Bad Boys (1983), Celda 211 and Un Prophéte.

French director Kim Chapiron, working in America, decided to tackle a thorny issue that afflicts many a young person in the country: being sent to a juvenile detention center. The idea is that young people will reform in those institutions, when the reality is they probably come out worse off than when they went in, which is the message one gets after watching this violent account of youth deprived of freedom.The prison genre has been done better before, but to his credit, Kim Chapiron has gathered a good cast, especially with the happy selection of Adam Butcher in the leading role, to give life to this drama. The screenplay was written by Mr. Chapiron and Jeremie Delon. "Dog Pound" keeps reminding a lot of the contributors to this forum of Alan Clarke's much better "Scum", a film in which the great Ray Winstone was the absolute star.