Maximum Security (1998) User Reviews

So who exactly is getting maximum revenge in this film?

[Aaron1375 · 3/10 · 2 February 2021]

While watching this film I was guessing it was made late 80's into the early 90's. I was totally surprised to see that it was made in 1997, so the first thing I have to say is that the film looks bad for when it was made. A film about revenge featuring crew cut villains, villains that look like country music stars, ones that look like Shawn Michaels who even do super kicks and a woman carrying around an overly large shotgun which she never fires! This film has it all, including a bland group of prisoners led by a guy who would never have gotten convicted in the real world, a former cop who did nothing wrong in the first place and had numerous witnesses that could attest to this!

The story, a cop stops a hostage situation, but is sent to prison when he shoots a guy who pulls a gun on him. Well, the people who did the takeover want revenge! I guess so, not sure why they do or how the country music one is even alive after being shot in the face and chest or how he has recovered enough to do this caper of planting a bomb in a prison where the cop resides. Heck, not even sure why they are doing it other than the fact the leader is very anti middle eastern. Well, the warden who is super coward releases the prisoners and the cop now has to stop the evildoers in a movie that is like Die Hard in a prison, but with an extremely low budget!

The actors and actresses in this film are not very recognizable. I think the only one I may have seen before is the lead bad guy. My favorite character though had to be woman with the overly large shotgun who simply stands in different poses while holding the shotgun. She is in league with the terrorist, but still manages to get beaten by the reporter assisting the good guy...it's always a reporter.

So, this film is really bad and really cheap, but still manages to keep things moving along. Lots of people get shot, but thankfully the prison only has five prisoners in it, because I am sure they fill prisons at a slow pace. Mainly, you get a bunch of guys running through the same hallways over and over again, though one fight seems to inexplicably take place in a bottling plant. Yes, you get revenge, but I don't really think we got the maximum revenge the film's title promised.

Expect more of the same.

[emm · 4/10 · 28 April 1999]

Here we go again with another low-rent action flick I despise greatly of. The story concerns of a new maximum security prison, the perfect setting for terrorists to start another hostage crisis. This is typical Fred Olen Ray garbage, but hey, this isn't an adult comedy! Two long sex scenes need to go somewhere else to play, but Michelle Bauer can stick around (she is one of Ray's original stars!). An action film can be violent all that it wants to, and nothing short. Expect campiness to degrade this kind of effect, as gunshot wounds aren't at all realistic (notice the small amount of blood). The climax is ridiculous and has no potential, with amateurish martial arts techniques that show itself. It also has to do with diffusing a time bomb. Come on, producers! We've seen this before! This is very good as a modern suspense tale, carrying this one up to below average status that's far from terrible. Your cravings for a B-grade actioner are an all-time high when you just can't get enough of them. What more can I say? I've had enough!

Die Hard rip-off prison cheese fest

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 10 October 2017]

MAXIMUM REVENGE is a Z-grade action flick set within the cheap confines of a prison, where there are never more than half a dozen characters on screen at the same time. The hero is an undercover cop who must go up against some terrorists who have planted a bomb in the prison. He must recruit some fellow convicts to help stop them. Yep, it's DIE HARD time again, this time played out in the cheapest way imaginable thanks to the efforts of director Fred Olen Ray.

Even fans of this overworked genre will find little to get worked up about here. The dialogue is exceptionally cheesy and the plotting drawn out in the extreme. The acting is as wooden as it gets and the fight scenes are slow and clumsy. Ray can't resist including the likes of Michelle Bauer and Monique Parent in bit parts but the most fun thing about this are some of the spoof credits at the end.

Nah!!

[Piper Halliwell · 25 October 2000]

SPOILER ALERT Horrible movie!! Boring even in the action scenes!! Worth while just because the protagonist is very cute and that's all! A lot of movie's cliches like the fights that is ridiculous and very easy to win; The bad guy always get the 'not-so-poor' lady in danger to jeopardize the good guy's plan; One of the hero's helpers who was a high security prisoner gets shot and dies and the other one suddenly becomes good and goes to the hospital; The bad guy dies after a few couple minutes of fight with the good guy who threw him down the platform; The 'not-so-poor' lady fights with the only woman in the gang and after get beaten a lot she finally wins and leaves the building with the good guy who is about to be decorated and/or about to be forgiven; The final kiss who, by the way, was the best thing of all the movie!And finally the most ridiculous cliche of all time: The very dangerous bomb who was about to blow doesn't blow because the hero cut the red wire and saves the day!! Oh give me a break!! Even me could do better than this!!! I don't recommend this movie to anyone, at least to anyone who wants to have fun!!

The misleading title isn't the only thing wrong here...

[mhorg2018 · 1/10 · 6 April 2023]

...it starts with Director Fred Olen Ray. The guy as of late has gone into doing made for cable Christmas movies, but he also does 'erotic' thrillers, bad action movies like this and really, his entire ouvre is slightly better than anything The Asylum pumps out. He may have worked for them as well. This lame 'action' fest is basically a rip off/mish mash of Die Hard and Goldfinger (the bad guys feel that blowing up a prison with a nuclear bomb will make the US attack the Middle East, yeah, I shook my head too). Fortunately for the side of good, a very bad acting Policeman, who foiled a Skyjacking but killed a few too many people, is in the prison! The prisoners are also willing to help since they (der) don't want to get blown up by the nuclear weapon! There's also some eye candy in Landon Hall (who doesn't get naked unfortunately) as a reporter who notices nothing and adds little to this lame story. Anyhow, it's basically a snoozefest and I recommend it for insomniacs anyhow. I wish IMDb would stop with this six hundred words stuff. It's getting tiring.