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75 out of 97 people found the following review useful: Surprisingly decent, 8 August 2007 Author: fatmaninatrenchcoat from littleton, co USA
So this flick was by no means great, but it did what it wanted to do, be a good bad action flick. Swearing, blood, fighting, no CGI, I had a great time watching it. Which really surprised me cause I HATE stone cold, but even he was pretty good. If you just wanna turn off your brain and watch a well done bad action flick, check this out. And yes I have seen battle royale and the running man, and yes this rips them both off fairly liberally, but what the hell, an action flick is an action flick, enjoy it for what it is. And Vinnie Jones is great as the super evil bad guy. And it even has some social commentary about the media's influence on our culture. Granted, its heavy handed and obvious, but seeing as I was expecting a movie on par with a Segal straight to DVD flick, any level of intelligence is appreciated.
82 out of 130 people found the following review useful: Battle Royale Redux, 29 April 2007 Author: Mark-129 from Essex County, NJ USA
A very popular Japanese film called Battle Royale concerns an entire class of bad tempered middle school students forced to fight to the last survivor on a deserted island for their transgressions. Considered too controversial for American audiences, it's never been released in the states. "The Condemned" is basically a remake of that film. Instead of unruly teenagers, death-row inmates from around the world forced to kill each other for the pleasure of an insane internet magnate's 30 hour snuff reality program.Steve Austin joins 9 other on the island where they stalk and eliminate each other in some of the most violent ways imaginable. This part of the story is fairly involving, but as the violence becomes more sadistic, it no longer seems entertaining. The sobering effect spreads to the movie characters as well, too late to help the combatants. Self righteously, the producers use this as a podium to speak down to the audience who bought tickets to watch the very entertainment they are presenting.The movie is not helped by a stateside subplot involving Stone Cold's girlfriend who lives on a sprawling ranch and supports herself as a waitress.
40 out of 49 people found the following review useful: Not nearly as bad as a lot of you are making it out to be., 6 October 2007 Author: js_ravinstorm from United States
Honestly, I really enjoyed this film. It reminded me of the good old days of action films such as Commando, Demolition Man, etc. Anyone who can endure/enjoy Stallone or Arnold in action movies certainly shouldn't have a problem with Steve Austin's acting.I think this film just gets a bad rap from critics because WWE is associated with it and no one wants to be the guy that gives them a break. It certainly won't win an Oscar, but if you enjoy action films then I'd definitely give this a chance. Just try & forget WWE is associated with it, let it stand on it's own two feet and judge it for yourself with an open mind.
21 out of 27 people found the following review useful: Good afternoon action movie, 7 October 2007 Author: downundermoviegal from Australia
Hey, this is not going to test the gray matter but if you want an entertaining albeit violent movie to fill in a few hours this is not a bad choice. The plot is predictable but the main saving grace is Steve Austin as Jack Conrad as he comes across as a compassionate and somewhat likable hero who ended up in this predicament by trying to do the right thing for his country. He does not exactly have to stretch his acting muscle but you do end up hoping he will win through. Although much of the violence is not right in your face in parts it does carry on that bit long although this is used to separate the "no morals, no borders" team from the good guys within the production cast. This movie serves up exactly what it promises but is still an entertaining movie. I would recommend to a friend.
38 out of 64 people found the following review useful: WWE deliver with this Great action flick, 3 August 2007 Author: Slasher_Guy
The Condemned is a movie that kinda come out of the blue to me one day. I had stumbled across it on IMDb and became excited to see it because it seemed like quite an interesting concept. It seemed like a nice action flick - but WWE, the people behind the stupid horror flick "See No Evil", were making it so I was a bit cautious as to what the outcome would be. Surprisingly, this movie has taken me by surprise and I can say that it is a great, fun action movie with great fight scenes, a nice plot and a lot more. The plot revolves around 10 prisoners on death row (including Stone Cold "Steve Austin" himself and Vinnie Jones) who are sent to an island in the middle of nowhere to fight each other to the death as it is broadcast online, leaving one survivor who leaves the island with freedom and a cash prize. The plot is actually the main thing that attracted me to see the movie. It sounds like "Battle Royale", which is a great flick, so it was great to hear a familiar idea bought to the screen again. It's not a stupid plot like it might sound to some people, but it's just a simple one and a fun one which doesn't require much thinking. Most of the fight scenes in the movie are great, and there's plenty of fights, action and explosions going on non-stop throughout the movie. The first few fights I'll admit are the better ones, but the others are good enough too and still entertaining to watch. I feel that certain characters in the movie are killed off rather too quickly though and some seem to disappear for a while, and then sooner or later get killed off the next time we see them again. The character development is good, but I do feel like we could have spent a little bit more time with one or two of them - mainly the women actually. The cast is good too, and provide good performances. Wrestler Steve Austin doesn't give the best performance but he is good enough. I feel some of his lines weren't delivered too great, but he does make a good action hero and delivers some good fight sequences for us to witness. I'm not going to blame the guy though as he isn't a professional actor and could have easily given a horrible performance but he doesn't. Vinnie Jones is, well, Vinnie Jones - the same old Vinnie Jones with the accent, gritting of the teeth and tough face - and yet still gives a good performance. Tory Mussett, who I had only seen in the terrible Boogeyman, also gives a good performance and this time round has a character to work with. The others are good too, and there's not one performance in the movie that I could say was bad acting. While The Condemned could have gotten a higher rating from me if it had had a few better fights and a bit more screen time for some characters, it hardly has anything negative about it. It's a great action movie with lots of explosions, fights and action to keep you entertained. Don't let the fact that it is made by WWE put you off the movie, it's a great action movie and definitely worth checking out if you want a great action movie to watch.7/10
16 out of 21 people found the following review useful: A Nutshell Review: The Condemned, 21 July 2007 Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
At first glance, the storyline looks like a distant cousin to the Japanese movie Battle Royale. Instead of having sent unruly students to an island and see them finish off one another, The Condemned follows the same lines of having 10 death row prisoners from around the world being brought to an island, and given a simple rule to kill everyone else in order to earn their survival, and freedom. They are similarly rigged with an explosive device which if tampered, or if they choose not to participate, they too will be blown to bits.But there's where the similarity stops. There's no PA system to tell the scattered involuntary participants just how many survivors there are (thus leading to a loophole), and there are multiple camera rigs installed on the island, for the purpose of entertainment. The Condemned plays on some of our intrinsic nature of wanting to watch gladiatorial styled violence, and given that such content will probably never get on the TV networks, the fairly sci-fi turned reality TV over IP concept gets its airtime here. What networks refuse to screen and produce, you can, given the right equipment and personnel, and plenty of computing power.Pay-per-view IPTV using credit cards is the road to riches for the game producer Ian Breckel (Robert Mammone), who champions the thought of producing content that audiences around the world want to watch. His argument was that these handpicked participants are going to die anyway, and here, he's giving one of them the chance to live, a noble gesture to him. The Condemned mocks today's reality TV format, in that sometimes, the game can be manipulated to satisfy the producers' objectives, and we see that in abundance here.Violence it seems is high on the agenda here - how much can an audience stomach, especially if say hypothetically, Big Brother type of series allow violence to be met out live, unedited and raw. Or are you going to play to those who pay, and give in to the demand? There's a constant argument being played out early in the movie about dignity and decency, but that gets forgotten fairly easily in a film like this one, falling victim to its own preachy statements.Especially so when Sports Entertainment companies like WWE are involved in this one. WWE had its fair share of stars lending their "acting talent" to Hollywood, and I can go as far back as the late Andre the Giant lending his physical presence in The Princess Bride. Then you have Hulk Hogan in various forgettable flicks, The Rock in some charismatic roles (though some are as cheesy as that in Be Cool), and Kane in the horrid See No Evil. Here, Stone Cold Steve Austin plays the lead role of Jack Conrad, an inmate with an unspecified past, who becomes someone more than anyone had bargained for.But the star unfortunately is not Austin, as much as he plays the anti-hero. Vinny Jones, as British prisoner Ewan McStarley, clearly stole his thunder, and injected more personality into his maniacal character. While the format of the game had the prisoners from different parts of the world to allow everyone a chance to root for their home players, it was at times ironic that USA had to battle UK so prominently in the movie, and that the "with me or against me" line just brings to mind the many scenarios as played out ever so often. It's ra-ra for the USA in an in-your-face fashion, with eye-for-an-eye violence dished out for avenging the weak and wounded, and the showing of compassion to those who needs it. The make up of the team of pla yers too is interesting on purpose, with female players up against male ones (and what happens is such an easy guess), and Survivor styled formation of alliances, outwitting, outlasting, outplaying all being key to survival, but the story, with so many characters, dictate that you cannot go beyond what is superficially shown. Of course the leads got a little more background to show for, but you find that these happen to be just cosmetics, unnecessarily inflating the screening duration.The Condemned tried to be a little deep, but ended up tossing its attempts aside to settle for an all out action movie towards the end, and what I thought was bordering on the ridiculous at Austin's ability. For action junkies, the sequences here might be a little repetitive with its usual big explosions, and the extreme closeups of violence using the shaky hand-held camera technique just irritates. If the premise still excites you after all the mentioned flaws, then The Condemned managed to appeal to you with its in-movie concept - I think you'll pay US $49.95 should there be a channel like this on the internet.
11 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Not great, but give it a chance, 5 November 2007 Author: jacko_manton03 from United Kingdom
After watching 'See no evil', i said to myself i wouldn't watch another WWE film, ever. Then they released the Condemned. At first i was slightly interested as i am a big fan of Stone Cold, but kept saying to myself i would not watch it. OK SO I GAVE IN. I think its fair to say i was surprised at it. It was better than 'See No Evil', by far. Its no masterpiece, but for a nice lil action film its a good treat. Better than many Seagal films. Stone Cold, obviously not a professional actor, did not do too bad for his first lead. Overall, i think the characters could have been fleshed out a bit. Some people we knew nothing about, really could have added bit more to the personalities.A nice action film, 6/10
12 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Not bad , could of been better., 24 September 2007 Author: shadowman123 from United Kingdom
One has to bear in mind that The Condemend is wwe production so don't go expecting some massive work of art with lots drama, action and a deep plot that will make you think- NO! Since it is a WWE production with wrestlers that have belonged to that company it has them doing what they do best in their specialised field of entertainment. The plot in nothing too out of this world if you have seen Battle Royale then you shall understand the point but it is by no means a great movie like Battle Royale so be warned. However having said that it has got all the ingredients in it to keep fans of the action genre connected and the story just picks up and moves on at a good pace with action to keep you hooked in. Steve Austin was good giving what he had to work with although to be honest it did not really need any effort as this role is a mirror image of his tough guy persona in WWE , however it was funny watching try to play the silent tough guy who grunts quiet a bit! But the star of the show in my opinion was the proper English hard-man Vinnie Jones , he was entertaining! The action was great along with the over the top theatrics which we see in the WWE . My complaints were that it drag on a little longer than it should of done I mean it was filled up in a few dull moments between fight scenes which were not needed and a few parts which tried to show that the characters had depth - that was just silly. To conclude , The condemned is not nearly as bad as people are making out to be, its merely a time pass and it should not be compared to anything bigger or deeper like Battle Royale however if you would like to see it then make sure it is on one of your boring Monday nights. Fans of the action genre and WWE will be left feeling satisfied to a meek extent as it is not that bad but could of been better.THE CONDEMNED : 6.7 OUT 10THE FIGHT IS ON .
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: It's been done before, 13 October 2007 Author: d_generation_x-1
OK,, don't get me wrong the idea of this movie is great, but the fact remains that its been taken from another movie. A very popular and controversial movie by the name of Battle Royal (in English) where a class of students are taken to an island to kill each other off, (The plot is actually more complicated for example political and social reasons behind why the students are sent to an island to commit murder, but I will not get into that now.)The condemned is good to watch, once, more than once and you're just wasting your time, so its best to rent it out. Character development doesn't exist in this movie (but then again there's only been a limited number of action movies where character development was present). This separates Battle Royal from the condemned because there is a trace (not major) of character development within the film.The personalities displayed by the characters doesn't make sense, there's a couple who were sent to death row for a mass killing, but when you meet them on the island they seem to be the nicest people in the world, and they REFUSE to kill, they even choose NOT to defend themselves against people who are going to kill them. There are just so many things wrong with this, and it confuses you because your thinking, are these the same people?And then there's the obvious cliché which just gets you sick to your stomach and you just want to strangle anyone associated with this film (apart from Stone Cold, nobody would dare try to strangle him). The typical 'good guy', sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, misrepresented hero, doesn't want to hurt anybody, etc etc.It really is just sickening to see that used (please people. ORIGINALITY). Coming from America, which has the highest percentage of criminals and serial killers (etc. etc.) you get this guy who doesn't want to hurt anyone right up until the end. If this was real, half the people sent to the island would be Americans, so why is it that you have murderers coming from countries that have some of the lowest criminal rates? (COME ON, do some research!) oh, but they are all sent from third world prisons, by that the makers of this film mean prisons with no laws and no justice. If this is so, there would be nobody on death row because MOST get executed within a week or so (once again, research would really help here).So the show wouldn't be a success because they wouldn't find anyone in a third world prison waiting to be executed, (its not like in America where someone spends years in jail before they are executed). Once again lack of research results in a lack of understanding within the movie.The storyline of the movie is still good (even though its stolen from a great movie and then destroyed in the process). The camera however moves so fast at times you get a headache, I guess the makers of this film thought "we need as many fast scenes and explosions possible...OK here we go: BOOM...run...Jump...BOOM...CRASH...RUN...BOOM once again American directors display why they shouldn't try to remake or copy a movie like Battle Royal. How many explosions and fight scenes are there in battle royal? about one fourth of how much there are here, and Battle Royal is still better.If you want to see a good movie, watch battle royal, the whole plot originated from Battle Royal. I am still being generous and am going to give this movie a 5 out of 10. However I would give Battle Royal a 10 out of 10.
17 out of 31 people found the following review useful: A surprisingly good movie., 16 December 2007 Author: trbrubak from United States
This movie is definitely the best movie that the WWE has put out to the public. I got it through my mail account just as a whim, not expecting much from it. I was really surprised how well this movie was put together. The plot is strong: 10 people, who are all on death row for various crimes, are brought to an island by a rich man. The objective: be the last person standing in 30 hours and you will be set free. The entire "game" is broadcast over the internet. The characters are very well casted. Steve Austin makes a great lead character, while Vinnie Jones (Juggernaut from X-men 3), and the many other characters create a real sense of danger and desperation. I would definitely recommend you do not pass this one up. It can be a great movie to watch alone, but is more fun to watch in a group. If you're in the movie store, pick up a copy. You won't be disappointed.
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