Feb 28 2010
Felon (2008)
Starring Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
Rated R for brutal violence, pervasive language and brief nudity
1 hour 44 minutes
Still in search of that elusive “sleeper” movie, I tried this at the recommendation of a couple internet critics. In it, a law-abiding citizen (Dorff) gets sent to prison for accidentally killing a man while defending his home. There he gets tangled up with violent prison gangs and corrupt officers and finds that he may never get out unless he gets help from an older life sentence inmate (Kilmer). One reviewer compared this movie favorably to The Shawshank Redemption (one of my all-time favorites), but in my mind the only thing the two movies have in common is that they are both set in prisons. This movie is extremely violent, full of f-bombs, poorly acted, and very predictable. I guess the search continues.
Grade: C