I've always loved prison movies, not sure why but they have intrigued me as much as terrified me ever since I can remember watching them. I love the grit and nastiness of not only the environment but the dirty politics and untold stories in each cell. Here we have a serious throwback to the old low budget "Grindhouse" type movies that center a tough, no nonsense guy just trying to do right but gets mixed up in the wrong game. He ends up in prison due to a drug deal gone bad and is forced to kill one of the inmates in the hardest cell block with the hardest warden. Good thing he is an ex-boxer / tough guy who can pretty much take any type of pain and dish it out 10 times more. I almost absolutely loved this movie. Story, violence, gore, setting, plot, acting, and Don Johnson as the hard core Warden was outstanding! What I just couldn't get past the entire time watching was its lonesome star, Vince Vaughn. Let me explain, I am a big fan of Vaughn, I think he is a great actor. He just didn't sell me the part of a bad ass in this movie. They mention how huge he is a number of times, and how big his muscles are, and how he is such a tough guy but it just wasn't there. In this day and age, there are good actors who are 5 times the size of him that would have made his role so much more believable. Other than that, the movie was great. Give it a shot, maybe you will think different but one small casting mistake lost a star on my rating.
FYI: Vaughn gained 15 lbs of "muscle" for this film???
***1/2
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