“WWE Films presents…” Does anything else really need to be said about any movie really? A motion picture staring Stone Cold Steve Austin and produced by the company that brings us WrestleMania every year. Did anyone have much hope for this movie? Did “The Condemned” have any chance at being ok?
Well… I thought it might actually.
Here’s the idea behind the movie:
“An adrenalin-charged action thriller, “The Condemned” tells the story of Joe Conrad (Stone Cold Steve Austin), who is awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. He is “purchased” by a wealthy television producer and taken to a desolate island where he must fight to the death against nine other condemned killers from all corners of the world, with freedom going to the sole survivor.”
I’ve been saying for a few weeks now that if this movie could just deliver some good ass kicking action, some witty tough guy one liners and throw in a couple of laughs… then it just might have a chance at being a decent time at the movies. Does it succeed?
THE GOOD
Stone Cold Steve Austin looks terrific. His physical presence in the movie is a plus. Just the sight of him screams “bad ass”.
The first 15 minutes did exactly what the movie needed to do. For the first 15 minutes… I’ll comment on the rest of it later.
Vinnie Jones in anything is gold.
Rick Hoffman as the Television Producer “Goldman” was amazing! He was single handedly the single best character/part of The Condemned. I got a little excited every time I saw him on screen, because you knew something funny was going to come out of his mouth.
THE BAD
Oh my dear lord in heaven where do I begin? Steve Austin looked great… but the moment he opens his mouth you’re instantly reminded that he’s not an actor. Wow… i don’t know if his lines could have been delivered any worse than they were. I swore I thought George Lucas was directing him or something. This movie would have been about 15% better just by having The Rock in the lead. What I heard was that Autin was originally supposed to be the bad guy in the movie… that would have been a much better idea… especially if it was a bad guy that never opened his mouth. Too bad, Austin did pretty ok in “The Longest Yard”, but that was a role that didn’t really require anything from him. He can’t carry a film as its lead, and they shouldn’t have tried.
WHAT THE HELL WAS THE GIRLFRIEND BACK HOME?!?!?! For those of you who haven’t seen it (which is most of you), Austin has a girlfriend back home they keep cutting to. SHE SERVED NO FRICKING PURPOSE to the movie whatsoever. All she did was take up valuable screen time that could have / should have been used for ass kicking. I’m not kidding… there was no point to her. Same goes with the US law enforcement officers in the movie. They served no function at all. It was annoying as hell.
Look, I watch WrestleMania every year… so I guess you could say I’m at least a mild wrestling fan. But I’m sorry, what the fuck is the WWE doing moralizing in a movie about how bad it is to glorify violence??? Was that supposed to be some kind of joke?
The first 15 minutes of the film really got my hopes up. Good action, tough guy one liners, some funny stuff… everything this movie needed to do to work. And then after 15 or 20 minutes the just threw it all away. Usless characters, endless moralizing, bad acting… it’s almost as if the movie makers put their foot on the gas and built up some great steam… only to take their foot totally off expecting the momentum of the first 15 minutes to carry the movie the rest of the way. It didn’t… it just died.
SHAKY F’ING CAMERA. What little action was in the movie was instantly ruined and turned to shit by a deadly case of Shaky Camera Syndrome. You know what I’m talking about… when a bad director thinks that shaking the camera all to hell makes action feel more real… when all it really does is make us all motion sick and makes us not be able to tell what the hell is going on… and all we’re left with is sounds of grunts and swirling images. SO BLOODY ANNOYING!
OVER ALL
Unlike most people, I thought The Condemned had a chance if it just stayed simple, and did what they apparently could do best. But they didn’t. They tried to do something far beyond their talent level and it came across as a messy bad joke. Horrible horrilble movie. Too bad, cause if tey did it right and just kept it simple, it could have been fun. Over all I give “The Condemned” a 2.5 out of 10.
