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| CONDEMNED, THE (2007) - R
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SBD Star Rating:
by Lew Irwin
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 More than one reviewer is describing The Condemned as an "extreme" version of Survivor in which 10 death-row killers from all over the world are dropped on a tropical island and told to kill one another. The last one standing gets to be released -- and with a prize described as "a wad of cash." It's produced by Lionsgate and World Wrestling Entertainment and stars wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The New York Times's review of the movie is ... er ... condemned in eight short sentences. One of them: "Leaden and inept, The Condemned is unable to deliver even the action goods, presenting every fight scene in such quaking, extreme close-up it's difficult to tell who's pummeling whom." Stephen Cole in the Toronto Globe & Mail takes this shot at the movie: "Most TV wrestling matches are better scripted than The Condemned." Writes Claudia Puig in USA Today: "The filmmakers pretend to be making a statement about the public's insatiable appetite for violent fare when in fact they are merely catering to it -- in a shameless and gratuitous fashion." In other words, says Gene Seymour in Newsday: "It's just another commercial feature that's selling what it's condemning." |
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