After accidentally beating to death a burglar on his lawn, the hardworking Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff, 'Shadowboxer' 'fairdotcom') finds himself convicted to 3 years hard time. To make matters worse, Wade on his bus ride to the State Prison, gets implicated in the murder of one of the inmates in the bus. After some time in solitary confinement, he gets placed in the maximum security section of the prison know as 'The Shoe'. The place is reigned by the evil lt. Jackson played by Harold Perrineau ('OZ' 'Lost'). Hard Time is surely upon the inmates for they are being put to fight each other under the supervision of Jackson and his team who eventually ends all fights by shooting the fighting inmates but only after a fair amount of fighting took place.
The movie in itself is not badly done and features some great acting by both Kilmer (as the wise and ruthless bunk mate) Perrineau and Dorff. But there are some serious issues with the film.
In brief: the movie is overwrought, crammed with the usual prison clichés and too unrealistic for it's own good. The character Jackson is simply too bloodthirsty to buy him as a character and it strains the caricature of the evil prison guard even further. Porter becomes the-guy-to-be-reckoned-with apparently over night. Where he's just a completely ignorant prison fish in one scene, he's already beating up everybody in the next. Felon also suffers from being way too straightforward and lacked heavily in the humor department.
That said, there are some very convincing scenes and I would recommend this movie to those that are really into the underdog prison type of films such as Lock Up and The Last Castle. Even though those movies are surely not as good as felon, it's a better comparison than to compare it to Shawshank Redemption which is like comparing a decent pulp novel to any good work of literature.
6.3/10
The movie in itself is not badly done and features some great acting by both Kilmer (as the wise and ruthless bunk mate) Perrineau and Dorff. But there are some serious issues with the film.
In brief: the movie is overwrought, crammed with the usual prison clichés and too unrealistic for it's own good. The character Jackson is simply too bloodthirsty to buy him as a character and it strains the caricature of the evil prison guard even further. Porter becomes the-guy-to-be-reckoned-with apparently over night. Where he's just a completely ignorant prison fish in one scene, he's already beating up everybody in the next. Felon also suffers from being way too straightforward and lacked heavily in the humor department.
That said, there are some very convincing scenes and I would recommend this movie to those that are really into the underdog prison type of films such as Lock Up and The Last Castle. Even though those movies are surely not as good as felon, it's a better comparison than to compare it to Shawshank Redemption which is like comparing a decent pulp novel to any good work of literature.
6.3/10