Fortress 2 (2000)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The first movie was a serious psychological dystopia on the topic of dehumanization, in particular of an inmate and in general of the society; that unfortunately after the first half had this very noticeable transition, ending with a rather disappointing finale in a style of B class action movies. And that shift was so profound, that even the (not so great) music (greatly) matching what was shown on the screen was practically removed during that transition, only to come back when the more action oriented last quarter of that first movie have startedAnd with this sequel, they took a practically different approach. The music is even worst and does not evoke any feelings in conjunction with the on screen events. Also the dystopic ingredient is somewhere in the back while the action is more in the front. But aside from the opening scene, the rest is coherent; unlike in the first picture of this duology. So if the viewer will enjoy the first 10-20 minutes (once the action is placed in the prison), then this joy will last to the end; unlike in the first picture of this diptychYes- there are plot holes and behaviors illogical to some extent, that normally would disqualify any movie from taking it serious. But that is the whole point- if you do not take it seriously, just in the terms of action comedy and not a drama, you will simply enjoy it. There are numerous great and funny moments, like when a female co-pilot is apparently learning how to dock under the supervision of the experienced male pilot. Both those characters are played absolutely great, especially given that the male pilot has only few spoken lines and the co-pilot only has one. Also, one of the characters from the hero's team of escapees that has a damaged brain is portrayed with such a craft, that he just makes the hero of the story look somewhat bleakAside from the cheap special effects and story that has only traces of being complex, this is a great entertainment. It is somewhat similar in style to the new "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015): in that when put on paper it seems stupid and boring; but when put all together and presented on the screen, it is just so damn entertaining (and positively different from previous installments)

The original 'Fortress', while being pretty good, makes one wonder why they even bothered with this one. This is what I'd call a completely unnecessary sequel, simply made to cash in on Christopher Lambert's previous waning success and provide fodder for the already overflowing direct-to-video market (and it shows).What they try to pass as a story involves essentially rehashing the original plot line, except moving it to space (wow, what a concept). The plot is sloppy and the acting is even worse. Basically, you have actors walking through their parts, like they didn't even care.The movie felt like it had a $1.99 budget and the effects were staggeringly atrocious. The only redeeming quality (if you can call it that) was seeing actress Liz Brice in the completely unnecessary and gratuitous shower scenes.Christopher Lambert had some decent successes early on, but the guys time has come and gone. He reminds me of the action stars who's star has long since burned out: Dolph Lundgren, Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven (what's-his-name), etc.NOTE: I just saw this 'movie' on HBO recently and didn't even know they'd made a sequel to the original, so sorry if the review is ten years late.

A sequel to cult director Stuart Gordan's fun and campy film from 1993. This time Brennick is once again caught by the super-evil Men-Tel corporation and locked in a facility orbiting the Earth. Naturally he soon begins planning an escape.Aside from the opening action scene which is OK the film starts to sink pretty fast. Relying too much on computer effects that are really sub-par - the first film cleverly used set design more than computer effects - and then there are some glaring plot devices that pretty much overshadow parts of the plot that are enjoyable. Cheesy computer effects are forgivable and can easily be looked on as a new-age camp, but the silliness of the plot of is poor script writing and that is almost impossible to forgive. You need a tight script for a good movie. Period.Also, if you thought the end to first film was cheesy then you'll like this film even less because the ending is even ridiculous by fairy tale standards. --- 4/10Rated R: violence and profanity

I think most people who regularly watch movies will be somewhat familiar with the (unofficial) genre of the "good bad film"; movies so bad, it makes them actually quite entertaining to watch for reasons entirely different from the intentions of the people who made them. I find it somewhat hard to determine though, whether or not I can consider "Fortress II" to be such a movie.Sure, all the ingredients for an unintentionally funny film are there: ludicrous script, bad acting, lousy effects, laughable dialogue and a gross neglect of even the most basic laws of physics (where did this space station's gravity come from, again?). Fortress II goes flat on its face at every turn which, in theory, should make it a blast. But for some reason I felt somewhat embarrassed rather than really amused while watching it.I still can't really tell for sure why I didn't like this film, even as a parody of itself. Maybe the actors just seemed a little too desperate as they struggled to "look cool" despite the meager story and amateurish dialogue, which actually made me feel a little bit sorry for them. Or perhaps it was because it was a bad film, but perhaps just not blatantly bad enough to be really, really funny. Or perhaps the problem was just simply the fact that it was broadcast on a Wednesday night in the middle of a working week, so my mind was still mostly on work-related issues. But whatever the reason, I didn't really enjoy this film in any way. I didn't think it was all that funny and I just can't possibly make myself think of it as a serious sci-fi/action flick either. All in all, I could advise you to perhaps take a look at this film when the chance happens to present itself (read: some network uses it as schedule filler while there's nothing else on). Maybe you'll be better able than I was, to appreciate the undeniable potential for unintentional comedy in this scholarly example of how not to make a movie. But under no circumstance waste your time and/or money purposely looking for it, buying it, renting it or even downloading it. Not even if you did like the first "Fortress". It's just not worth your trouble, not as a worthy sequel to the actually quite bearable first "Fortress" and not even as a "Plan 9 from Outer Space"-like dud.