Fortress (1993)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

There's something very comforting for me about watching Christopher Lambert in the nineties sci-fi/action movie 'Fortress.' It's like revisiting an old friend in a comfortable environment. Yes, it's fair to say that anyone who was basically in their early teenage years of watching films would find this film particularly deep and thought provoking (like I did at the time). Now, over twenty years (and several thousand) films later, my cynical and jaded eyes see it for what it is – a load of nonsense (but kind of good fun nonsense if you're in the mood).Sometime in the near future pregnancies are controlled and anyone having a child without government approval (or something) is imprisoned in the most hellish of judicial facilities imaginable. The opening scene shows us Christopher Lambert and his pregnant wife attempting to flee the country, but getting caught in the process. Guess where they end up? The titular 'Fortress' is a prison (tower) buried under the ground in the desert where escape is 'impossible' (yeah, in the same way that 'no one' had ever won 'The Running Man' until Arnie had a go).Once imprisoned, Lambert is subjected to all the usual prison movie tropes, including clichéd cellmates, aggressive bully-type alpha-male prisoners and – of course – the fascist warden in charge, this time played by Kurtwood Smith (or that-baddie-in-Robocop to most of us). Whereas most of the film is pretty run-of-the-mill, Kurtwood does his best to turn in a pretty sinister and menacing performance. Of course there are some pretty big stretches in the plot which are designed to further the story rather than be realistic. These are things like the warden just so happening to fall in love with Lambert's wife (like our hero needed any extra excuses for hating the man in charge of the barbaric facility).The sets are pretty bland. In fact, the sets are sets – pure and simple. Grey walls with people wandering around in orange jumpsuits. The special effects aren't that special and the dialogue is a bit corny here and there. All in all, it's probably not the greatest of films and it's no wonder that it's been pretty much forgotten compared to the classic action films of the decade. And yet, I stand by my original statement. Watching 'Fortress' takes me back to my childhood, so, yes, a lot of my appreciation of this film stems from my nostalgia of the era. It's a simple film from a simpler time.I doubt it would hold up today against the current crop of action movies. It wasn't much more than a 'straight-to-video' affair back in its day, but, like I say, if you're looking for a slightly dated, more simple action movie then this one is worth a watch if you feel like wasting an hour and a half. The deeper meaning I may have once seen has long since been painted over by clichés and cheesy nonsense, but I like that sort of thing.

Imagine a version of those classic prison movies - PAPILLON, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - updated violently into a futuristic setting and what you'll have is FORTRESS, a gung-ho ride full to the brim of action. And it's a blast. The feel of the film is very similar to that of TOTAL RECALL, and the pair are almost companion pieces. While relatively low budget, the film has something rarely seen these days - imagination! What makes the film so enjoyable to horror aficionados is firstly the talent involved, and secondly the level of extreme violence which certainly spices up the action. Since when did you see one of the prisoners in THE GREAT ESCAPE have his stomach blown out? Christopher Lambert will never win any awards for acting but he is a solid enough presence as the film's hero and his wooden acting is on par with other luminaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Doug McClure, how we love them all. And really he is given little to do except fight one thing after another, which of course he does with relish.Locklin brings warmth and compassion to the film as his wife and shows probably the best acting in the entire film, but since when did we watch these kinds of films for acting anyway? Kurtwood Smith steals the overacting awards as the oily prison head, strangely his toupee makes him look years younger. Although this isn't the nastiest, best performance of his career (that honour goes to ROBOCOP), he makes for a compassionate villain, a man with a longing for love.A motley bunch make up Lambert's cellmates, which include a wise old black guy, Tom Towles (the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake) bringing cult value as a brutal thug type, while horror star Jeffrey Combs is virtually unrecognisable underneath thick glasses and long hair. Still, it's not really the acting talent that makes this film so enjoyable, or the plot, which is as I said is merely an updated version of the old escape films. The set design is excellent, and the various mechanical hazards, including the roving cameras and laser beams, the psychedelic dream sequences and also the androids, while tacky, are all great fun. Weirdness prevails when an android's helmet is removed, revealing the rubbery, half-human face underneath! The main gore highlights are the intestinators, kind of like an updated ALIEN chestburster for the 1990s, and they are literally showstoppers. We haven't seen this kind of gut busting since the cheapo days of CONTAMINATION! Added to this are a man who has his chest literally blown out, an extraordinarily bloody fight scene (probably the bloodiest I've ever witnessed on screen, as people's heads are smashed into walls, bars, etc. and spray and pour blood like a low-rent Bruce Willis from the DIE HARD series), a man ripping out his own eyes, and lots of shooting and chests erupting with bullet holes.The bookend to the film, a pyrotechnic stunt involving an exploding truck, is also done very well. FORTRESS certainly was never likely to win any Oscars, but the non-stop action, cheesy dialogue and inventive situations, all presided over by steadfast direction from Stuart Gordon (RE-ANIMATOR), make this one hell of a bloody roller-coaster ride. The prison movie to end all prison movies in the cheesy B-movie fan's mind.

In the future it's forbidden to give birth to more than one child for each woman.You can escape to Mexico to avoid the authorities in USA, which is exactly what John and Karen Brennick were trying to do when Karen is pregnant with her second child.When they think they have made it they are discovered and sent to the Fortress, where the prisoners are controlled by lasers, neutron-cannons, cameras, mind-scanners and electronic pain-causing devices in their stomachs.With those odds, John plans to escape with his wife....Here in England, this was released a the worst time possible, literally four weeks after 'No Escape' so by then people would have had their fill of inescapable prison movies.Luckily though, this film never takes itself seriously, and it can be at times,a lot of campy nonsense.Lambert is good as the lead, but a lot of the time, his threats are a little laughable. The story and the set up are smart, but the actual narrative lets it down a little.The final third is what you would expect, with Lambert with his Raiden hair, spilling blue blood everywhere.Fun while it lasts, and then once the sentence is over, you won't remember a single thing from it.

2017, a dystopian future, and US Army officer John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen S. Brennick (Loryn Locklin) are expecting a second child. Strict one-child policies forbid any couples having a second child, but the Brennick's first child died at birth so they attempt to get away with a second pregnancy. They are caught trying to cross the border and sent to a maximum security prison that is owned and run by the "MenTel Corporation" A place where dreams are not your own and all thoughts of escape are dealt with severely by futuristic methods unheard of in the civilised world.You got Connor MacLeod, Herbert West, Clarence J. Boddicker and one of the finest female bottoms in cinema, all crammed into one riotous, hokey and immeasurably fun movie. It probably wont come as much of a surprise to anyone to learn that this Christopher Lambert starrer is not going to have you scratching the cranial matter and pondering the future of mankind. But it does have some interesting ideas both in terms of its prison setting and in the technological advancements used. I mean hey, would you try to escape if you had an intestinal bomb set to go off outside the perimeters? {think The Running Man's neck braces but in your belly}. It can also be said of Fortress that it's not over ambitious, where director Stuart Gordon is aware of his restraints and keeps it simple but sparky, of which this is aided by Lambert buffing up and throwing punches left right and off kilter. Tho nothing much as an actor, Lambert none the less gives the likes of Sly and Arnie a run for their money here and looks every inch and sinew an action hero.Kurtwood Smith, Jeffrey Combs, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Clifton Collins Jr. and of course,Loryn Locklin's bottom, all add varying degrees of fun and frolics to the occasion. While the set design for the interiors is really rather snazzy. It's B movie berserker time folks, a dystopian world where Christopher Lambert can beat the crap out of blokes twice his size, where half humanoids have flame throwers for arms, and Kurtwood Smith is in charge of a prison. Great fun really, truly. 7/10