The death row inmates

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Movie
German title The death row inmates
Original title The Condemned
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2007
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Scott Wiper
script Scott Wiper
production Joel Simon
music Graeme Revell
camera Ross Emery
cut Derek Brechin
occupation

The Condemned ( The Condemned ) is an American action film of director Scott Wiper from the year 2007 .

action

The unscrupulous multimillionaire Ian Breckel wants to produce a reality show in which ten people sentenced to death fight for survival on a lonely island in the South Pacific . The show is to be offered to an audience willing to pay via livestream over the Internet and will achieve the audience rating of 40 million for the last Super Bowl . Breckel “buys” the candidates from prisons around the world. Among them are the psychopathic Briton Ewan McStarley, an ex-soldier, the couple Paco and Rosa who ran amok together, and the American ex- elite soldier Jack Conrad, who was arrested on a secret mission and, to avoid diplomatic entanglements, dropped by the government. His only goal is to return to his family, who have been without a sign of life for over a year.

Breckel's rules of the game are simple: the ten candidates have 30 hours to kill the other nine comrades-in-arms. The last survivor receives freedom and a cash prize. An explosive charge, which is attached to everyone's leg, is supposed to prevent attempts to escape and increase the motivation of the protagonists, as it will explode after the deadline. All movements of the chosen ones are observed by countless cameras in the jungle and broadcast via the internet livestream by Breckel's production team, which is located in a remote corner of the island in a guarded camp.

The protagonists are dropped off by helicopter at various locations on the island, with the "Italian" having a fatal accident. Shortly afterwards, the "German" is killed by the dark-skinned Yasantwa and the "Russian" by Conrad. The remainder are forced to form teams of two, with the exception of Jack Conrad. McStarley teams up with the Asian Saiga, the colored Kreston with Yasantwa, and Paco fights with Rosa.

While most are just trying to survive, McStarley and Saiga hunt down the others. When the two force Paco to watch them rape and kill Rosa, some members of the production team and Breckel's friend Julie have their first doubts about the show's morality. The FBI has now also become aware, but cannot do anything because the location is unknown. Meanwhile, Kreston is deceived by Yasantwa, who pulls the locking pin of his explosive charge while she massages his neck. When Kreston notices this, she is gone and he explodes.

Paco escapes McStarley and Saiga and joins Conrad. He penetrates the production team's camp and can telephone his girlfriend Sarah with part of the coordinates for the island before the connection is interrupted and he has to flee. Breckel sends weapons to McStarley and Saiga to keep the quota rising. They find Paco, brutally beat him up and burn him alive. The production manager then wants to get out, but Breckel presses him to continue.

Eventually Yasantwa is shot by McStarley and pulls her own locking pin. Conrad manages to kill Saiga. In the final battle at a waterfall, Conrad is shot by McStarley, falls into the water and is carried away. He is believed dead and McStarley is declared the winner. Meanwhile, Breckel learns that the FBI has located the island and Navy Seals are on their way to arrest him. He deactivates McStarley's ankle cuffs, but refuses to pay him the award, whereupon McStarley slaughters the entire production team. Shortly before he also shoots Julie, Conrad appears and kills him. Breckel wants to escape with a helicopter, but Conrad blows up the helicopter with Julie's help by throwing McStarley's reactivated footbomb into it.

In the last scene you can see Conrad returning to his family.

Reviews

The reviews of the film were mostly bad. According to the Rotten Tomatoes website , out of 100 reviews, only 15% were positive.

“[...] Anyone who voluntarily takes to heart 'The Death Row' should know what he is getting into and as banal as the plot is, it can be implemented in an entertaining way. In the first half in particular, Wiper quickly produces a wonderful trash festival that is reminiscent of the best times for 'brain out, action in' entertainment. "

- Filmstarts.de

“Screenwriter Rob Hedden and director Scott Wiper use the much-discussed Asian hit Battle Royale extremely boldly , but completely ignore its socio-political explosive. Conclusion: Not quite as bad as The Marine, but also no more than a B-movie mass product for the video store. "

- MovieGod.de

“Entertaining actioner with minor weaknesses. [...] 'Die Todeskandidaten' is a solid actioner with uncompromising toughness, but unfortunately cannot do without the clichés that are common in the genre. "

- MonstersandCritics.de

"Dull, drastic, brutal combat film based on a common, fairly routine action scheme, whose criticism of the Internet and people's lust for violence only serves as an alibi."

- Lexicon of International Films

Worth mentioning

  • The film was produced by WWE Films, a company of " World Wrestling Entertainment ".
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is a former WWE Champion.
  • Originally, the role of "Jack Conrad" was intended for Vinnie Jones , but since WWE decided to produce the film in-house, they gave Steve Austin the lead role.
  • The song played at the end of the film is called Savin 'Me and it was written by the Canadian rock band Nickelback .
  • During the filming, Steve Austin and Vinnie Jones played numerous pranks on each other. B. once an inflatable sex doll and fifty signed autographs with his picture on it in Vinnie's trailer.
  • The film is not a remake of the Japanese film Battle Royale from 2000, the "real" remake is produced by Neal Moritz and Roy Lee .
  • In November 2015, The Condemned 2 was released under the direction of Roel Reiné . In supporting roles are u. a. See Randy Orton and Eric Roberts .
  • The film was indexed from 2008 to October 2019. A re-examination by the FSK is still pending.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Death Row inmates . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2007 (PDF; test number: 112 180 K).
  2. ↑ The Death Row inmates at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed September 21, 2018.
  3. ↑ Criticism of the death row inmates at Filmstarts.de.
  4. ↑ Criticism of the death row inmates at MovieGod.de.
  5. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: criticism of Die Todeskandidaten ) at MonstersandCritics.de.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.monstersandcritics.de
  6. ^ Journal film-dienst and Catholic Film Commission for Germany (eds.), Horst Peter Koll and Hans Messias (ed.): Lexikon des Internationale Films - Filmjahr 2007. Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89472-624-9 .
  7. ↑ Cinematical.com: Battle Royale Remake News. (accessed September 12, 2008).
  8. ^ Lesson Plan: Kill or Be Killed. In: The New York Times (accessed September 12, 2008).
  9. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=15281