Review for Lock Up (UK)

Introduction
This prison film stars Sylvester Stallone as, Frank Leone, a model prisoner who is closing in on being released from a low-security prison, for some minor crime. The remorseless Warden Drumgoole (played by Donald Sutherland) arranges, one night, for guards to forcibly remove Leone from the prison, and take him to Gateway Prison, a maximum security prison which Drumgoole refers to "hell."

It is not long before we are informed that Leone had previously escaped from Treadmore facility, whilst Drumgoole was in charge, to attend the funeral of an old comrade. Furthermore, because Leone approached the press about Drumgoole's unjust treatment of prisoners, which resulted in Drumgoole being transferred to Gateway prison, and Leone serving the rest of his time in minimum security, Drumgoole, upon seeing Leone at Gateway prison, coldly declares to him, "This is hell, and I'm going to give you the guided tour."

What follows is a series of escalating trials and tribulations set within spaces which recurrently test the mental and physical resolve of Leone. Leone befriends a number of fellow prisoners (inmates played by actors Frank McRae, Tom Sizemore Larry Romano et al), who take to his rationality and wise nature, which as we find out, is required to survive in such a heartless institution, regulated by a corrupt figure.

Whilst observing that Leone may be difficult to be systematically dismantled, Drumgoole abuses his authority to orchestrate a number of inhumane scenarios, some of which include the hiding of letters addressed to Leone by his girlfriend, the bullying and eventual murder of Leone's young companion First Base (Larry Romano), the stabbing of Leone, the confinement to a roach-infested cell and other such incidents.

As with the vast majority of Sylvester Stallone films, you can pretty much anticipate that by the end of the film's narrative, the protagonist will prevail and the antagonist will receive their deserved punishment. This is certainly the case for Lock Up, but what is interesting here, perhaps, is the study of how much unjust punishment one can take, before they are pushed to the edge.

Whilst there have certainly been better prison films, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Animal Factory (2000), Escape From Alcatraz (1979), to name but a few, Lock Up manages to sufficiently sustain one's attention until the film's climax (or perhaps anti-climax, depending on your point of view). The most avid of Stallone's fans would undoubtedly have seen this film, but others generally interested in the action genre(especially of the 80s and early 90s) perhaps have not. Moreover, according to reliable sources, this film received a largely negative reception upon its release in the US, and thus, was unsuccessful at the US box office. This is a misfortune considering it could well be seen as one of Stallone's stronger and more interesting pieces within the Hollywood cinematic tradition. 

Video
The DVD released by Momentum Pictures, features a fairly decent anamorphic 1.85:1 print, which is quite clearly better than previous prints featured on other formats, namely VHS. Whilst the print often lacks the clarity seen in other bigger budget action films, made roughly in the same period, this is understandable considering the moderate budget of the film. 

Audio
Those who own 5.1 speaker setups may be somewhat disappointed here, as the film only contains a 2.0 surround track. Momentum Pictures perhaps did not see it fit to remix the original 2.0 track, given the film's initial failings at the US box office. That said, the 2.0 surround track is mostly clear, especially during character dialogue.

Extras/Features
There are a number of features available on this DVD, which are not present in other regional DVD releases of the film. The DVD boasts "making of" and "behind the scenes" featurettes, cast and crew interviews with Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, Sonny Landham, John Amos and Darlanne Fluegel, a photo gallery, theatrical trailer and also a profile on Stallone. The problem is, for fans of this film, these features are relatively short and perhaps do not provide as much insight into the film and its conception, as one would have liked. On the contrary, it could have been worse, as Momentum Pictures could have chose to include a bare-bones DVD. 

Conclusion
If I had to compile a list of the top 10 films starring Stallone that I found interesting, and not necessarily aesthetically pleasing, this would perhaps have to be included in that list, albeit somewhere closer to the second half. Lock Up was overlooked on its release, and continues to be disregarded by many. However, as I mentioned earlier, what is interesting about this film is its underlying theme of inequitable punishment, and essentially how much of this one can take before he either crumbles, or feels the need to retaliate.

Arguably, some of Stallone's best performances have come from portraying characters who are very much up against  corrupt figures, disrupted social order etc. and this film is no exception by his standards. Whilst there are better prison films on the DVD market (some of which I mentioned earlier), Lock Up should not be dismissed so easily, and with a relatively cheap price tag, may well be worth a punt.