The Condemned (R)
Convicts fight to the death in reality-TV debacle.
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- Studio: Lions Gate Entertainment, Lions Gate Entertainment
- Directed By: Scott Wiper
- Cast: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Rick Hoffman
- Running Time: 100 minutes
- Release Date: 04/26/2007
- Video/DVD Release Date: 09/18/2007
- Genre: Action/adventure
- MPAA Rating: R
- MPAA Explanation: pervasive strong brutal violence, and for language.
Parents need to know
Families can talk about violence on television and, increasingly, in Web videos. What are the effects of watching such violence? What's the best way to deal with this ongoing problem? Should access to programming be limited or regulated? If so, who should be in charge of regulating it -- studios? Parents? The government? Should there be fines or other costs for breaking regulation rules? How does this movie make a case against media violence even as it delivers exactly that? Families can also discuss reality TV. Do you think any reality show would ever go this far? Why or why not?
Message
Social Behavior:
Everyone is party to the mayhem, from prison authorities and convicts/contestants to TV producers/techs and the FBI, whether acting, reacting, or watching.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Frequent cigarette smoking by cons and TV producers; Breck drinks liquor; references to drug cartels.
Violence
Nonstop: The hand-to-hand fights feature punches, kicks, crotch grabs, cut throats, throttles, arm locks, body slams, bites, head-butts, bloody faces, and broken bones; weapons include knives, chains, clubs and branches, ropes, and guns. People are thrown roughly from helicopters (one is gruesomely impaled on a stake, and others plunge into water or hit land, hard); two men rape a female contestant (indicated by reactions of viewers, and indistinct, small images on monitors). Almost every conflict has an audience: Prison guards set up a fight among inmates, TV producers watch the mayhem with alternating delight and horror, people in a bar watch with excitement until their friend looks dead (then they feel really bad), etc.. There are also jokey references to blowing up a "clinic for the handicapped and mentally retarded."
Sex
Female contestants wear cleavage-baring tops; a brief kiss between husband and wife turns into some groping -- which is interrupted by killers; brief scene in which man and woman embrace before she kills him; reference to "titties."
Language
Frequent use of "f--k," plus "bulls--t," "s--t," "whore," "hell," "goddamn," "son of a bitch," "a--hole," and "c--ksucker." Derogatory uses of "gringo" and "Yankee" to mean "American," as well as "boy" and "rasta" in reference to a black man.
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Cynthia Fuchs
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