Brawl in Cell Block 99
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Hideous, graphic violence in prison horror story.

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Brawl in Cell Block 99
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Based on 6 parent reviews
Protect them At Any Cost
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this is PG-13
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What's the Story?
In BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 a knockabout, odd-jobber named Bradley (Vince Vaughn) has finally settled into a happy home life, making a nice living as a drug-runner, when a deal with a new supplier named Eliezar (Dion Mucciacito) goes bad. Caught by the police and honorably refusing to turn on his boss, Gil (Marc Blucas), he admits his wrong and leaves his pregnant wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) to spend seven years in a minimum-security prison. Almost immediately, he's informed by a visitor that his wife has been kidnapped by Eliezar's minions. Eliezar claims Bradley's poor performance cost him millions and, to make up for it, demands Bradley somehow get himself transferred to a maximum-security prison called Redleaf, where he must kill an enemy housed in Cell Block 99. If he doesn't comply, an "abortionist" will remove the limbs of the fetus still inside Lauren's womb and those limbs will be sent to Bradley in jail. Lickety-split, Bradley violently attacks several guards and, hocus pocus, he is transferred to Redleaf in a miraculous flash. There the warden (Don Johnson) escorts him to a filthy chamber with a non-working toilet filled with excrement. Oops, wrong cell block. To get to the worst of the worst -- 99 -- Bradley must maul more guards, which he achieves with astonishing ease. Once in 99, the darkly medieval sector of the facility, he finds that no such enemy is incarcerated but that he's been set up by Eliezar, a prisoner there, and the warden. Ultimately, Bradley bludgeons his way to a kind of justice, saving his wife and receiving his own comeuppance.
Is It Any Good?
At best, the tone of Brawl in Cell Block 99, with its unrelenting brutality and over-the-top violence, is confusing. The laughably-choreographed fake fight scenes, implausible plot turns, and unrelenting violence suggest that director-writer S. Craig Zahler (he also made Dragged Across Concrete and the cannibal-horror-Western Bone Tomahawk) is one odd dude. But there's no doubt that he's also a capable filmmaker. While the movie goes far off the rails plot-wise in its final 45-minutes -- presenting Bradley as a nearly super-human physical wrecking ball -- the film is sometimes a strangely-absorbing mishmash of goodness and badness. Vaughn's shaved head, featuring a cross tattoo, matches his grim, unflinching facial expression. In any case, this is not for the faint-hearted. Only true worshippers of violent fare will be able to watch scenes that verge on the horror genre.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how violence is used in the movie. Many of the hand-to-hand fight scenes are clumsily choreographed. Do you think the filmmakers did this on purpose to make the violence less affecting, or do you think they just did a bad job of creating plausible fights?
Bradley seems like a man who is both loyal and gentle with his wife, but more than willing to use violence when he thinks it will be useful. How do these traits make him come across?
How do you think the movie addresses fairness in life? How is Bradley treated unfairly? How is he treated fairly?
Movie Details
- In theaters: October 6, 2017
- On DVD or streaming: December 26, 2017
- Cast: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Marc Blucas, Dion Mucciacito, Don Johnson
- Director: S. Craig Zahler
- Inclusion Information: Middle Eastern/North African actors
- Studio: STUDIO IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
- Genre: Drama
- Run time: 121 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: January 6, 2023
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