The Condemned

Year of Release: 2007
Genre: Action
Rating: R for pervasive strong brutal violence and for language.
Director: Scott Wiper
Starring: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Rick Hoffman, Madeleine West, Dasi Ruz

Date Of Review: February 2008

With today’s constant barrage of reality TV programming we are treated to “The Condemned”, a film which sees hardened death row criminals taken to a desolate island so they can compete in a TV game show which sees them fight it out to the death .  The poster tagline says it all, “10 will fight, 9 will die. You get to watch”. Sounds appealing, ha? The film has been released through WWE films and is nothing more than a showcase for wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to strut his stuff. “Stone Cold” tries his best to be a new big screen action hero but the murk of this film is just too deep to emerge out of.

On the plus side, “The Condemned” does have a nice island setting and a bit of a budget, but the problem is we have seen it all before and it’s been done much better in films such as “The Running Man” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and “Enter The Dragon” with Bruce Lee. Instead of action we get excessive violence and the novelty of seeing these beefcakes battle it out all gets a little tiresome very quickly. The fights are shot in such a grisly nature and a lot of it takes place in poor lighting at night. Also, there is only so much of Vinnie Jones’ screeching and swearing that a viewer can take. The film may be an attempt at satirizing the reality TV world that we live in but ultimately, “The Condemned” is too dark, too violent and too unappealingly to be fully considered escapism entertainment. 

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