Phubbs
Posts: 658
Joined: 3/4/2012
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Fortress (1993)
So deliciously cheesy you'd think it was an 80's flick. The plot is basic as hell and the action is bloody and in your face as Chris Lambert gets sent underground to the inescapable prison, the Fortress.
If you take the comicbook gore of 'Robocop' or 'Universal Soldier' and the futuristic ramblings of 'Total Recall' or 'The Running Man' and blend it all together you have this yummy main course. There really is every corny futuristic angle you could want in this film, a melting pot of ideas from various other sci-fi films.
Lambert is young and fit looking here which helps muchly as he battles the evil company and their clinical 'employee' Kurtwood Smith ('Robocop' eh) with his prison computer security system. Along the way there are your typical cliched fights with the prison bully (Vernon Wells), mutant prison robot sentries with very big guns, enforced stomach implants that explode and all your usual prison malarkey that has been enchanced for the future. This does seem to equal lots of robotic surprises.
B-movie fluff but at the time of release it was quite impressive as I recall. Of course the effects are hokey, the ideas hugely dated and you know how it goes even before you sit down to watch but its not trashy.
Personally I loved when you are shown how the stomach tracking device works if you try to escape or get up to no good, then low and behold someone throws a wobbly and you get to see exactly what happens lol! so obvious yet so cool (just like 'The Running Man' and the head popping collars).
Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000)
Well good old 'Brennick' has once again been caught by the evil 'MenTel Corp' and banged up, only this time the prison is in outer space folks!
Yep the franchise goes right down the pan here as the original is simply remade all over again but in space...well a poor excuse for space. The first film had some class but this second is a really poor effort simply to cash in on more of the same. The effects are pretty bad with really obvious bluescreen work, acting is bad from all including Lambert who has nothing much to go on really and the space prison sets look dreadfully cheap and cheerful.
It really is a shame to see such a difference in quality with these two films. This second is actually pretty dull seeing as it retreads everything from the first literately. Only highlight is the sexy Pam Grier and errr that's pretty much it.
< Message edited by Phubbs -- 3/6/2012 8:47:14 AM >
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Fortress (1993)/ Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000) - 
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