Evidently,
most convicts sent to the big house fantasize about doing time in Austria’s
luxurious looking Justice Center Leoben, but not Bradley “Don’t Call Him Brad”
Thomas. He is determined to be transferred to the maximum-security, pre-war Red
Leaf hell-prison, as soon as possible. He has his reasons in S. Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99 (trailer here), which releases
today on DVD.
Thomas
was an ex-boxer trying to make and honest and peaceful living, but the
recession forced him to return to work as runner for his drug lord pal Gil. He
could tell something was wrong with their new Latin American connection, but he
does his duty, accompanying two jittery thugs on a multi-million-dollar run.
When things go sideways, Thomas wastes his cartel companions to save the
drastically out-gunned cops. Of course, he is still sentenced to serious time,
but at least it is a medium security facility.
On
his second day, Thomas gets a visit from the mysterious “Placid Man” pretending
to be his mega-pregnant wife Lauren’s OBGYN. In reality, he is a representative
of the cartel, who holds him responsible for the loss of their shipment. They
have kidnapped Lauren and will do awful things to her unborn baby unless he
murders Christopher Bridge in Red Leaf’s hardcore Cell Block 99. To get there,
he will have to be transferred twice, once from the more livable Franklin and
then again into the subterranean dungeon. That will require a lot of bad behavior,
but Thomas has the skills and the fortitude.
Brawl is one of the
grittiest prison movies in years that deliberately evokes a 1970s vibe with its
tunes and muscle cars. It doesn’t give you much faith in rehabilitation or the
criminal justice system in general. Warden Tuggs and the Red Leaf guards definitely
count as bad guys, but they are not even the worst of the worst. Regardless,
just about everyone at Red Leaf deserves whatever comes their way, except for
Thomas and maybe the inmate across the hall, who looks like Julian Richings.
About
the last time Vince Vaughn had a stretch of serious dramas going was the late
1990s, when he appeared in the Malaysian prison drama, Return to Paradise. It was a good move for him to step away from
wise-guy comedy and return to the prison setting, because Brawl is without question his best work in years. He is quietly intense,
but his visceral physicality says plenty.
Don
Johnson adds some southern fried villainy as the sadistic warden. He has
probably reached the point of type-casting, but to his credit, Tuggs is less
cliched and more realistic than his racist plantation owner in Django Unchained or the Joe Arpaio
caricature in Machete (but sadly, he
is nowhere near as flamboyant as good old Jim Bob Luke in Cold in July). Jennifer Carpenter also adds a bit depth and
dimension as Lauren Thomas, which is impressive considering she mostly serves
as the hostage-victim. For extra bonus points, Udo Kier brings his eccentric
movie magic as the Placid Man.
Both
Brawl and Zahler’s previous film Bone Tomahawk clocked in over two hours,
which is ridiculous in both cases. Seriously, he has a good handle on genre
elements, but he needs to work with a more assertive editor. Brawl is particularly slow out of the
gates, but it pays off with more interest than Tomahawk. Recommended for fans of prison movies and 1970s throwbacks,
Brawl in Cell Block 99 is now
available on DVD and BluRay.
