The Condemned - DVD Review

"The Condemned" is a WWE/Lion's Gate DVD starring long-time wrestler and fan favorite, Stone Cold Steve Austin. In the opening we see a man enter a Belarus prison with a cameraman. The two are escorted by several prison guards and videotape an inmate brutally beating down several other inmates. The inmate is chosen for a new internet pay per view show. The theme of the show is a "fight to the death" for 10 death row contestants, hence the condemned. The contestants are taken from third world prisons and are set loose on an island where only 1 will survive the brutal bloodsport.

One of the 10 condemned contestants is none other than Stone Cold Steve Austin, who plays Jack Conrad, an inmate on death row in an El Salvador prison for killing 3 men. The show's producer chooses him as top dog for his show which will stream live on the world wide web. The producer tells him if he outlasts the rest of the contestants he's free with a pocket full of cash.

Contestants each wear an explosive-rigged ankle bracelet device that will detonate within 30 hours time. Tampering with the device or yanking the pull tab on it also detonates the device. It then becomes "kill or die" as the contestants are let loose from a helicopter on an island with the goal of being "sole survivor". The best way to describe this movie is a combo of Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Running Man (Special Edition) meets Ice T's "Surviving the Game". "To create drama you need good guys, bad guys and victims" says the Condemned show's producer. Similar to the drama of the WWE, The Condemned takes the concept of reality TV entertainment to the ultimate level, looking at the morality of "how much is too much".

Stone Cold follows in the footsteps of previous WWE wrestler actors, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, John Cena and Glen "Kane" Jacobs. While Stone Cold is the only "big name" actor in the movie, he's no Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino. However, fans of Austin's work in the WWE will be entertained by him in this flick and rooting for him throughout the survival contest. Most action movies aren't award-winning films either, and "The Condemned" proves that. There's still many intense, exciting and violent fight scenes which almost come off MMA/UFC style. There's also a tremendous amount of suspense involved, with the criminal contestants hunting each other down all over the island to try to make kills. It's a thrill ride definitely worth taking if you're a fan of action or just seeing Stone Cold open up several cans of whoop ass.

Special features on the DVD include a behind the scenes Making of documentary, as well as storyboard sequences and footage of Stone Cold promoting the film at Movie World.

The Condemned (Widescreen Edition) and The Condemned [Blu-ray] is Rated R for language and violence, and has a run time of 113 minutes.