Lockdown

Unfortunately, the promising, albeit not particularly unique theme of wrongful conviction is buried from the start by flat character work (none of them develop whatsoever throughout film) and is gradually further buried by incomprehensibly austere and uninteresting descriptions of life in prison. Drugs are dealt with as calmly as food in a cafeteria and the hostility between the feuding groups is limited to a few pushes you’d see in a school hallway. Also, the naive solution to the crime itself, which the entire judicial tribunal wasn’t even good enough for, is like something out of a soap opera. It’s not that I didn't wish the characters to be free, but I also didn't care about them throughout the entire film. The "brothers" made a film about themselves, for themselves. Let them watch it too... alone, together. (12/12/2007)