Lock Up (1989)

Director: John Flynn

Writers: Richard Smith, Jeb Stuart, Henry Rosenbaum

Composer: Bill Conti


Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, John Amos, Sonny Landham, Tom Sizemore, Frank McRae, Darlanne Fluegel, William Allen Young, Larry Romano, Frank Pesce

More info: IMDb

Tagline: How much can a man take...before he gives back?

Plot: Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Well, it was better than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, it's got the prison cliches which is fine and it helps to have a good cast (It's always great to see Frank McRae in anything) but it does go farther than you'd think.  It does feel a little long at close to two hours but there's a lot to it.  It's a near constant struggle for Frank (Stallone) once he's in the hoosegow under the watch of Warden Drumgoole (what a name, right?) (Sutherland) who sees to it that Frank's final six months is as tough as it can be.  There are the short cons and the long con that break Frank down to do what he's got to do.  It's not a bad film but it's probably not going to make anyone's top 10 Stallone films list.  Fans of him or the genre won't regret checking it out. The Live Entertainment DVD has a good widescreen print of the film and the extras are a fullscreen theatrical trailer, a vintage 7-minute behind the scenes featurette which is a fluff piece (no surprise there) with a little bit of interesting info tossed in and another 3 minute vintage piece focusing on Stallone.