Maximum Security

Here we go again with another low-rent action flick I despise greatly of. The story concerns of a new maximum security prison, the perfect setting for terrorists to start another hostage crisis. This is typical Fred Olen Ray garbage, but hey, this isn't an adult comedy! Two long sex scenes need to go somewhere else to play, but Michelle Bauer can stick around (she is one of Ray's original stars!). An action film can be violent all that it wants to, and nothing short. Expect campiness to degrade this kind of effect, as gunshot wounds aren't at all realistic (notice the small amount of blood). The climax is ridiculous and has no potential, with amateurish martial arts techniques that show itself. It also has to do with diffusing a time bomb. Come on, producers! We've seen this before! This is very good as a modern suspense tale, carrying this one up to below average status that's far from terrible. Your cravings for a B-grade actioner are an all-time high when you just can't get enough of them. What more can I say? I've had enough!

While watching this film I was guessing it was made late 80's into the early 90's. I was totally surprised to see that it was made in 1997, so the first thing I have to say is that the film looks bad for when it was made. A film about revenge featuring crew cut villains, villains that look like country music stars, ones that look like Shawn Michaels who even do super kicks and a woman carrying around an overly large shotgun which she never fires! This film has it all, including a bland group of prisoners led by a guy who would never have gotten convicted in the real world, a former cop who did nothing wrong in the first place and had numerous witnesses that could attest to this!

The story, a cop stops a hostage situation, but is sent to prison when he shoots a guy who pulls a gun on him. Well, the people who did the takeover want revenge! I guess so, not sure why they do or how the country music one is even alive after being shot in the face and chest or how he has recovered enough to do this caper of planting a bomb in a prison where the cop resides. Heck, not even sure why they are doing it other than the fact the leader is very anti middle eastern. Well, the warden who is super coward releases the prisoners and the cop now has to stop the evildoers in a movie that is like Die Hard in a prison, but with an extremely low budget!

The actors and actresses in this film are not very recognizable. I think the only one I may have seen before is the lead bad guy. My favorite character though had to be woman with the overly large shotgun who simply stands in different poses while holding the shotgun. She is in league with the terrorist, but still manages to get beaten by the reporter assisting the good guy...it's always a reporter.

So, this film is really bad and really cheap, but still manages to keep things moving along. Lots of people get shot, but thankfully the prison only has five prisoners in it, because I am sure they fill prisons at a slow pace. Mainly, you get a bunch of guys running through the same hallways over and over again, though one fight seems to inexplicably take place in a bottling plant. Yes, you get revenge, but I don't really think we got the maximum revenge the film's title promised.