Brawl in Cell Block 99

Why was this movie in my watchlist for so long, shame on me. This film was my introduction to this director/writer, and I love his style.

This is a violent movie, but with a lot of personality and humour along the way. Vince Vaughn does a great job portraying a sociopath pushed into an impossible situation.

The pacing, the structure of the story, the dialog, the action, all superb. This movie is a journey all right, and an expertly shot one at that.

S. Craig Zahler is proving himself to be a director worth paying attention to. I became a fan after seeing Bone Tomahawk, and have read several of his novels including Mean Business on North Ganson Street and Wraiths of the Broken Land. Also, his incredible un-produced screenplay The Brigands of Rattleborge.

BRAWL is very similar to Bone Tomahawk in terms of pacing, story structure and tone. A slow descent into a hellish situation.

I don't agree with people who say he is a "second-rate Tarantino." Tarantino does homage. Even Robert Rodriguez, in his attempts to do exploitation films, call too much attention to themselves and end up bordering on spoof, whereas BRAWL just simply is an exploitation film.

Perhaps some of Zahler's dialogue works better on the page than spoken, but I still think he is a great writer.

The low-key style of the film, with the every-man type of character Vaughn plays who gets mixed up in a serious situation makes this movie seem like a combination of Nicolas Winding Refn's PUSHER II and Cassavettes' KILLING OF A Chinese BOOKIE.

There are even some subtle hints of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13.

My only real gripes are that some of the dialogue exchanges are kind of stilted, and the staging of characters in some scenes seems too stiff and unnatural.

I like that the themes, such as privatization of prisons, are beneath the surface and not drilled into the audiences' head.

Its not a perfect movie, I hope Zahler continues to branch out but its a cool throwback movie that isn't trying to play it safe or cater to a wide audience and knows what type of movie it wants to be.

1. Bone Tomahawk

2. Dragged Across Concrete

3. Brawl in Cell Block 99

But as my rating suggests I think it's pretty great, and just like the other two I will watch this one again.

I was afraid I wasn't gonna be able to take Vince Vaughn seriously in this type of role but I did. I certainly took him a lot more seriously than I did in the second season of True Detective. I personally like his performance in Dragged Across Concrete more but he was still really good in this. And I never thought I would find him intimidating.

Also, casting Don Johnson as the sadistic warden was genius!

And now I want to check out more grindhouse movies!

First of all, if you are squeamish (even a little) DO NOT watch this movie. But if you've got the stomach for an extremely violent (and sometimes depressing) movie this might be worth your time.

Vince Vaughn does an excellent job. In fact, the acting in the whole movie is surprisingly good for a grindhouse-style flick. This is about a man in a bad, bad position, who bad things happen to, and who in turn does some very bad things. But if you can handle this type of movie you will be entertained.

The action is gritty to the point of being potentially sickening. I was disturbed, and yet I wish more movies took this approach to action. The fight scenes are not comic bookish like so many movies, rather they are brutal and somehow realistic. Honestly they were the best thing about this movie.

Don't expect a brawl in the sense that a whole cell block starts fighting riot style. This is more of a Bronson-esque "one man out for revenge" style of movie.

The only negative I noticed is that there were a few unbelievable parts regarding the prison system, but they were needed to drive the plot along in the direction it went. Viewers should really just suppress their disbelief (and gag reflexes) and just strap themselves in for the ride.

Recommended for anyone that can handle the darkness and appreciate the brutally gritty craziness that is this movie.

Because writer/director Zahler has taken his audience back to an era when films were simpler, direct, and,above all, unrelenting in their pursuit of a single theme or idea.

He has manufactured a true guilty pleasure -- a film about a man making bad choices that is driven by brilliant characterizations, raw Adrenalin, and a compelling narrative that makes you watch no matter how much you know you should look away.

In the grand tradition of Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood, Vaughn, an actor once relegated to romantic comedies, does "the" physical role of his career and it is a barn burner.

There is no pretense at class. This is 1960s grindhouse from start to finish and if you have any doubts just listen to the closing music at the 2:05 mark --- a brisk orchestral piece that sounds more fitting to a vaudeville act than a melodrama. Zahler ends the show by signalling that he was messing with your head, overloading your senses, all along -- and moreover he was doing it deliberately and knowingly.

Don Johnson, an actor who continues to win SEXIEST MAN ALIVE awards for merely showing up at the ceremony, wanted to try something different and succeeded - his cigar-smoking, sadistic warden is a masterpiece. Unforgettable.

A hard film to review, a difficult film to classify, and an impossible film to ignore. The closest analog in this era would be the highly stylized, and highly violent, films from South Korea that glorify the individual over the system.

Highly recommended.

((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))