User reviews

I often find myself disagreeing with the critics, but in this case I am in agreement with the other reviewers on this page... This is a terrific movie, pure entertainment. I am frankly tired of so many modern movies that are nothing but violence, nudity and special effects. Well, this movie is not one of them -- it actually has a good plot. Oh, what a rare treat!

The best acting is not Stallone's (no surprise there) but that of Donald Sutherland's portrayal of the sadistic and bloodthirsty prison warden. And the scene with the Mustang nearly made me cry.

If you haven't yet seen this film... What are you waiting for? You're missing what is probably Stallone's best films! Run, don't walk, to your nearest video store! :-)

Have to say right off that I can't believe the low rating for this one here, because it delivers everything that a Stallone fan would want, if one is loading this into the player then surely they know what to expect?

Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone) only has a few weeks to go before being released from prison, he is no hard core offender, he is a loving man and is ready for a new life with his gorgeous girlfriend Melissa (Darlanne Fluegel). During the night he is whisked away to a maximum security prison on the orders of a sadistic warden out for revenge because Leone was the only man to have ever escaped from his prison, thus setting in motion the wheels of revenge.

We then follow Leone as he is pushed to the limits by crazy warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland) and all the sadistic guards under his command. He also enlists the help of resident inmate beefcake Chink Weber (Sonny Landham), and they all in turn try to break Leone at all costs to ensure that he never leaves prison again. There certainly is nothing here that hasn't been done before in the prison film genre, and only an idiot would expect anything other than the ending we get, but this is a Stallone movie and it's full of guts, testo macho action, and it should be noted that Sly here puts some depth to the character of Leone. He garners our sympathy quite quickly, and considering the bloke is built like the proverbial brick outhouse, it's quite an achievement.

The supporting players are a mixed bunch, this is Tom Sizemore's first motion picture and he does really well with the character of Dallas, Sonny Landham is his usual scary menacing self, whilst Frank McRae as Eclipse does just enough right to make his mark. So it's something of a surprise to me that the best actor on show is actually the film's weak link. Donald Sutherland does overplay it to the point that he goes beyond pantomime villain, it's a real teeth itching performance that he would only outdo with the dreadful Jamie Lee Curtis starrer, Virus, 10 years later, but in a film with such primal fun/action intentions, it doesn't ruin the film and leaves it all told as a fine genre piece.

No awards here for sure, but when I watch a film about a man played by Sly Stallone in prison then I think I know what to expect, and it delivers all that I hoped for, so hooray for the beefcake I say. 7/10

Lock Up I feel is one of Stallone's better movie's. The storyline seems to fit the acting character of Stallone very well. Sutherland's depiction as the Warden "Drumgroole" also was excellent. As always, Stallone seems to epitomize struggle in movies very well. In the movie Stallone is a convict just trying to ride his time out, but the warden makes it very hard on him. John Amos also depicts the caring but hard as nails Prison guard "Micon" very well. In my opinion Lock Up is a Top Level Stallone film, and didn't get nearly the credit it deserved. I certainly would recommend this film. One word that can describe this film would be "EMOTIONAL" If you like a tough, gritty prison movie, then you will certainly like Lockup.

The mechanic Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone) is a model inmate in a low security prison and has only six months to serve. He intends to spend the rest of his life working in his garage and with his beloved girlfriend Melissa (Darlanne Fluegel). Out of the blue, Leone is brutally transferred during the night to the maximum security Gateway Prison without any explanation. Soon he learns that Warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland) is the responsible for his transference.

Leone had been sentenced to Treadmore Prison after beating the punks that hit his mentor and friend that taught him his profession of auto mechanic. When his mentor was dying, he asked permission to Drumgoole to go to visit his friend but the request was denied. Leone fled from Treadmore and his lawyer went to the press to expose Drumgoole's behavior. The result was Leone in a minimum security prison and Drumgoole sent to Gateway. Now the warden is seeking revenge and will do anything to keep Leone behind bars.

"Lock up" is an entertaining prison drama full of action with Sylvester Stallone after the successful Rambo trilogy. The story is flawed and shallow, and the viewer shall not think how a prisoner is transferred the way Frank Leone is and his lawyer simply does not exist in the story. The characters are not well developed and there is no explanation for the sadistic behavior of the prison guards. However this type of movie is not to think and entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Condenação Brutal" ("Brutal Conviction")

Lock Up is a pretty good movie for Stallone fans, although it could easily have been much better had he not been basically a saint behind bars. Stallone plays Frank Leone, who faces multiple prison terms total, beginning with an 18-month sentence he was given for avenging the vicious beating of an old man who took him off the streets when he was a teenager. So back then he wasn't allowed to leave the prison to see his dying father (when we meet him, he is on a weekend leave from a minimum security prison, a weekend that he spends playing ball with his kids while his charming wife looks on approvingly), so he breaks out to go to the funeral.

So his minor prison sentence turns into a big one, although one that he spends at a comfortable minimum security joint with all kinds of perks, including weekends and conjugals and even friendships with the guards. His release is approaching when suddenly he is awakened in the middle of the night and taken to a brutal, maximum-security prison where he is to spend the rest of his sentence. It's called a "routine transfer," although he has done nothing to deserve such an upgrade in security status and even his wife is not informed of what happened to him.

Ultimately he learns that he is being transferred to the prison of Warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland at his creepy best), who was in charge of the prison that Leone escaped from, which in turn made it into the papers and ruined Drumgoole's career. Now he has his chance for revenge, and he plans to arrange for Leone to spend the rest of his life in this prison.

The movie carelessly glosses over the ease with which Drumgoole plucks Leone out of his own prison with no explanation to those in charge there, and the conflict immediately switches to Leone trying to survive in this violent prison and stay out of trouble so he doesn't screw up his chances of getting released on time so he can go back to his family.

Drumgoole pulls out all the stops in violating the law that his institution is designed to uphold so that he can keep this one guy down, and Leone faces all manner of challenges ranging from shank-laden inmates to one of his inmate buddies who steals the Mustang they've all restored together and tears all over the prison yard doing doughnuts.

The movie is definitely entertaining although there are times when the cheese factor is through the roof, such as the spray paint fight and the downright school-girlish friendship that Leone forms with a small group of other inmates. On the other hand, it also has a much wider target audience than your average prison movie, and it manages to generally avoid most of the gaping pitfalls that prison movies are in danger of falling into when they shoot for a wide audience. There's nothing realistic about it, but for good Stallone entertainment, this is not a bad way to follow up the massive success of the Rambo and Rocky films.

Also keep your eye out for a young Tom Sizemore, but be advised that the movie features violence, unnecessary cheesiness and may leave you with an overwhelming desire to go out and get some doughnuts

Off the bat, straight away, let's disregard those acting razzie's, unjustly earned. The thing about Lock Up, it's a fresh movie turn for Stallone, in between his bigger films. This one's not written by him, and like me, you'll see why he can act on emotional levels, as a low security prisoner, put away for a minor offence, whose last six months are upgraded to ones of hell, when he's transferred to a s..thole of a prison, run by a vengefully vindictive warden (Sutherland) really good, who's really got one hell of a score to settle with Stallone, which involves his standing of work place. He's not Stallone's only problem, as corruption seems to run high, through the not so through nice prison officers, some of the most merciless you'll see, as their treatment of Stallone, almost got to be too much. There are some tender, and thankfully gentler moments, as in Stallone's girlfriend (Fluegel, perfect) who really becomes a beacon of shining light, near the end, in that intimate visit, among the hell Stallone,has endured. The uncompromising officer make the ones in Chained Heat look tame. The other nicer moments, ones I really liked, were Stallone and score of buddies hanging out in the auto repair shed, really bonding, where convict, Sizemore's admittance, becomes quite a twist or a bad aftertaste. Sutherland's intention of course, is to break Stallone, and keep him there for an indefinite period. I really liked John (Good Times) Amos as one of the better, more humane, yet still stout headed guards, and his presence in this film, is a much welcomed grace. This is not your typical shoot em' up Stallone film, and there are some Rocky moments int his, but it does make a change of pace with an interesting structured story and really good performances from really capable actors, Sutherland's, you won't forget easy. Great cover poster and end credit song, make for great night, near two hour viewing. Go Sly.

Lock Up (1989) is underrated Stallone Action prison Drama film. I would say this film is Rocky and Rambo two person's in one. When prison guards are Pushing Frank Leone in a Gateway maximum security prison, his team spirit is unbroken. When he was fighting Chink with the hat on it he definitely reminds me on Rocky. When warden Drumgoole was pushing him to far, he remind me on Sheriff Teasle from First Blood (1982) I love this film and is definitely my third best Stallone favorite film from the 8o's. After this movie action stars copied this film and make a prison action Drama film. Like Death Warrant (1990), Bloodfist III: Forced To Fight (1992) and Hard Justice (1995) they copied this film, just Death Warrant is different prison film with my all time favorite action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. I love Lock Up to death and I love Cobra and Tango & Cash (1989).

Watching it last night this movie become my favorite best action movies. I would put it right between Rocky and Rambo movies. Stallone is in prison and he keeps fighting for his life by a corrupt warden. Warden tried to break Stallone but he couldn't. Lock Up is a very underrated action prison drama that has a heart and I love it to death. He was just pushed to hard over the edge and he fought to stand alone in this prison action movie. Lock Up is similar to Victory another underrated films from the 80's Stallone also played alongside Michael Caine. Lock Up is fight for survival in this movie and I simply loved it I don't care what anyone else is saying about this underrated prison drama style film. Lock Up is my 3d best movie and I replaced it with Assassins instead. Also this movie become a copycat and rip off from Death Warrant that Van Damme played and Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight with Don The Dragon Wilson another action movie. Just those are all different movies with different story's just Bloodfist III does copy a little Lock Up only the main character does not come out from prison and uses his martial arts and fists to defend him self pretty good action prison movie.

RAPE THIS!!!!!!! My favorite Frank Leone quote.

Lock Up is a 1989 American prison action film directed by John Flynn. The film stars Sylvester Stallone and Donald Sutherland. The film was released in the United States on August 4, 1989.

With only 6 months left of his prison sentence inmate Frank Leone is transferred from minimum security to maximum security by a vindictive warden.

Sylvester Stallone as inmate Frank Leone did a wonderful job, he acted like he was Rambo and Rocky two in one. Donald Sutherland as Warden Drumgoole did a wonderful job as sadistic evil villain was really FANTASTIC. Darlanne Fluegel as Melissa Frank's girlfriend did a wonderful job. Frank McRae as Eclipse did awesome job as Frank's friend. Tom Sizemore as Dallas also did an Excellent job. John Amos as Captain Meissner captain of the prison guards was excellent his character was well written. Director John Flynn was also awesome and amazing he directed this prison flick and he directed actioner film with Steven Seagal two years later Out for Justice (1991).

I love the main theme form Bill Conti he also wrote theme for Rocky and The Karate Kid (1984) which I love those films. I also love the football game in this film and Eclipse was helping to defeat Chink and his gang.

Lock Up did poorly at the American box office, making $22,099,847 on a budget of $24 million

10/10 Grade: A Studio: Carolco Pictures Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Sylvester Stallone,Donald Sutherland,John Amos, Darlanne Fluegel, Frank McRae and Sonny Landham Director: John Flynn Producers: Charles Gordon,Lawrence Gordon Writers: Richard Smith,Jeb Stuart and Henry Rosenbaum Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 49 Mins. Released: August 4, 1989. Budget: $24.000.000 Box Office: $22.099.847

Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone) is in minimum security lock up with 6 months left and even allowed out into the world with Melissa (Darlanne Fluegel). He gets transferred to maximum security Gateway by vindictive warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland). He had escaped Drumgoole's prison before and made him a laughing stock. Captain Meissner (John Amos) is his hardnosed guard. Guard Braden is more by the book. Dallas (Tom Sizemore) is an overly helpful prisoner. Eclipse manages the motorpool. Prison strongman Chink Weber is gunning for Frank.

The setup is questionable. I don't get how a guy who escaped once could possibly be slated for release. The only way is to do a deal with the D.A. probably as a whistleblower against Drumgoole. The short exchange in the movie seems to suggest that and then the question becomes how does Drumgoole still have a job? The explanation for Frank's situation is so short that it feels like the movie would rather ignore it.

The movie is trying to be gritty but parts of it seems wrong. At times, this feels more like a Rocky movie. There's even a musical montage of them fixing up a hot rod. It's completely out of place. There are other moments like teaching First Base how to drive. Again it's trying to be heart warming which is ill-fitting for the premise. Some of it works better but there are too many situations that don't match the expected tense grittiness. The dialog is also wrong. First Base actually uses the word 'jive'. The movie has a few too many clunky things going on.

I really enjoy watching this movie.Although the movie isn't much famous as Rambo or Rocky series it's a real masterpiece.Stallone gives an excellent performance as Frank Leone- a convict that is pushed too much and not fairily from the prison warden (D.Sutherland) who has a personal vendetta with him.Frank finally achieves in an astonishing way to prove that the warden has set him up in order to escape.There is where his personal drama ends.

It's a drama-action-romance movie that it's worth to see it not only for the good performances(S.Stallone,T.Sizemore,L.Romano,F.McRay) but for the suspense especially in the end.

For me it's just a Stallone's classic one, so take a seat and enjoy this really entertaining movie

Lock Up will not be the most memorable film, but Stallone did a much better job than he usually does, and the film had a good depiction of the jail as a real hell.

It could have been a very good movie, but it was just way too predictable. If Leone is getting beat up in a rugby game and they show a guy concerned in the back, will the guy help him? Of course he does. If Leone tells a guy only to start a car and drive it, will the guy drive it? Of course he does. And does Leone get punished instead of the guy? of course he does... I mean, you predicted it way before it actually happened. I wanted to be surprised, but you never will be in this movie. I actually fell asleep watching it, too slow at the start.

Corrupt prison movie. Good action in the end. If you like Stallone and Donald Sutherland, they'll do justice to the movie.

Sly Stallone hit gold with this seriously under rated film. This is surely Stallone's best films with Cliffhanger and Demolitian Man following.

There are superb performances from the main man and his supporting characters like Donald Sutherland(the assignment), Tom Sizemore(enemy of the state), John Amos, Sonny Landham(predator) and Danny Trejo(desperado).

The story is gritty and involving, and the best scene is Sizemore's last bid for Stallone's friendship. Watch it and you'll know what I mean.

This a great film. Do not miss it. Rating=4/5

One of Stallone's emotinal excellent performance in one of his solid acting performances. Lock Up (1989) is an awesome movie a prison drama. I love Lock Up it is been 30 year anniversary and the movie dosen't get anything. Stallone did a great job with this movie. Bill Conti returned with his music score. He made music score for all movies except Rocky IV he was absent for that movie. The music score is similiar, it reminds me on The Karate Kid (1984) movie the first classic movie. Directed was by John Flynn who made a great job directing this movie. After this movie he went and directed Out For Justice (1991) with Steven Seagal wich is Seagal's best movie and my favorite action film.

"Rape this!"

Sonny Landham R.I.P. from 48 Hrs. and Predator (1987) is in here too. The cast are Donald Sutherland which he did a great job as the villian, Tom Sizemore excellent performance as Sly's friend inmate in prison. Darlanne Fluegel R.I.P. is awesome babe, great performance as Sly's girlfriend and love interest. It is really a tragedy a lot of good actress died and I had no idea that the actress is no longer with us anymore. Darlanne Fluegel did played in a lot of good movies: Bulletproof, Freeway, Pet Sematary II, Scanner Cop and other good movies I like. Frank McRae from 48 Hrs. is also in this movie. Both actors were together on 48 Hrs. but had no screen time together.

It is a good prison drama movie, character Chink Webber is based on a boxer Chuck Webber that Stallone made a Rocky (1976) movie on his life. Chuck Webber should be in Rocky III but the boxer was terrible actor so they fired him, but Webber was based on this character that actor Sonny Landham played.

I love Stallone's character Frank Leone he is an auto mechanic, he got caught when he beat 3 guys when they broke in this meachanic shop and beat his friend. Sly's character was a good heart person, he helped people, he was an honest guy that always did the right thing. But he is pushed too far and he has to fight for a survival and freedom. Sly's lines really inspired me "You want break me." it really helped me in life a lot. You see Leone fighting off guards in the finale when he escapes excellent choreography. Stallone punches a guard in the balls after he was treaten that he will rape and kill Leone's girlfriend Melissa excellent punch by Stallone he knocked him out.

This is hell and I'm going to give you a guided tour! With these chilling words, the warden (Donald Sutherland) welcomes Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone) to Gateway Prison, a nightmare jail where every minute is hard time. The warden wants vengeance for the past; Leone wants only to survive the present. Their explosive battle of wills is the electrifying heart of one of Stallone's most heroic thrillers, LOCK UP. Stallone gives a monumental performance as Leone, a convict driven to break his own cherished code by a warden who will stop at nothing to get him. Dallas (Tom Sizemore) sacrificed him self against sadistic guard Manly (Jordan Lund) he electreued both of them.

You have a football in this movie which is played well by inmates. I read in this movie the real inmates were all extra cast. The football is real performed and it is very realistic. Mosty of the acting in here is realistic. Stallone gives a monumental performance as Leone, a convict driven to break his own cherished code by warden who will stop at nothing to get him. Sutherland portrays the sadistic prison head in this riveting white-knuckle ride to hell in back, This movie shows how is life in prison, i know we saw other prison movies but this movie executes it well.

I remember now Don "The Dragon" Wilson in Bloodfist III: Forced To Fight copy this plot and he competely rip off the final act in which Leone held hostage Warden Drumgoole on an electric chair so that he confessed his crimes, that scene Wilson riped off in his movie. Stallone made Escape Plan (2013) in that movie Stallone is the second time in prison which I am going to review that film soon but now I watch this movie and I love it. I have this movie on DVD in a double feature with Chuck Norris An Eye for an Eye (1981) together and I have this movie seperate on Blu-ray disc. I did not know Lock Up was released on 4K Blu-ray in USA, Germany, UK and other country's. I do have Rambo 1,2 and 3 with Lock Up on DVD for the Stallone collection the rest of his movies I only have on Blu-ray discs.

I appreciate this movie Lock Up is one of my favorite Stallone films. 80's were golden years for Stallone in my opinion. I love Rambo movies all 4 movies Cobra, Demolition Man, Cliffhanger, Cop Land, Rocky all six movies, Tango & Cash, Lock Up is right between them one of Stallone's best movies. I am a huge Stallone fan, I love the guy to death.

In the same year he escaped from prison with Kurt Russell in Tango & Cash, Stallone was locked-up again in this gritty, grim thriller. Frank Leone is an ordinary man forced into avenging thugs who beat-up his kindly old mentor. He's put in prison for the crime but escapes just before his sentence is up so he can be with the old man at his deathbed. His escape and subsequent publicity shames Warden Drumgoole (a very evil Donald Sutherland), who is blacklisted with in the Penal system. Leone serves out his remaining six months in a cozy, minimum security facility and dreams of returning home to his girlfriend. In the middle of the night he is dragged from his bed and taken to Drumgoole's new domain; Gateway, the worst prison in America. Drumgoole intends to make Leone serve very, very hard time, pushing him to his limits in hope that he might lash out and thus extend his sentence.

It goes through a lot of prison movie clichés, and I guess it doesn't really stand out against the better or more exciting movies in the genre. It entertains and is occasionally engaging, but is by no means a classic. The animosity between Leone and Drumgoole is interesting, and the casting of crazy Sonny Landham as the yard boss is quite scary, but again, these are all clichés. Stallone brought back Bill Conti (his old pal from the Rocky movies) to score the movie, but he effort is totally inappropriate and the light touch to the music spoils the intensity of many scenes. A different composer might have resulted in a more memorable movie. You'll never really feel the need to revisit Lock Up after a single viewing.

Sylvester Stallone stars as model prisoner who is given the grand tour of hell from Donald Sutherland. Seems Sutherland is ticked off at Sly Stallone for escaping from his prison and ruining his career, after unsuccessfully goading him into bad behavior that would make him stay longer in prison, a war is waged between prisoner and the warden. Lock-Up actually manages to be a fairly engaging effort from Sly Stallone. Sure the movie has its excessive melodrama but typically the movie works for what it sets out to be and in the end the prison mood is adequately drawn and the supporting characters are well drawn by the excellent supporting cast. (Tom Sizemore, Frank McRae,Sonny Landham and the effortlessly likable John Amos) In other words this is a decent movie and well worth watching for fans of Sylvester Stallone. It certainly is more watchable than Tango and Cash.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

Great… just look at the cast who director John Flynn gets us locked up with. Sylvester Stallone plays the ideal prisoner - a rock, Tom Sizemore an edgy inmate, Larry Romano the naïve kid, Frank McRae the friendly man mountain, Sonny Landham dominates with a snake-like turn, John Amos a hardened prison officer captain and finally Donald Sutherland looking down on them as the menacing prison warden using his inmates like chess pieces "That's no game man. It's a lesson". You'll love to hate him, as Sutherland is picture-perfect in his delivery. The cast are outstanding, as the performances of all simply engage. Also making the cut is Darlanne Fluegal, William Allen Young, Jordan Lund and Danny Trejo makes a brief appearance here or there. The story follows that of Frank Leone having only 6 months of his sentence to serve, but then one night he's whisked away and he finds himself in a high security penitentiary with a warden Drumgoole (who he shares a past with) that tends to break his spirit within that time by using brutality, intimidation and humiliation. However despite Drumgoole's grudge to see Leone's spirit smothered, he'll find out it won't come too easy. Habitual structure, but quite a tense, grim and barbaric prison-yard story with director Flynn's durably taut handling rising above the predictability. It does seem to move from one sadistic act to another (as the warden tries about anything to break his man), but the plot installs some genuine companionship's between the characters and provides a mind-set of how these inmates truly get through the days so to keep from sinking in to insanity. Unpleasant, but also affecting. Bill Conti strings together an effective music score.

"You won't break me."

A solid but flawed film with the great Sylvester Stallone as a peaceful con with only six months to go , as he's is mistreated, harassed and tortured by a vicious prison warden who seeks for a merciless vengeance from an unexplained past conflict . As Stallone's suddenly and cruelly transferred to a maximum security prison whose warden -Donald Sutherland, effectively cast against type and spits out hackneyed hateful with more conviction than it deserves- he made a fool of in more ways than one . Sly is pushed to the edge by a systematic campaign of harassment and beatings . How much can a man take...before he gives back? . Stallone...behind bars? Not for long. How many times can a man be pushed to the wall...before he goes over it? Get ready for a guided tour...of Hell on Earth. Welcome to Gateway...where every minute is hard time.

Decent prison thriller with thrills , chills , action , fights and suspenseful denouement .The plot is plain and simple , as a prisoner is only six months away from freedom , but being suddenly transferred to a maximum security hell-hole presided over by a sadistic warden obsessed with revenge who wants to take his future away . However , the story has gaps , flaws , but here really cares the tension , emotion and suspense . The mechanics of making a strong , hard-hitting and effectively exciting prison story , with all its stereotypes and cliches remain intact , and they're what matter here . A professional entertainment and an entirely vehicle for a star . Sly is perfect in his usual style as the two-fisted inmate , the model prisoner with six months to serve , he does all that you could ask , and you can even understand some his dialogue . While Sutherland sporting a a fearsome haircut gives a nice acting as warden chief who exacts vengeance in retribution for a previous conflict . Donald is really effective as in quieter characters as a psycho. They're well accompanied by a familiar cast from a gallery of multi-ethnic archetypes , such as : John Amos , Sonny Landham , Tom Sizemore , Frank McRae , William Allen Young , Larry Romano, Danny Trejo and Darlanne Fluegel as his girlfriend.

This well-made prison movie was decently directed with considerable kinetic power by John Flynn , though it contains some shortfalls and failures . Director John Flynn was a fine craftsman who gave magnificent performances to Tommy Lee Jones (Rolling Thunder), Jan Michael Vincent , James Woods (Bestseller), Robert Duvall (The Outfit) and here gave immense credibility to Sylvester Stallone as a tough inmate . Rating : Good, 6.5/10 , the result is a strong outing of the prison thriller sub-genre . Forget your worries , sit back and let those brain cells not by the day .

Interesting thing - This could have been a "Rambo" movie. It would had taken place after "First Blood".

"Lock up" is an ambitious movie that tries hard to tell something , but ends as a cheesy , clichéd and pointless movie. It's "Shawshank Redemption" for dummies. It has some good elements in it , but it's still a bombastic , over the top fare that it's hard to take seriously.

The whole conflict in "Lock up" is ridiculous . It's basically a story of Devil (prison warden) trying to break down Jesus (the prisoner) . Everything is black and white here , there's no moral ambiguity . Furthermore , I fail to see what's the point of this movie is. That the justice system is flawed ? That the prison wardens and guards are sociopaths who enjoy torturing innocent prisoners ? That the prisoners are mostly good people who deserve respect ? Honestly , I don't know what the movie is trying to say here .

The other serious problem of the movie is the acting of Sylvester Stallone and Donald Sutherland. Not only their characters are terribly one dimensional ( one is 100 % good , the other is 100 % bad) , but both of them give hammy performances. Stallone lacks expression , while Sutherland tries too hard to show how evil he is.

The final nail to the coffin is the predictable , cheesy and cliché screenplay. It does seem to move from one sadistic act to another. The villains are never subtle. The dialogues are often laughable ("Rape my fist") . The friendship that Leone forms with a small group of other inmates is downright school-girlish (the spray fight !). There's nothing realistic about the whole story and that's why it's hard to be emotionally involved with what is happening on the screen.

There are good elements. "Lock up" is nicely directed by John Flynn ("Rolling thunder" , "Bestseller") .The score by Bill Conti (Rocky") is good. The movie looks great - the prison used here was the East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, New Jersey. The cast includes real inmates of Rahway State Prison. Chuck Wepner, the real-life inspiration for Rocky Balboa, was an inmate at the prison where the film was shot.

The supporting cast is pretty strong with Tom Sizemore ("Passenger 57") , Frank McRae ("48 ours") , Sonny Landham ("Predator") , Darlanne Fluegal ("To live and die in LA") and Danny Trejo ("Desperado").

"Lock up" is a bad movie , but somewhat entertaining , especially if you don't take it seriously. It won't be until the 1997 when Stallone will make a good drama with the good and underrated "Copland" . I give "Lock up" 2/10.

This is probably Sylvester Stallone's best performance that wasn't in Copland or a Rocky / Rambo film.

While the muscle dudes of the 80s did a lot of character-free action, this one is an action film with some character and drama.

I was surprised that the average rating was only 5.8. I would rank it among the best action films of Stallone's resume and also among the best action films of the 80s.

The supporting performances are quite good all around. Donald Sutherland is solid as always, and you get easily the best performance of Sonny Landham's career and Tom Sizemore showing why he became a bigger star about 5 years down the road.

This is the only big movie where Larry Romano got more than a few lines and he does a good job as "First Base." I was a little surprised he didn't go much further and generally only appeared in the future when the casting director needed someone to "look and sound Italian." I recommend this one even if you aren't a big Stallone fan. If any lesser known film will change your mind about him, it's probably either Copland or this one.

Sylvester Stallone plays a mechanic serving time in a minimum-security prison. He's been a model prisoner, liked by everybody, and even allowed to leave the prison on furlough. One night he's awakened in his bed by armed guards and forcibly taken to a maximum security prison, headed by a sadistic warden (Donald Sutherland) with an ax to grind with Sly. He's told he will have to serve out the remainder of his sentence there and Sutherland makes it clear life will be hell for him.

Sly's terrific. He's always been an underrated actor. Sutherland, as he often does, overacts and uses at least three different accents before settling on one. Since Sutherland is hardly a physical threat to Stallone, they added Sonny Landham as the tough-ass prisoner who torments our hero. Tom Sizemore is a snitch. John Amos plays a guard who seems bad but turns out to be okay. My favorite character was probably Frank McRae as a huge prisoner who comes to Sly's aid ("F train, son. F train.").

What would an '80s Stallone movie be without a montage? There's a fun one here as Sly bonds with his fellow cons restoring an old car. Despite being a prison flick, it's not really like the exploitation prison movies of the '70s and early '80s. Implausible to the extreme but also entertaining.

This movie was supposed to be inspiring or something I guess, but it just seems to unbelievable that it sort of ruins the movie. Stallone is locked up in a rather cozy prison as he was in a fiercer prison, but managed to expose a corrupt warden played by Sutherland. Well this warden is now in charge of a really bad place and manages to get Stallone's character transferred in by what would amount to a kidnapping. At this point one would ask how Sutherland's character can get away with this and there is seemingly nothing anyone can do is beyond me. The guy has already proved to be a bad warden so how is he wielding this much power? Well the rest of the movie is your typical prison movie fare as Stallone makes friends and enemies in his new home, while trying to figure out how once again to expose the warden who has already been proved to be corrupt that he is even worse than first realized. You also have a football game and a dude that really likes roaches. This movie also features that one Indian dude from Predator, you know the one that thought he was a real tough guy who threw away his gun and met the Predator head on and promptly got killed. The movie has some good points, and is watchable, but it follows the same formula of any prison movie with an absurd premise.