A 1950's high school cheerleader meets a leather clad rebel biker and goes out on the town with him. When he steals an item of jewellery he gets thrown in prison but not for long. He makes a... Read allA 1950's high school cheerleader meets a leather clad rebel biker and goes out on the town with him. When he steals an item of jewellery he gets thrown in prison but not for long. He makes a desperate escape and he is determined to catch up with his lost love and re-new their cri... Read allA 1950's high school cheerleader meets a leather clad rebel biker and goes out on the town with him. When he steals an item of jewellery he gets thrown in prison but not for long. He makes a desperate escape and he is determined to catch up with his lost love and re-new their criminal activities.
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An all-around failure
Don't waste your time with this mess.
Incredibly Boring from Start to Finish
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Who would have ever thought that the director of THE EXORCIST and the co-writer of HALLOWEEN could come up with something this poor? High school cheerleader Angel (Shannen Doherty) has a great life in front of her but she ends up falling for Tony (Antonio Sabato, Jr.), a rebel lowlife who slowly but surely brings her down to his level and before long the two are trying to evade the police. This was another one of those in-name-only remakes of the older AIP flick. This one here has Debra Hill co-writing the screenplay as well as producing and we've got William Friedkin directing but you really wouldn't know it just by watching this film. Friedkin's direction can not be spotted as it appears he was either very bored with this production and didn't care about it or perhaps we could give him the benefit of the doubt and say he wanted to pay homage to all those bad "C" movies from AIP. If his goal was to make a bad movie just like people would have seen back in the 1950s then I guess you can call this a success. The biggest problem is that there's simply no energy in the film and even at just 76-minutes the thing feels way too long. Another problem is the screenplay, which just seems to jump around in time as there's really no character development and there are so many things that just seem to happen for no reason. Both Doherty and Sabato, Jr. actually do decent jobs with their roles and there's even a young Adrien Brody playing one of the sidekicks. Adrienne Barbeau plays the girl's mother but she's pretty much wasted and spends most of the film just standing around. JAILBREAKERS really doesn't have much going for it so only those who need to see all the films in the series should bother with it.
Not a good movie
a film designed for teens
well made for television movie
I would say it's a great teenage film. I can't believe Adrian Brodi was in this film as a teenager who went on to have a great career in films and winning an Oscar. Shannen Doherty...well I'm not sure what happened to her. William Friedkin went on to make some decent films (Rules of Engagement, The Hunted, Bug, Killer Joe), but Jade, well that's a different story.
Did you know
- TriviaShannen Doherty infuriated William Friedkin when she failed to turn up for the first day of shooting in Hollywood. She had just returned from Italy, where she raised hell by turning up late for an interview on a television talk show. Friedkin's first reaction was to call for auditions and look at 12 other actresses to take her part. He changed his mind and decided to stick with Doherty.
- Quotes
Angel: I miss you so much, Tony. My life is dead out there without you.
Tony: Angel, I'm gonna get out I promise and we'll go away together just you and me. And we'll see the world, all those exotic places we talked about, huh?
Angel: I'll wait for you forever and ever. And I'll sneak out and visit you whenever I can.
Tony: I love you.
Angel: I love you.
- ConnectionsReferences On the Waterfront (1954)
- SoundtracksHouse of Blue Lights
Written by Freddie Slack and Don Raye
Published by EMI Robbins Catalog, Inc. (ASCAP)
Performed by Meat Puppets
Produced by Meat Puppets
Courtesy of London Records U.S.A.
By arrangement with PolyGram Special Markets






