ESCAPE FROM ABSOLOM A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 1999
Among the names of the cast and crew that are supposed attract the audience to the films, producers are usually least used. However, there are some exceptions. One of them is Gale Anne Hurd, former spouse of James Cameron and producer of ALIENS. Her name on the credits was reason enough for the author of this review to actually watch ESCAPE FROM ABSOLOM, 1994 futuristic prison thriller, directed by Martin Campbell.
Those who had watched FORTRESS, 1993 film by Stuart Gordon, would find some familiar scenes in the beginning of ABSOLOM. The year is 2022 and prisons became the profitable business. Former Marine Captain John Robbins (played by Ray Liotta) had killed his general and got sentenced to life in maximum security, state of the art prison called Leviticus. However, after ofending the sadistic warden (Michael Lerner), Robbins finds himself dumped on Absolom, small Pacific island from which there is no escape. The prisoners like Robbins are left to fend for themselves, and Robbins soon finds two factions - savage, barbaric Outsiders led by brutal Marek (Stuart Wilson) and peaceful, idealistic Insiders led by Father (Lance Henriksen) who want to redeem their past sins by making the island their private utopia. After a while, Robbins would use his military talents to help Insiders in their struggle against Outsiders.
ESCAPE FROM ABSOLOM is just another proof that producers, no matter how good their reputation is, can't guarantee quality of the film in the absence of talented or, at least capable, writers and directors. Screenplay by Michael Gaylin and Joel Gross, based on the novel PENAL COLONY by Richard Herley, has a rather weak and hardly plausible concept - heartless futuristic society, who had shown no concern for the wellbeing of prisoners, still ready to spend billions on keeping them in supertechnological chains instead of simply killing them. However, unlike FORTRESS who had the similar flaw, this film offers quite a different feel. Instead of supertechnology, we have society brought down to good old post-apocalyptic savagery, in many ways reminding us of MAD MAX and LORD OF THE FLIES. For some time, it looks like the film might leave the audience with something to think about - nature of evil and violence, but then it all boils down to predictable and cliched prison break subplot. Thankfully, there is always enough hand- to-hand combat to make us forget the actual plot. The actors are mostly fine - Liotta, although not a real action hero, is believable as killer turned into nice guy; character actors, mostly British, are also superb. However, Stuart Wilson as chief villain is almost laughable, proving again (same as in LETHAL WEAPON 3) that he lacks adequate charisma for such task. Action scenes are adequately directed by Martin Campbell and also there aren't any female characters to slow down the action with unnecessary romantic subplots. This film mostly is watchable, but then, as many other similarly forgettable action films, everything culminates in predictable yet unbelievable and lame finale. After such finale, most of the viewers would feel cheated, even if they hadn't got high hopes before watching this bellow-the-average Hollywood genre product.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
Review written on June 1st 1999
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
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