Felon is well (enough) paced, well (enough) acted and well (enough) shot. It’s well…. pretty good, or perhaps just good enough. Stephen Dorff, who is aging well but not well enough to maintain his B movie attractiveness gives it his all beside a beefed up genuinely frightening Val Kilmer in this “….” directed crime thriller. Looking at hope and family and the lengths one will go to be with them.
Dorff plays Wade Porter, a contractor about to be married and living the American dream as his business grows and his family thrives. What transpires is a darker than dark surreal turn of events that puts our hero at the mercy of a prison system gone mad. This film is a tragedy of errors as step by step Porter makes choices that he thinks will aid his survival in a a maximum security ward at the State prison.
The whole of this film is based around finding hope when no hope is around. Porter is repeatedly broken down and has to constantly rebuild himself both physically and mentally. Oscar Wilde is famous for his quote regarding lying in the gutter but still looking up at the stars… Even a drunken comic persecuted for being a faggot could find hope and humour, so why not these scumbags and failures stuck in a shit-hole prison. Hope is a great theme for a film about a mans inward journey to discover who he really is and what he’ll do not just to survive, but what he’ll do to get back to the only thing that matters while facing . His family. In Felon, family is all and the side plots around Lt Jackson and John Smith’s families reinforce this. Every man will put his life on the line for his family. Trite but true according to Hollywood.
Kilmer, after phoning it in in a number of past flicks Mindhunters was pure unadulterated shite and Moscow Zero is unwatchable, has put on bout 40 pounds and he wears it well playing Porter’s new cell mate. A lifer in prison for the vengeance killings of his family’s murders entire bloodline, “wiped out,” as he puts it. His comfort is found within the philosophical segregation of the prisons he traverses like a wandering sage dispensing aphorisms on how to survive and what truly matters. He also rips it up in a few bloody scenes.
Many of you will recognize Harold Perrineau, the sadistic Lieutenant Jackson from The other side of the bars as the humble paraplegic narrator for 6 Seasons of Oz. Here, the well ranging actor gets a chance to flip sides and he does so with a maniacal glee. I hope to see more of this guy soon.
Now this film required a massive amount of S.O.D from this viewer but the bloody crack-up fights and blood spurting slash wounds, and the satisfying pace of the film redeem it giving way to the inevitable ending. Kilmer should keep the weight and Dorff was competent. A good Thursday night flic for the boys.
Story: 5.5/10
Acting: 6/10
Violence: 6/10
Total: 6.5/10
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