Lock Up (1989)

Directed by John Flynn. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Tom Sizemore, Donald Sutherland, Larry Romano, Frank McRae, John Amos, Sonny Landham, Darlanne Fluegel, Jordan Lund, William Allen Young, John Lilla. [R]

Six months away from completing his sentence at a minimum-security prison, inmate Stallone is abruptly transferred to a maximum-security hellhole run by a sadistic warden (Sutherland) and his hard-nosed guards—the warden has a grudge against the guy and wants to see Stallone suffer to his satisfaction. There’s hardly a believable moment in this junky but mostly-watchable time-killer, a prison drama with just about every cliché pushed into pure melodrama—the only thing missing is a shower scene (if the story had been set at a female prison, I bet there would have been seven or eight of them). “Highlights” in absurdity include the part where prisoner Romano goes joy-riding in a Mustang he helped rebuild through the prison yard, an ambush in the prison’s underbelly where Stallone and a hostile guard pummel each other for several minutes, and when Stallone has a standoff with Sutherland after strapping the warden in an operational electric chair and tying his own arm to the switch so no one can take him down. If you don’t mind laughing at a mindless bruiser for a couple hours, it’s not a bad option, but anyone looking for authenticity or originality had better look elsewhere. Music by Bill Conti, but nothing here is on par with his “Gonna Fly Now” theme from Rocky.Tom Sizemore’s film debut.

51/100