Steineded How sad is this?

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

bowmanblue There's something very comforting for me about watching Christopher Lambert in the nineties sci-fi/action movie 'Fortress.' It's like revisiting an old friend in a comfortable environment. Yes, it's fair to say that anyone who was basically in their early teenage years of watching films would find this film particularly deep and thought provoking (like I did at the time). Now, over twenty years (and several thousand) films later, my cynical and jaded eyes see it for what it is – a load of nonsense (but kind of good fun nonsense if you're in the mood).Sometime in the near future pregnancies are controlled and anyone having a child without government approval (or something) is imprisoned in the most hellish of judicial facilities imaginable. The opening scene shows us Christopher Lambert and his pregnant wife attempting to flee the country, but getting caught in the process. Guess where they end up? The titular 'Fortress' is a prison (tower) buried under the ground in the desert where escape is 'impossible' (yeah, in the same way that 'no one' had ever won 'The Running Man' until Arnie had a go).Once imprisoned, Lambert is subjected to all the usual prison movie tropes, including clichéd cellmates, aggressive bully-type alpha-male prisoners and – of course – the fascist warden in charge, this time played by Kurtwood Smith (or that-baddie-in-Robocop to most of us). Whereas most of the film is pretty run-of-the-mill, Kurtwood does his best to turn in a pretty sinister and menacing performance. Of course there are some pretty big stretches in the plot which are designed to further the story rather than be realistic. These are things like the warden just so happening to fall in love with Lambert's wife (like our hero needed any extra excuses for hating the man in charge of the barbaric facility).The sets are pretty bland. In fact, the sets are sets – pure and simple. Grey walls with people wandering around in orange jumpsuits. The special effects aren't that special and the dialogue is a bit corny here and there. All in all, it's probably not the greatest of films and it's no wonder that it's been pretty much forgotten compared to the classic action films of the decade. And yet, I stand by my original statement. Watching 'Fortress' takes me back to my childhood, so, yes, a lot of my appreciation of this film stems from my nostalgia of the era. It's a simple film from a simpler time.I doubt it would hold up today against the current crop of action movies. It wasn't much more than a 'straight-to-video' affair back in its day, but, like I say, if you're looking for a slightly dated, more simple action movie then this one is worth a watch if you feel like wasting an hour and a half. The deeper meaning I may have once seen has long since been painted over by clichés and cheesy nonsense, but I like that sort of thing.

tdrish Stellar, stellar, STELLAR film from Stuart Gordan. And also a mind blowing excellent performance from Christopher Lambert. Praise for the amazing script, the action sequences, and the tense music soundtrack. Buckle your asses up, your in for the ride of your life...in an underground prison. Your odds of escape from this prison? 0 percent! The movie grabs you by your throat, and does not let go...and really seems to know what its doing to keep your interest. Set in the year 2017 ( shut up, this is a 1993 movie), a man finds himself in the heart of a crime riddled, very unique prison...and he wants out! Finding a way out is not going to be easy, the odds are against him, and with an illegal baby on board, time is not on his side. He must find the right people, the right time, and step on the right platforms ( you'll see) to make it out of the prison in one piece. Stuart Gordan, a horror giant icon from the 80's who helmed flicks such as Dolls and From Beyond, he has gently discarded the horror to the side, and set forth on a project so much better. ( Fortress 2? Don't bother. The goods are here!) It is fast paced, keeps you on edge, and keeps you watching and your heart beating...and considering the age of this movie, it has aged very well, ripening the rating for this film. 8 out of 10 stars. Great job, guys and gals...take a look at this, you film maker wannabees these days, because THIS is how it's done!

Leofwine_draca Imagine a version of those classic prison movies - PAPILLON, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - updated violently into a futuristic setting and what you'll have is FORTRESS, a gung-ho ride full to the brim of action. And it's a blast. The feel of the film is very similar to that of TOTAL RECALL, and the pair are almost companion pieces. While relatively low budget, the film has something rarely seen these days - imagination! What makes the film so enjoyable to horror aficionados is firstly the talent involved, and secondly the level of extreme violence which certainly spices up the action. Since when did you see one of the prisoners in THE GREAT ESCAPE have his stomach blown out? Christopher Lambert will never win any awards for acting but he is a solid enough presence as the film's hero and his wooden acting is on par with other luminaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Doug McClure, how we love them all. And really he is given little to do except fight one thing after another, which of course he does with relish.Locklin brings warmth and compassion to the film as his wife and shows probably the best acting in the entire film, but since when did we watch these kinds of films for acting anyway? Kurtwood Smith steals the overacting awards as the oily prison head, strangely his toupee makes him look years younger. Although this isn't the nastiest, best performance of his career (that honour goes to ROBOCOP), he makes for a compassionate villain, a man with a longing for love.A motley bunch make up Lambert's cellmates, which include a wise old black guy, Tom Towles (the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake) bringing cult value as a brutal thug type, while horror star Jeffrey Combs is virtually unrecognisable underneath thick glasses and long hair. Still, it's not really the acting talent that makes this film so enjoyable, or the plot, which is as I said is merely an updated version of the old escape films. The set design is excellent, and the various mechanical hazards, including the roving cameras and laser beams, the psychedelic dream sequences and also the androids, while tacky, are all great fun. Weirdness prevails when an android's helmet is removed, revealing the rubbery, half-human face underneath! The main gore highlights are the intestinators, kind of like an updated ALIEN chestburster for the 1990s, and they are literally showstoppers. We haven't seen this kind of gut busting since the cheapo days of CONTAMINATION! Added to this are a man who has his chest literally blown out, an extraordinarily bloody fight scene (probably the bloodiest I've ever witnessed on screen, as people's heads are smashed into walls, bars, etc. and spray and pour blood like a low-rent Bruce Willis from the DIE HARD series), a man ripping out his own eyes, and lots of shooting and chests erupting with bullet holes.The bookend to the film, a pyrotechnic stunt involving an exploding truck, is also done very well. FORTRESS certainly was never likely to win any Oscars, but the non-stop action, cheesy dialogue and inventive situations, all presided over by steadfast direction from Stuart Gordon (RE-ANIMATOR), make this one hell of a bloody roller-coaster ride. The prison movie to end all prison movies in the cheesy B-movie fan's mind.

DigitalRevenantX7 After making an astounding breakthrough into the horror genre with the splatter classic RE-ANIMATOR, Stuart Gordon's career has consisted of a wild string of hits & misses. His biggest miss was Fortress, a futuristic prison breakout film that was also his biggest hit, proving so popular that a sequel came out half a decade later.When I said "his biggest miss", I meant that despite being a box-office hit, the film met with a mixed reaction from critics & genre fans alike. I personally don't like the film – Fortress is sci-fi at its most brainless. It is perhaps the worst film that Gordon has ever made (not to mention being so cheesy that it will win a French cheese competition).The USA has become a totalitarian regime, with a law passed that limits a woman to one child only. Marine Captain John Brennick & his wife, who is pregnant with her second child (the first died at birth), are caught at a checkpoint & sent to the Fortress, a secluded underground prison complex situated in the middle of a desert. There, prisoners are terrorised by pain-causing implants & computer-controlled devices that censor dreams. Brennick attempts to conduct a prison breakout, no mean feat considering that the prison is virtually escape-proof.Fortress is actually a wild concoction of every sci-fi cliché under the sun, which, although entertaining in the check-your-brain-at-the-door sense, proves to be amazingly silly. First, the film shows the US adopting a one-child policy, which is rather improbable given the fact that the US is a large country & is not packed to the brim like China, thereby making such a law pointless. The implants are another thing – they are poorly designed (they can be pulled out of the prisoner's body using magnetics) & there is nothing to stop them from being passed out as waste matter. The dream censor is ridiculous to say the least – if they can eliminate wet dreams, then why are prisoners going around raping their fellow inmates. The film also shoves in cyborgs (a staple of many self-respecting genre films during the 1990s), with a cyborg governor (who acts more human than machine) & whole cyborg SWAT teams, who prove to be nothing more than convenient cannon fodder for our hero, although they do kill half the escaping party.The acting is rather mixed. Christopher Lambert does his naughty-schoolboy impression (he is one of the most wooden actors around), while his fellow inmates are a lot more believable, with Jeffery Combs playing a jittery-nutbag to perfection & Kurtwood Smith trying to be a sympathetic villain, but narrowly missing out on that role by Tom Towles. Gordon throws in his usual darkly comedic splatter, which does contribute greatly to the film's watchability, although it is a style which belongs more to the horror genre than an action film like Fortress.