Escape from Absolom
| Year: | 1994 |
| Director: | Martin Campbell |
| Cast: | Ray Liotta, Lance Henriksen, Ernie Hudson, Kevin Dillon, David Argue |
A bit of a bizarre mix, this one. Or maybe it was just my expectations that made it bizarre. Something it just seemed off. I knew it was set in the future where dangerous convicts are dropped on an island cut off from the rest of the world, so I might have been expecting something like Battle Royale meets The Terminator.
Instead, the convicts have organised themselves into two camps, one of them fortified inside a walled enclosure where they eke out their lives in a microcosm of society. Instead of being a science fiction movie it was more like a low-keyMad Max II in the jungle.
Ray Liotta tries to muster some charismatic flourishes - more than the script deserves - and the whole thing plays out a survival drama and primitive war story. It had plenty of changes to introduce cool sci-fi elements plenty of time - even in a small scale - but didn't.
Even the name seemed unnecessarily silly. 'Absolom' sounds less like a prison island than a headache remedy powder.
Instead, the convicts have organised themselves into two camps, one of them fortified inside a walled enclosure where they eke out their lives in a microcosm of society. Instead of being a science fiction movie it was more like a low-keyMad Max II in the jungle.
Ray Liotta tries to muster some charismatic flourishes - more than the script deserves - and the whole thing plays out a survival drama and primitive war story. It had plenty of changes to introduce cool sci-fi elements plenty of time - even in a small scale - but didn't.
Even the name seemed unnecessarily silly. 'Absolom' sounds less like a prison island than a headache remedy powder.