Los condenados

A very popular Japanese film called Battle Royale concerns an entire class of bad tempered middle school students forced to fight to the last survivor on a deserted island for their transgressions. Considered too controversial for American audiences, it's never been released in the states. "The Condemned" is basically a remake of that film. Instead of unruly teenagers, death-row inmates from around the world forced to kill each other for the pleasure of an insane internet magnate's 30 hour snuff reality program.

Steve Austin joins 9 other on the island where they stalk and eliminate each other in some of the most violent ways imaginable.

This part of the story is fairly involving, but as the violence becomes more sadistic, it no longer seems entertaining. The sobering effect spreads to the movie characters as well, too late to help the combatants. Self righteously, the producers use this as a podium to speak down to the audience who bought tickets to watch the very entertainment they are presenting.

The movie is not helped by a stateside subplot involving Stone Cold's girlfriend who lives on a sprawling ranch and supports herself as a waitress.

Simply put - if you like action films you'll enjoy The Condemned.

Following along similar lines of Battle Royal and the newly released The Hunger Games, a group of international death row inmates are sent to an island to fight to the death in order to win their freedom - with the whole thing broadcast live on the internet.

As highly unbelievable as this situation may seem, the moral repercussion are actually adequately addressed. The illegal show gains a mass following but not without attracting the attention of certain international agencies.

I'm not a huge fan of Steve Austin or WWE wrestling and so at first I was a bit sceptical about a WWE production with the lead role being given to a pro wrestler. But despite this he performs his role well, and the acting is of a pretty good standard throughout. The fight scenes are gritty and believable, and the sub-plot back story doesn't interfere too much with the action.

This is switch-your-brain-off entertainment. Enjoy it for what is is. 7/10

We were really surprised when me & my friends watched this movie; it was really the best WWE movie ever, taking into consideration that we all don't enjoy wrestling, but we gave it a try, as it was thought to be as "Battle Royal", not a wrestling movie, & in fact, it surprised us all. All the acting was excellent, especially Steve Austin & Vinnie Jones, & surprisingly sometimes emotional acting was there even from the male characters!! The plot was so simple but extremely good (for a WWE movie!), also the shooting was very fine. I recommend you watch this movie, especially with a group of friends, you will be very surprised & will have a lot of fun !

So this flick was by no means great, but it did what it wanted to do, be a good bad action flick. Swearing, blood, fighting, no CGI, I had a great time watching it. Which really surprised me cause I HATE stone cold, but even he was pretty good. If you just wanna turn off your brain and watch a well done bad action flick, check this out. And yes I have seen battle royale and the running man, and yes this rips them both off fairly liberally, but what the hell, an action flick is an action flick, enjoy it for what it is. And Vinnie Jones is great as the super evil bad guy. And it even has some social commentary about the media's influence on our culture. Granted, its heavy handed and obvious, but seeing as I was expecting a movie on par with a Segal straight to DVD flick, any level of intelligence is appreciated.

There is something about those WWE films that just grab me and make me want to watch. There is always plenty of action, even if they emphasize violence and dismiss the sex to placate their fans.

It doesn't matter whether it is The Rock, John Cena, or, in this case, Stone Cold Steve Austin, they deliver movies that are just fun to watch. No thought required; it is just guilty pleasure.

Besides Steve Austin, we also have Rick Hoffman (Hostel), Masa Yamaguchi, and Vinnie Jones, who we first saw in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It was a good cast that kept us interested until the very end, even though we knew the hero would go home to momma.

Keep them coming.