Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
NateWatchesCoolMovies Wedlock is one of those shamelessly trashy B-movie romps that the 80's proudly churned out in droves for our viewing pleasure. Some are shitty and enjoyable, some are just shitty, and some are solid gems, provided you've been schooled a bit in this particular, acquired taste of an arena. I spent a lot of my teenage years being a scholar in this sort of lovable junk, so I have plenty of ancient data in my mental hard drive to dust off for the old blog- ski. Rutger made quite a few ventures into this field (come to think of it most of my favourite actors have. Wonder what that says about my taste lol). He's got genre written all over his acting style, and loves to play broad characters in stylized fare. Here he plays Frank Warren, an amiable jewel thief who is betrayed in an opening sequence heist by his dodgy partner Sam (James Remar), and rowdy girlfriend Noelle (Josie Packard- I mean Joan Chen). He's sent to an amusingly 'futuristic' penitentiary where they implement prisoners with a unique system: each prisoner is fitted with a collar, each collar has a twin collar, and if the two get several miles apart, both detonate rigged explosives and messily decapitate the pair of unlucky inmates. They are not aware who has their twin collar, making escape a risky notion indeed. It's exactly the type of high concept buffoonery that trademarks these type of outings, and it's played for both suspense and laughs very nicely. Frank escapes, dragging along the woman who wears the twin collar (Mimi Rogers), pursued hotly by Sam and Noelle who want to find the diamonds that he hid shortly before his arrest. It's a prison flick, it's a chase flick, with its own kooky, offbeat sense of style. Hauer is usually so intense he looks like he's gonna implode in on himself, but here he gives a very laid back, slight and funny performance, which gives the film it's refreshingly upbeat feel. Remar and Chen are bouncing balls of energy as the dastardly couple out to ice Frank, riffing off each other and cheerfully chewing scenery. Watch out for an early career appearance from Danny Trejo, as well as work from Glenn Plummer and Stepehn Tobolowsky as a hard ass warden who gets the best line of the film: "You non-conformists are all the same". That alone encapsulates the irreverent, tongue in cheek tone that's a nice switch from the usually dank, oppressive atmosphere that second tier action flicks often get saddled with. Oh, and I want the number of Hauer's wardrobe outfitter; those fluffy, technicolor wool sweaters are a sideshow unto themselves.
George Clarke I love Rutger Hauer. He is a cool and funny actor that isn't afraid to get his hands wet and try anything out of the ordinary.Wedlock isn't one of his stranger ones, but it is definitely one of his best!Set in the near future, Rutger s Mimi Rodgers at a new top security prison that straps bombs to prisoners necks (much like Battle Royale) so they can't escape.Each prisoner is 'wedlocked' to another so that if one blows, the other soon follows!With Mimi by his side, Rutger and co-star go on an adventure that sends them in search of the object that got him imprisoned in the first place... $25 million worth of diamonds.With the bad guys hot on the heels, things start to go a little 'Fletch' at times with some great action scenes, hilarious one liners and more.The film is great entertainment and one I had wished I watched earlier!
The_Void Well, it doesn't break any boundaries or try to be anything particularly special, but Wedlock takes influence from films such as The Running Man and ends up with a fun and entertaining little thriller. As you would expect, the film offers little in the way of surprises; so it's a good job that getting from A to B is fun to watch. The film's main gimmick is the idea of a futuristic prison in which the inmates have to wear collars. This ensures that all the prisoners are constantly watching each other, as if your collar gets one hundred yards away from your partner's collar - both your heads explode! Naturally, no one knows who is whose partner, so the prison is pretty secure (I can't be the only one who thinks this could work in REAL prisons...). The film focuses on Frank Warren; a would-be robber who is double crossed by his girlfriend and ends up in the futuristic jail. Before getting double-crossed, our hero was smart enough to hide the diamonds that he stole. The head of the jail wants these gems for himself, and after Frank and his partner escape from the prison - a game of cat and mouse ensues.The film relies a lot on it's lead star Rutger Hauer, and while this isn't his best performance of all time; it's suitably different from his more popular roles (Blade Runner, The Hitcher), and he makes for an offbeat action hero. He is ed by Mimi Rogers, who is good in ; as well as Stephen Tobolowsky, who steals every scene he's in. The action doesn't come thick and fast; but Wedlock benefits from this, as the action is good when it comes and the scenes between the lead characters are always interesting enough to keep the film worth watching. Standout scenes include a bus chase and obligatory exploding head scene. The title is something of a metaphor for our lead character, as his luck with women isn't exactly enviable, and the way that the collars lock the two main characters together makes for some interesting drama. The main problem with the plotting is that it constantly hints at what's going to come next; and even the central twist isn't all that shocking when it comes about. However, if you go into Wedlock expecting just good entertainment; it's a lot of fun, and therefore comes recommended to B-movie fans!
surprisinglylargeamount I watched this film on an intranet in China while wasting a few hours during one Beijing afternoon. Both Hauer and (Mimi) Rogers are competent actors and up until this film I hadn't seen a bad performance by either. All that changed with this film as neither actor is believable. I have no idea why two fine actors like Hauer and Rogers would get involved with a film this bad.This film proves to me that many of the people in the film industry have no idea how to actually make films that people want to watch (perhaps they should ask a few real people!). This film was too violent for no reason, had too much bad language but, strangely, had little or no sex and nudity! I must it that I did not watch the whole film; after roughly an hour of this rubbish I neither cared about any of the characters or what happened to them! In fact, I'd almost given up on life itself! I would be interested if it made any money for the producers because it certainly didn't deserve to.The actual plot idea is quite good - a high security prison where inmates are kept from leaving by hi-tech collars around their necks. Unfortunately, not the writers, the director or the actors knew what to do with it to turn it into a good film. If you have an IQ higher than 50 or you are above 13, avoid this piece of trash like a prison sentence!
