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The Condemned
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The Condemned is a 2007 action film, co-written and directed by Scott Wiper, and starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Madeleine West and Rick Hoffman. The film centers on ten convicts who are forced to fight each other to the death as part of an illegal game which is being broadcast to the public. The Condemned was filmed in Queensland and Vancouver, , and fight choreography was co-ordinated by Richard Norton, who also stunt doubles for Jones on some scenes. The film was produced by WWE Films and released by Lionsgate.
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Encyclopedia
The Condemned is a 2007 action film, co-written and directed by Scott Wiper, and starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Madeleine West and Rick Hoffman. The film centers on ten convicts who are forced to fight each other to the death as part of an illegal game which is being broadcast to the public. The Condemned was filmed in Queensland and Vancouver, , and fight choreography was co-ordinated by Richard Norton, who also stunt doubles for Jones on some scenes. The film was produced by WWE Films and released by Lionsgate. The Condemned was released in the United States on April 27, 2007 and was rated R by the MPAA for "pervasive strong brutal violence, and for language."
Plot
Jack Conrad (Austin) is a dangerous convict awaiting execution in a Salvadoran prison. "Purchased" by a wealthy television producer and transported to a deserted island in the South Pacific along with nine other condemned criminals (similarly purchased from prisons around the world), they are "offered" the opportunity to avoid capital punishment and win back their freedom by fighting to the death in an illegal game to be filmed and broadcast live over the Internet.
A bomb is placed on the ankle of every contestant, each featuring a 30-hour countdown timer, and a ripcord that will detonate the bomb after a 10 second delay. The winner will have his/her bomb removed and be given their freedom as the prize. Breckel (Robert Mammone), the producer, has recognized the power of the Internet, blogs and social networks as an advertising tool for his show and is aiming for online ratings that equal or beat the latest Super Bowl reception of 40 million TV viewers.
As the broadcast progresses, FBI agents discover Conrad's real identity as Jack Riley after a tip from one of Conrad's former classmates. Conrad is discovered to be a former Delta force operative who was captured on a Black ops mission to El Salvador after bombing a building controlled by drug dealers. Conrad's girlfriend becomes aware of the situation and is shown viewing the show at a local bar through the majority of the movie.
Ewan McStarley (Vinnie Jones) and Saiga (Masa Yamaguchi) team up to remove the competition, while Yasantwa (Emelia Burns) uses her wiles to trick others to their death. After seeing the show's broadcast tower before the show, Conrad infiltrates the tower and calls his girlfriend, managing to tell her the latitude of the island before he is forced to leave.
After the other 7 contestants have died (see below), Conrad is left alone against McStarley and Saiga. He stabs Saiga, and McStarley flees. Eventually, a helicopter drops a shotgun down to McStarley, who uses it to hunt down Conrad. After Conrad falls into a stream, McStarley runs into the cameraman and his armed guard dressed in ghillie suits while searching for Conrad, and shoots them, picking up the guard's MP5.
When McStarley and Conrad meet again, Conrad ends up rolling over a cliff and into a stream to avoid being shot by McStarley's shotgun. Conrad is presumed dead by the fall, and McStarley is declared the winner.
As McStarley is being driven to the control tower to collect his prize, Breckel hears that the FBI has sent United States Navy SEALs to take him into custody. After he meets McStarley and de-activates his bomb, he tells him that he won't receive his prize money. We see here that Breckel and McStarley fixed the game in his favor in exchange for his freedom and profits. McStarley takes a Heckler & Koch MP5 from one of the guards, and kills the tech team in the building, one by one, since they truthfully didn't know that Breckel is abandoning them all. When he corners Julie, Breckel's girlfriend, he is confronted by Conrad, who shoots him several times after a brief dialogue.
Conrad grabs McStarley's two MP5's and chases down Breckel, who is fleeing the island in a helicopter. After emptying the two guns firing at the helicopter, he is given McStarley's re-activated ankle bomb by Julie. Conrad re-activates it, pulls the ripcord, and throws it into the helicopter, which explodes and crashes into a cliff.
The epilogue shows Conrad driving back to his home in Texas, a free man, and meets his girlfriend (Madeleine West), who presumed him dead after he fell off the cliff in his struggle against McStarley.
Cast
The Condemned
- Steve Austin as Jack Conrad
- Character referenced as Jack (USA)
- Was the sole survivor of the contest, though was initially believed to be dead
- Vinnie Jones as Ewan McStarley
- Character referenced as Ewan McStarley (UK)
- He was confirmed to be the winner after Conrad's supposed "death"
- Cause of Death: Shot 7 times by Conrad.
- Masa Yamaguchi as Go Saiga
- Character card displays name as Saiga (Japan)
- Cause of Death: Stabbed through the heart by Conrad during a fight.
- Emelia Burns as Yasantwa
- Character card displays name as Yasantwa (Ghana)
- Cause of Death: Mortally wounded by crossbow while trapped in an abandoned bunker with Conrad that was set alight by McStarley and Saiga. She then triggered off her own ankle bomb after refusing to escape the bunker with Conrad.
- Manu Bennett as Paco
- Character card displays name as Paco (Mexico)
- Cause of Death: Was brutally assaulted by McStarley and Saiga, and then shot through the heart by an arrow by McStarley. His body was then set on fire.
- Marcus Johnson as Kreston Mackie
- Character card displays name as Kreston (USA)
- Cause of Death: After being tricked by Yasantwa, his leg bomb was set off.
- Dasi Ruz as Rosa
- Character card displays name as Rosa (Mexico)
- Cause of Death: Brutally beaten and raped by McStarley. Her ankle bomb was then set off by either McStarley or herself.
- Nathan Jones as Petr
- Character card displays name as Petr (Estonia)
- Cause of Death: Ankle bomb was triggered during a fight with Conrad, who then knocked him off a cliff.
- Andy McPhee as Helmut
- Character card displays name as Helmut (Germany)
- Cause of Death: Stabbed in the neck with a stick; leg bomb set off by Yasantwa.
- Rai Fazio as Dominic
- Character card displays name as Dominic (Italy)
- Cause of Death: Accidentally fell onto a spike from the wreckage of an old ship, impaling him when he was thrown off the chopper.
Rest of cast
- Rick Hoffman as Goldman
- Cause of Death: Throat was slit by Baxter after an argument with Breckel
- Robert Mammone as Ian Breckel
- Cause of Death: Killed when chopper was destroyed by McStarley's leg bomb thrown by Conrad.
- Tory Mussett as Julie
- The only survivor of Breckel's entourage.
- Christopher Baker as Eddie C
- Cause of Death: Shot dead by McStarley
- Sam Healy as Bella
- Cause of Death: Shot dead by McStarley. Was the first of the producers to die
- Madeleine West as Sarah Cavanaugh
- Luke Pegler as Baxter
- Cause of Death: Shot three times in the chest by Conrad
- Angie Milliken as Donna Sereno
Trivia
Tim Roth and Clive Owen were both considered for the role of Ewan McStarley before Vinnie Jones was casted.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for The Condemned was released on April 24, 2007 exclusively on the iTunes Store.
- "Unbreakable" - Cage9
- "Over & Under" - Egypt Central
- "I Won't Do What You Tell Me (Josh Wink remix)" - Josh Wink
- "Black Betty" - Spiderbait
- "You Say" - Aya Peard
- "Umbrella" - Chymera
- "Souljacker part I" - Eels
- "This Colorful World" - Eliot Morris
- "Opening Titles (Score)" - Graeme Revell
- "The Island and Conrad (Score)" - Graeme Revell
- "Hands of Time" - Groove Armada
- "To Be Young (is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)" - Ryan Adams
- "Casino (Solid State remix)" - Tommi Eckhardt
- "Savin' Me" - Nickelback
Other songs featured in the film, but not included on the soundtrack:
DVD Release
On September 18, 2007, The Condemned was released on DVD/Blu-Ray. The DVD opened up at number two in the charts, grossing $4.3 million on its opening week.
The Condemned was released in Australia on January 4, 2008, with an MA15+ rating (Strong Violence, Strong Coarse Language).
The Condemned was released in New Zealand DVD in February 2008 with an R18 rating (Contains Violence and Offensive Language).
The Condemned made its release in the United Kingdom on March 24, 2008 with a rating of 18 (Contains Strong Violence and Language). This was a straight to DVD release to the United Kingdom.
Critical reaction
The critical response to the film was overwhelmingly negative. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a 17% rating, registering thirteen "fresh" reviews out of 78, while Meta Critic lists the film as 23 out of 100. Complaints against The Condemned included accusations of plot holes, overly preachy tone, and massive amounts of violence untempered by comic relief, irony, or plot progression. It also received a 0/4 from the New York Post. However the average user response has been sufficiently friendlier with a decent 6.0 out of 10 rating in IMDB and also 5 out of 10 in the Meta Critic website.
The $20 million USD-budgeted film failed at the box office, by most reasonable standards for such calculation. It debuted with a $3.8 million dollar opening weekend in the US. The film lasted only 4 weeks in theaters and closed with a total of $7.4 million dollars.
Lionsgate and WWE
During the WWE annual stockholders meeting, Vince McMahon commented on his dislike of Lionsgate's marketing towards the WWE film The Condemned. McMahon believes Lionsgate did not properly market the film and used it as a reason for the film's minimal success.
See also
Battle RoyaleSeries 7: The ContendersManhuntThe Running ManHuman hunting
External links
at Rotten Tomatoes
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