Review of Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017) by Patrick L — 20 Oct 2017

"Brutal, unsparing and exceedingly violent, "Brawl in Cell Block 99" has the look and feel from those midnight, drive-in grindhouse flicks from the 70s and Vince Vaughn turns in a raw and stellar performance".

Movie Review: Brawl in Cell Block 99.

Date Viewed: October 16 2017.

Written and Directed S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk).

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Marc Blucas, Tom Guiry, Dan Amboyer, Fred Melamed and Rob Morgan.

Who would've guessed that Vince Vaughn can turn into a vicious monster. Vaughn turns in a raw and stellar performance as a former boxer and recovering alcoholic who finds himself in prison after a drug deal goes terribly wrong. "Brawl in Cell Block 99" has the look and feel from those midnight, drive-in grindhouse flicks from the 70s. Writer and director S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk) has put together a bone-crushing and limp-bending cult masterpiece. Yes, there are plenty of gruesome images but this film absorbed me in so many ways.

We all know Vince Vaughn is a funny comic actor and a pretty tall guy but in this film, he strips away his comedic chops to play a rage-fuelled individual who's locked up behind bars and has to save his wife and unborn baby from a very bad hombre. Vaughn is mesmerizing here, he knows how to express every gesture, glance and moment of silence at just the right amount of time and he's fully committed to his role. "Brawl in Cell Block 99" maybe brutal, unsparing and exceedingly violent but it's also a very good film.

Vaughn plays Bradley Thomas, a former boxer and recovering alcoholic who gets laid off from his job as a tow truck driver. His day gets much worse when he arrives home and finds his wife, Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) sitting in her car in their driveway. She's thinking about leaving Bradley but when he confronts her and scrolls through her text messages, she admits to having an affair. Bradley quietly forces his wife to go back into the house and he then proceeds to physically assault the car by punching out the windshield, a headlight and even ripping off the hood of the car.

After attacking the car with his own two hands, Bradley and Lauren decide to have a calm conversation in the house, he forgives her for cheating on him and they make amends with each other. 18 months later, Bradley has fallen back into the life of crime as a drug runner, he and Lauren are now living in a larger and more expensive home and Bradley is about to become a father due to his wife being pregnant for the second time. Their first child tragically died due to a miscarriage.

Suddenly, things go really bad for Bradley when a drug dealing gig goes terribly wrong. The judge slaps him with a seven-year sentence and Bradley finds himself in a medium-security prison. One day, he is visited by a mysterious stranger (Udo Kier) who informs him that he has kidnapped Lauren and his unborn child. The stranger who is known as The Placid Man wants Bradley to kill an inmate in a different maximum-security prison and if he does just that, the Placid Man will release his pregnant wife unharmed. In order to get transferred to a different prison, Bradley picks a fight with a guard which results in him brutally breaking the guard's arm. When the guards try to restrain him and take him away, Bradley fights with more guards but he gets overpowered and sent to a different prison.

Bradley finally steps foot in the prison he's supposed to be in and he tries to find this particular inmate who's located in Cell Block 99. Also at the facility, Bradley comes across the sadistic Warden Tuggs (Don Johnson) who runs his maximum-security prison with an iron fist. You may consider this film to be an orgy of brutal prison violence but "Brawl in Cell Block 99" is more nuanced and riveting than you might expect. The film maybe 2 hours and 12 minutes long but it's never dull or boring. Fight coordinator Drew Leary stages the fight sequences very well in this movie and they are devoid of any quick-cuts or obvious use of stunt doubles. "Brawl in Cell Block 99" also contains fantastic performances from Vaughn and most notably Don Johnson who's clearly chewing the scenery as the tough and sadistic warden.

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and sporting a shaved tattooed head, Vince Vaughn morphs into a towering, prison-fighting bad-ass and it's hard to resist. "Brawl in Cell Block 99" without a doubt delivers some of the best work Vaughn has ever done.