Review of The Experiment (2010) by Nick E — 23 Sep 2010
"The Experiment" is really how you can digest more prison cliches. Sadistic guards, a pretty prisoner is raped, a bromance between the sensitive hero and a diabetic prisoner, capped off with the obligatory prisoner uprising. The movie starts by showing clippings of stronger animals devouring weaker ones but the plot is silly and leaves more holes that you can drive a truck through.
Why are Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker in this crap? Both actors have really sunk in selecting movies since their acting wins--can we have a recall on their statuettes. Whitaker has the more complex role playing an unstable middle-aged man. Brody is basically slumping but he's better here than his laid-back acting in "Splice." Clifton Collins Jr. as prisoner 17 is interesting with his background and "I need to get paid" attitude but the movie doesn't give him anything to do after his first two scenes.
The actual theme of the movie should be how non-violent men (like Brody) turn into monsters due to external circumstances. Besides the plot being absurd, the movie actually cheats because the red light never goes on when the rules are broken, even during prison death. Only when the prisoners break out, do we get an end to the violence but then they get paid. Why? Do we really need this experiment to find out there's innate violence in us all?
This review of The Experiment (2010) was written by Nick E on 23 September 2010.
The Experiment has generally received positive reviews.
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