THE CONDEMNED — * 1/2 — Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone; rated R (violence, profanity, gore, vulgarity, racial epithets, brief drugs); see Page W2 for theaters.
"The Condemned" may be one of the better movies produced by the film arm of World Wrestling Entertainment, but that's not much of a compliment.
After all, this rather brutal thriller's competition in that regard includes such duds as last year's duo of "See No Evil" and "The Marine." And to be honest, it barely surpasses them, thanks to a nasty mean streak toward its female characters — a real no-no that prevents it from being simple, dumb fun.
Former WWE wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin stars as Jack Conrad, one of 10 international, death-row inmates that have been shipped to a remote island to participate in a Web-exclusive "reality" program.
Jack and the others have bombs strapped to their ankles, which are set to go off in 30 hours. The only way for him to stop the bomb — and possibly gain his freedom — is to kill the others.
It's not a horrible setup, even if it is reminiscent of "The Most Dangerous Game" and other like-minded thrillers. But the film's accusatory tone is somewhat ridiculous (the sleazy show producer character, played by Robert Mammone, is clearly a swipe directed at sometimes controversial "Survivor" producer Rob Burnett).
Also, co-screenwriter/director Scott Wiper had his crews shoot most of the combat scenes in herky-jerky, "jitter-cam" style, which renders most of them incomprehensible.
That may be for the best, though, since this isn't the brainiest material (again, despite the misplaced screeds against reality television).
However, Austin does have an imposing physical presence and doesn't embarrass himself by overemoting (he really doesn't try to do much more than glare and occasionally utter wisecracks). But former soccer player Vinnie Jones outdoes him as one of the film's eminently hateful villains.
"The Condemned" is rated R for strong scenes of violent action (beatings, stabbings, shootings, vehicular and explosive mayhem, and violence against women, some of it sexual), strong sexual language (profanity and crude slang), gore, crude humor, racial epithets and slurs based on ethnicity or nationality and brief drug references. Running time: 113 minutes.
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