kosmasp In the 80s this might have worked more than fine. But having a lead that does not have the charisma to carry the movie on his shoulder, throwaway female roles (Bai Ling reduced to almost nothing and therefor criminally underused, no pun intended) and other stuff that does not add to make this movie any better.The fight scenes overall are decent, but not as spectacular as others in similar movies I've seen. And that is a "neck" breaker, because you don't expect much in the story department, but there should be something in the action department. While there are worse movies out there, there are better. Even Vinnie Jones has done better roles and movies ...

Drago_Head_Tilt Tony Schiena stars as a tough martial arts-fighting undercover cop framed for drug possession and sent to Blackwater Penitentiary, Chicago (cheap, unconvincing sets), where most of the musclebound crooks he sent down lay in wait for him. He's forced to fight to the death in illegal cage fights run by kingpin inmate Vinnie Jones. The cast includes several MMA fighters: Joe Doerksen, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Cheick Kongo and big Kimbo Slice. But even the action is boring. Bai Ling is utterly wasted as a sadistic guard with a silly haircut. Total dtv sludge.Movie reviews at: spinegrinderweb.com

p-stepien As if stolen from the garbage can of an "Undisputed" scriptwriter, the movie tells a story of an undercover cop Danny (Tony Schiena) framed for drug smuggling, money laundering and murder. Put into prison with criminals he helped place in the slammer he is destined to confront dog-haters. In order to save himself from being back-stabbed under the shower Danny agrees to join up for underground prison cage fights organised by Anton Vargas (Vinnie Jones). The decision keeps him safe from harm. That it until the night of the fights to the death...Given how tragically unoriginal script all that the movie could offer was a good execution of the beat down script. However in order to pull this off you would need to arrange a cast and crew, which isn't borderline dull. Tony Schiena, even though he can pull off a tough-as-nails face, is absolutely appalling with his line delivery and lacks any acting range whatsoever apart from punching peoples guts out. Most of the supporting cast is equally dreadful with only Dave Fennoy, who very amiably plays Danny Irving's mentor, and Vinnie Jones (being his normal rat-faced self) pulling off a decent showing.The unoriginal script also does itself no favours with some absolutely gut-wrenching logic epitomised by a dreadful end-scene, where Gwen, an uncorrupted Internal Affairs officer, gleefully watches Danny give a stash of stolen cash to the family of a convict. Given the absolutely basic nature of the story the amount of plot holes galore is absolutely astounding.In a sheer attempt to overawe sensory receptors of the male audience in order to hide all the above deficiencies, the director overloads the movie with loud music (mostly in-your-face nu-metal or hip-hop), gratuitous sex scenes and some brutal fights. The fights themselves, which actually are key given the nature of the film, are decent enough, although they lack proper build-up and necessary drama to really involve. On top of that these sequences are woefully painful to watch from a cinematographic point of view due to the sheer amount of slow-motion shots.All in all: Not a good movie. Not even in its testosterone driven B-movie action category.

coryshpprd I know this film didn't have a big budget like the ones many are comparing it to, but I judge a film by it's own merits. And to me a formula plot, especially in an action film, means I get what I paid for. The fight scenes were very stylized and music-driven, which added tons of excitement for me. Even with a low budget, the fights were awesome.Okay, so the lead was a little stiff and needed more dimension, but I saw him as a Dirty Harry-type, or Christian Bale's Batman. Vinnie Jones was great - he stole every scene he was in and he's just a great bad ass. The MMA fighters were intense and provided a better performance than I expected. Plus, I got my dose of T&A in all the right places.If you want a re-invention of the prison fight film, then perhaps you may not rate Locked Down at the top (though it's still worth a rental if you're a fan of the genre by any stretch). But if you want your blood, action and vengeance served to you without reservations, then Locked Down is your ticket. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.