Review of Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017) by James R — 15 Jan 2018

A pretty damn violent film that won't exactly be for everyone. The film is about a man named Bradley Thomas who is recently fired from his job as a mechanic. With his life kind of in shambles Bradley decides to start delivering drugs again for an old friend.

We fast forward about a year later and Bradley seems to be doing much better. He's in a new house and his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) is pregnant. But, of course the job that Bradley does is one of those jobs that eventually get ya caught up with the law.

Bradley's boss Gil (Marc Blucas) is actually pretty good to Bradley regardless of him being a drug mule. Gil has Bradley meet a new "partner" named Eleazar (Dion Mucciacito) who has two of his men go along with Bradley on a drop.

Things go terribly wrong and before you know it Bradley is looking at seven years behind bars. While in prison an associate of Eleazar informs Bradley that they've kidnapped his wife and that they'll kill his unborn daughter unless he kills someone for them in prison.

Unfortunately, the issue is the other prisoner is in a high security prison that Bradley isn't even in, so somehow he has to cause enough mayhem to get transferred to the terrible cell block 99. The movie is a bit straight forward and I have to say the beginning is actually a bit slow.

We actually don't even see Bradley get to the prison until about 50 minutes into the film. Then he doesn't even get to cell block 99 until there's only 30 minutes left of the film. I felt like it was just many scenes with an action that keeps going.

It works to a point, but I thought it wasn't the smartest script. I will say I was impressed by Vince Vaughn (regardless of his...Southern? accent dipping in and out). The fights in this one are brutal and felt pretty realistic.

Bradley is an intimidating person and man does he kick some ass. The movie is worth at least a rent if it interests ya. It's very violent (especially those last 30 minutes) and may be a bit too gory for some, but it's a story about a guy that will do anything to make sure his wife and unborn child are safe.

Who can blame the guy right?