Convict (2014) User Reviews

I can't really understand the hate for this film.

[unclepete · 5/10 · 2 August 2018]

This is not a great movie. It's never going to garner much of 'The Academy's' time and is an absolutely derivative example of the genre, to the point where a seasoned viewer would be able to identify each prison film that is being mined on a scene by scene basis.

That said, it's not terrible either. It's technically competent with regards to sound, lighting and cinematography and the sets and extras make for an immersive and atmospheric environment. Some of the dialogue is a bit leaden, and it's delivery equally so in parts, but this is definitely 5/10 material.

I'm not sure that those reviewers giving 1/10 scores have ever actually seen a truly bad film. This is not one of those.

Mixture of all sorts

[andywakefield_722 · 6/10 · 17 January 2019]

This is clearly a remake of various prison films, lock up, shawshank redemption, con air, an innocent man with a homage to First blood also.

Actually quite fun even with the wooden acting, worth a watch

Typical prison film, but not without merit

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 12 January 2015]

CONVICT is a low budget Australian prison film that sees a former soldier sent to a brutal prison where he must survive the machinations of the corrupt warden and a pair of sadistic guards. It's very much par for the course for a prison movie, with all of the shanks, male rape, bathroom beatings and unpleasant torture you'd expect to see, but at the same time it acquits itself well with the material.

The film's lead is played by the unknown-to-me George Basha as a tough but ordinary everyman who soon finds himself adapting to a violent world. The set-up and situations in which he finds himself are very predictable but I've always been a fan of the prison film as a whole so I really enjoyed this. The performances from the unknown cast are strong, particularly the bad guys, and the narrative keeps you guessing as to what's going to unfold next. Mostly though it's that sense of unease, of barely suppressed violence that had me intrigued. Not a great film then, but a solid one in any case.

Awful. Cheap. Stupid.

[flikey · 1/10 · 12 March 2015]

Great thing about IMDb is that users can submit reviews. Bad thing is that people directly involved with the film also get to submit reviews. I wonder why anyone involved would want you to see this. It's an embarrassment. So here's the real review. First off, I love prison flicks, I love Australian movies and there are some awesome Australian prison flicks. This is not one of them. The actors are amateurish and wooden. The cinematography is cheap looking. The script is idiotic. A plot is a series of connected events that logically progress to tell a story. This film has a situation instead of a plot. A situation can be fully portrayed in about 2 minutes. That makes this nonsense about 90 minutes too long. Bad directing, bad script , bad acting - it's a complete waste of time.

GOOD PRISON MOVIE

[heno-45762 · 7/10 · 11 May 2019]

Starts off a little B Grade yet comes through, need to give it a chance.Good Aussie Movie.

Cheap

[mohamedaminereguig · 2/10 · 2 March 2022]

Seriously guys? Whats all with the forced acting, even when it comes to arabic, thats not how arabic people are, nor the dialect. But the acting, why every caracter acts same as the other? Ah so bad i was watching regretting and hoping at one time things wil change but no, an other 2 hours if my life wasted.

Bad. So bad.

[timsaunders23 · 20 May 2018]

Some of the worst acting I've ever seen. The movie is unintentionally funny. It really is that bad.

Fun & watchable

[leavymusic-2 · 6/10 · 10 November 2021]

I don't get all the low raters, look if you want a classic prisoner film watch the 1972 Papillon, or Midnight Express - a real remarkable film, "Scum" is another, there's a few greats, surely you knew what you were getting into with Convict? By the very title and the first few minutes it's a kind of give away... it's a kick ass, tension belter, hard man, beat me up often flick.

Sometimes it's good to have Burger than a Steak, that's it, if you enjoy a lower budget prison film this is for you, if you're expecting a Oscar award winning, thought provoking classic, you're going to be disappointed, people educate yourself with films, Google it, it isn't hard, the choice of prison films is huge, also except you're not gonna find many new classics made now, best period for this genre was the 1970's. No question. Having said that, I enjoyed this because I knew what I was gonna get.

Trust me don't bother!!!!

[mannythewog · 1/10 · 29 May 2014]

After seeing the Trailer for George Basha's new movie Convict i was excited hoping it would be just as good or even better than his previous movie The Combination which i loved. But boy was i disappointed, the acting, camera work,and story was a joke. To me it was an exact replica of Sylvester Stallones movie Lock Up which may i say is one of my favourite movies. It was pretty much an hour and a half of my life that i will never get back that's how bad this movie was, very disappointing when thinking a movie being written and starring George Basha is to definitely be a good one after his movie The Combination which was a great success. There was no thought in making this movie at all, sorry George Basha but hopefully you can prove me wrong next time.

Very cool story!

[viliporkola · 7/10 · 22 April 2019]

Enjoyable to watch and interesting, nicely done storyline with an satisfying ending :)

Boring and slow

[sendit-88519 · 3/10 · 27 September 2017]

Typical prison movie. Very slow moving but the plot eventually comes to a head. Main actor Ray performed well. I thought this was going to be a high octane prison movie however it moved so slow that after an hour or so I started jumping ahead as in, lets get to the point already. As for the remaining actors, they had simple lines with so so acting. In my opinion the inmates acted better than most of the main characters.

Great prison flick

[boc321 · 9/10 · 17 November 2014]

I really enjoyed this movie. A man goes to prison for accidentally killing someone and has a very tough time in the clink due to the warden receiving a bribe to make it so.

As with most films there are plot holes. Firstly, as it was self defence due to managing to avoid a knife attack he should never have gone to prison in the first place. Next, the warden could have blamed the guards death on him instead of some other inmate.

Putting those things aside I really liked the fight scenes and the way Ray deals with gang politics. All the things you want to say and do in real life would be suicide but Ray steps up and if he wasn't released would definitely be a gang leader like it or not. Its a prison film so you see a fair amount of gory violent scenes where inmates are murdered. which in itself makes you never want to be in a place like that. Loved it.

Good

[burhanisnain · 7/10 · 7 May 2022]

GOOD MOVIE. ,zhmhmhmxuksuksmxkblsjyykf ncbmzhmdutsuddhmhmbs. Xhkxkukdkdkdkhdjlfljljccmhxfbgffsssfgjjckflljxckvbnxzjddcckcfuldyjsyyidkjdjmdxxlocvilckuskdmjxmxjhsjatuhajsyjddkhxmhxxhsg cjhshkskhzlxk.

Horrendous

[M-scho · 1/10 · 21 March 2015]

Before I had finished watching this movie I had an urge to write a review, now generally I'm not a review type of person, let's say I'm a bit greedy! Though generally when I have a bad experience I feel obliged to let other people aware of my situation so that they don't fall into the same trap! Where to start, honestly If I was involved in the production of this movie I would be embarrassed. I just can't understand why this storyline was used. The acting was terrible, clearly not much thought has gone into the making of this film. Do yourself a favour and don't bother, I would prefer to watch back to back seasons of water rats. I turned it off about an hour ago and I am still shaking my head in disapproval as I now am a victim of the horrible flashbacks which I can only hope don't last through the night.

Some people should stop trying to make people feel sorry for them.

Just saying

Everyone Involved In The Making of This Film Should Be Locked Up for Life

[Reel_Reviews · 1/10 · 14 August 2018]

I've seen a lot of horrible movies in my time. Some were just executed badly or had horrible actors. Convict had both, bad execution and horrible actors. The only person was decent was the old man (I can't remember his name) that hung with Ray (George Basha).

To show you how bad this movie was, when Ray kisses his girlfriend it seems forced. There was no chemistry between the two, and I'm not sure who was worst at acting, him or her.

I'm don't know how it got four out of five stars on Amazon Prime Video, but it's clear they rated by people that worked on production or paid reviewers. Even if you were in a cave for 20 years and this was the first movie you got to see, you wouldn't rate any higher than a 1 star, and that's only because you can't rate it a negative 0.

Excruciatingly awful

[AnusPresley · 1/10 · 11 October 2020]

Saw this on late night TV and only half watched it to the end because the only other channel alternatives were infomercials and televangelists. A shallow and vapid regurgitation of every prison film cliche you've ever seen without even a hint of imagination or style to perhaps give SOMETHING a fresh twist. There is nothing here beyond badly scripted foul language and wimpishly poor staged violence. Even some shower attempted gay rape scenes that would breeze into a PG rating. This is a fat blob of nothing and I am left wondering why it was ever funded or made. If you looked at the script on paper, perhaps it would have some potential as trash cinema if the material was pushed to visceral extremes - but it wasn't. It is too timid to do so and the end result is just a waste of resources, talent and time that were stolen from someone else's film project that could not possibly have ended up worse. It is an embarrassment. If it ever shows up on your late night viewing, go to bed with a book instead. You will thank me for it,

Follows Every Prison Movie Cliche

[Otte1 · 3/10 · 3 January 2018]

Wrongly convicted...check Sadistic warden...check Young kid that main character cares about...check Sadistic guards...check Old grizzled convict who befriends...check One guard who is not as crooked and tries to help...check Sodomy scene...check Multiple prison murders that no one questions...check

Film follows every prison formula without adding any originality of its own.

Acting is forced, with some characters blurting out dialogue like a high school play. Emotional range is very limited for all actors. Motivation for why the people are acting the way they are seems manufactured, not developed. In addition, several MAJOR plotlines introduced are either forgotten, or edited out, making you wonder about what happened to so-and-so. Just slight logic being used would make movie null and void.

More cliches than a hallmark card

[kiowhatta · 3/10 · 8 September 2019]

I wanted to like this low budget, gritty prison drama as I recognised that at least the producers established some realities of Sydney gaol culture - it's completely run along ethnic divisions. Prison gangs ( except for WASP's) Form according to racial profile. There is corruption, violence, and mistrust - and the laws are strictly schoolyard politics. However, that was as far as the realism extended. The premise, the writing, the Plot, the characters were so one-dimensional, so trite it made me cringe. I felt for the actors who had to spout lines so ridiculously predictable it was laughable. It made a Robert.G.Barrett novel seem like Dostoevsky. Warden in cahoots with the prison's top dog? Even the Young Ones were parodying such an overused plot device 35 years ago. The Pathos is slapped on thicker than a cheese and Vegemite sandwich. Obviously the producers thought casting a wide net at the expense of creative integrity was a smart move, but Australian audiences have come along way and are no fools ( except for the troglodytes that simply revere gangster culture). Give this one a very wide berth.

Wow.. Just watched this gem, and I can assure it is extremely underrated !

[ganjafor420 · 10/10 · 8 February 2015]

As soon as I was done watching, I immediately felt like writing a review. Which is something I quite rarely do.

I think some of the reviews it's gotten so far are quite unrealistic.

I've watched tons of prison movies. This is by far one of the best I've ever seen!

Don't wanna give anything away, but I will say I enjoyed every minute of it. I couldn't recommend this more if you're into prison films!

I can't possibly understand why it has such a low rating. I mean, the acting + story was spot on! With visuals also on point, how can you complain?

Was shocked when reading through reviews with people complaining about there not being anything new here, and here I was, being surprised at every turn of the movie!

This is quite the gem of a prison movie! It even has a pretty decent emotional aspect! Giving it a 10/10 because this deserves well over 8 in my opinion!

pure pantomime baddies

[watcher2019 · 3/10 · 14 May 2020]

This had every cliche from every prison film. Why do they make prison films at all we have seen almost every thing that could happen. There was nothing new in this. The usual baddies the guards, prison officers and of course the brotherhood that wasnt on offer from the other prisoners. Our prisoner is a good guy who made one mistake, of course. Only if there is nothing else on you should watch this.

Just horrible

[pcee-06405 · 1/10 · 4 August 2021]

One of the worst Australian films I have had the miss-fortune of sitting through.

Horrible acting, horrible script, horrible direction. Don't waste your time sitting through this absolute rubbish. To all involved in this dreadful film, hang your heads in shame and look for a new vacation. Because you all suck.

His cap

[crw1 · 1/10 · 5 February 2024]

When a (supposed) SAS soldier wears his beret like that, you know at the very least, and early on, that the director is sloppy. Like when drivers talk to their passengers, facing them for long seconds (film ends abruptly in fatal crash) or when trained radio communicators say 'Over and out', you know you are in for a sloppy ride. Authenticity? Bah, who needs that? 'Neighbours' quality wooden acting, bad predictable script, unconvincing hard men, exaggerated facial expressions lacking the subtlety that makes them so real. Nothing good about this film, not a single quality to redeem it All been done before and heaps better. And why do people defend these awful B, C, D movies? Does the low budget excuse them, make them watchable? They are bad films, why watch them, what can you get from people (not 'actors') saying bad lines badly? I want to be absorbed in the plot, I want to love or hate the characters as the story means me to, not be indifferent to them. I want to care what happens next and groan when the plot doesn't go my way, rejoice when it does. I so didn't care how it would end, I gave up. It hurt to watch. Maybe it had a great ending and the pain would have been worth it. I'll never know. I feel no loss.

Convict

[earpmorgan · 5/10 · 17 February 2017]

This is not a bad movie. It's just an Aussie version of Conair. The actors in this movie are good. I like the old prison site and real ex convicts being used per authenticity. I think the script could have been a little more original. I liked some of the scenes filmed near Sydney.

I can't believe it has such a low rating...

[harrisonedward · 9/10 · 17 November 2021]

Yes, it's clichéd. Yes, it's predictable. Yes, it has touches of Mean machine (the longest yard).

This is a highly watchable, with moments of cringe, prison movie. It doesn't paper over the cracks, it just shows a fictional, what might be possible if you go to prison scenario. If this movie deters even just one kid away from crime, then it's been worthwhile.

Yes, it's quite brutally grim in parts, but the that only adds to its message.

Enjoy.

CASUALTY OF WAR

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 8 September 2018]

"Convict" is the Australian version of a man wrongfully accused gone to prison and harassed, but fights back film. Ray (George Basha -also wrote/directed) is convicted of manslaughter of a rich kid when it was clearly self defense. As always they can never get a good premise to put an innocent person in jail. He is also a war hero and uses his skills to survive, i.e. beat up guys 10 times his size...but he can never handle two of them. The warden is payed to make his life difficult.

This kind of film hasn't been done in at least a month, so it was so refreshing ;) Seriously, it held my interest even though it lacked memorable tough guy sound bites and Pamela Grier. Worth a view if you are into the tough prison guy thing.

F-bomb. Male butt nudity. No sex.