|
Showing in:
Circuit Empire
Date: October 27, 2000
Production Information:
I
have one question that sums up the biggest problem with
this film right away: what do you get when you make a
sequel to a film that was barely worth watching the first
time? Essentially, you get the same kind of film that
Christopher Lambert has been starring in since Highlander
II: The Quickening came to fruition: ill-conceived slop.
The original Fortress was set at a point in the future
where a large corporation known as Men-Tel had basically
taken over society as we know it and turned it into a
prison. John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) was imprisoned
in one of Men-Tel's high-tech prisons, known simply as The
Fortress, where even an unauthorized process of thought
was not allowed. This, of course, was one thing that made
me root for the good guys in the original film, but how
can you think of unauthorized things when you generally
display all the intellectual development of a squashed
gnat? In any case, Fortress 2 picks up a little while
after the original, with John being the most wanted
fugitive in the world of the Men-Tel corporation, and
desperately sought for services by the Resistance. Sadly,
the corporation gets to him first, and John is placed in a
prison with a difference: this one orbits high above the
surface of the planet, which would make escape seemingly
impossible. Of course, the question here is not whether or
not John can escape from the orbital fortress, but how he
does it.
To
tell you any more about this film would spoil the
surprise, so I am just going to say that plot-wise, this
film only ranks slightly above Simon Sez, which I would
have to rate as one of the worst examples of people being
allowed to act when they shouldn't. Admittedly, this
sequel is as entertaining as its predecessor, but that is
not saying a lot, and it certainly isn't saying enough to
justify the forty dollars that Columbia Tristar expects
you to shell out for this disc. The implied threat to
Karen Brennick (Beth Toussiant) and her son Danny (Adrian
Rea), who is now about ten years old as opposed to a
developing embryo as was the case in the original film, is
nowhere near as pernicious this time around. Sadly, this
threat was one thing that made the original Fortress as
entertaining as it was. This is definitely a rental-only
film. |
Business
& 
