Fellon

"We're all in prison."

3.5 Stars

Well, first of all... prison is no place TO BE!!

My mom had this movie and it didn't look too bad.  She knows I like prison movies so I was in.

Interesting premiss.  Porter (Stephen Dorff) is a hard working new father, and starting his own construction business. A burglar enters the house and after making sure his family is in one spot he grabs his baseball bat and searches the house.  The robber bolts and as he's running out Porter throws a fatal and the bad guy is dead on his lawn.

Now here's the most discussed part of this movie for us.  Because he was killed outside of the house, Porter is now placed under arrest and charged with murder.  Apparently this is knowledge my Grandfather knew already.  

"Drag 'em into the house." he said, according to my mom.  Leave it to Grandpa to know the loop holes.

Porter's prison experience quickly turns for the worst and he is soon placed in a max security prison, "The Shoe".  It all happens so fast and you can't help but feel so bad for this guy who was only protecting his family.  

The prison has a sort of "fight club" that the guards bet on and enjoy watching.  Porter learns to hold his own, and survive.  

Val Kilmer, who can easily be mistaken for Jeff Bridges in this, is his cellmate.  He's got his own story, and I appreciate that their relationship wasn't so predictable.

The women in this movie were very miscast. I'm confident that's what cheapened this movie.

There was a poor man's Mary Steenburgen as his mother-in-law, and the wife was very unsympathetic.

But there were about... two "oh shit!" moments and that's a good thing.

Lessons learned?  

• Don't go to jail.
• Drag 'em into the house!
• And pay up, and get Mary Steenburgen.