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Dec 30, 2014Nursebob rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
When Juan, a prison guard trainee, is trapped in the middle of a full-scale riot orchestrated by the penitentiary’s worst convicts he manages to avoid becoming another hostage by posing as a fellow inmate and ingratiating himself with the mastermind behind the uprising, the decidedly unbalanced lifer Malamadre. With his pregnant wife pounding at the prison gates, a government unwilling to negotiate in good faith and a couple of surly Columbians questioning his veracity Juan must rely upon his own resourcefulness if he is to survive. To his credit director Daniel Monzón manages to throw a few curve balls our way, shedding some light on the crooked politics behind hostage negotiations while avoiding a pat Hollywood ending (his ending is absurd enough as it is). He also manages to elicit some star performances from his main leads although the gravelly voiced uni-browed Malamadre would look more at home in a prison manga. But, as I feared, it ends up being little more than a testosterone-soaked orgy of macho posturing and male bonding as the maltreated noble savages square off against the unsympathetic powers-that-be. Can an American remake be far behind?