Fortress [DVD]

A good, underrated movie.

THE STORY: In the near future, couples are only allowed to have one child; the Government considers anything more than one child as high treason. (Sounds far-fetched you say? Ask the Chinese.) Christopher (Highlander, Mortal Kombat, Greystoke) Lambert is great as ex-soldier John Brennick. His wife lost their first baby to miscarriage but she is pregnant again, so now they're both trying to sneak thru security check points to get to a safe place where she can have their baby. Unfortunately they're caught at the boarder and sentenced as traitors to the State, forced to serve their time in a new super-max prison deep underground - The Fortress. Brennick intends to escape in order to be with his wife, but during his incarceration he learns that she is also in The Fortress, in the women's section. Still with child, she has been serving as the 'companion' to the creepy commandant of the facility, played with icy eeriness by Kurtwood Smith. Now John must find a way to break both himself AND his wife out of the ultra-secure hell-hole! Will they make it???THOUGHTS: This film is really a little bit of everything. This movie is scary, violent, intense and surprisingly warm and funny by turns. The entire cast is very good in their roles. The action is great and the prison scenes are scary & ugly. The future looks bleak & frightening in this film and uncomfortably close to reality in some ways, making it even even scarier. The "Intestinators" which every prisoner is forced to ingest upon entering The Fortress is both an ingenious concept and a thoroughly terrifying one. Vernon Wells is great as a psycho inmate intent on killing John... just because. The awesome Jeffrey Combs is wonderful as a nerdy prisoner who befriends Brennick. Lincoln Kilpatrick gets a great part as a sly but clever inmate who aids John & his wife in their escape. And let's not forget those tri-barrel gun-totin' roboguards. Whew! FORTRESS is a balls-to-the-wall action fest that also gives you something to think about along the way. Typical of visionary director Stuart Gordon, whom I've been a big fan of, (and this film in particular), for a long time. A lot of his work is kind of obscure and cult-ish; usually good, occasionally startling, always interesting and definitely worth seeking out. RE-ANIMATOR and its sequel, FROM BEYOND, are considered genre-bending horror classics and for good reason. I also thoroughly enjoyed ROBOT JOX and his offbeat film SPACE TRUCKERS. Too bad Gordon didn't doesn't have a larger body of work because he is a unique talent. Check out these other films I listed if you enjoy this one.THE BLU-RAY: Sadly, until now, FORTRESS has only been available on disc as a crappy, washed out, cropped pan & scan DVD.Well thank heavens for the good folks at Echo Bridge!! This films looks terrific now; fully re-mastered in high-def 1080p and finally available in its proper widescreen format! Yes! The picture is crisp, clean & clear. The audio portion is solid and thunders on a good sound system. The only bummer is that there are no extras. It would've been nice to have a running commentary with Stu Gordon and/or Chris Lambert, a making of/interview featurette, some production stills, sketches... something. Anything. Not even a theatrical trailer. Oh well. After suffering with the lame versions prior to this one, I'm honestly just happy to have this film finally get some respect with this good-looking Blu-ray. 5 solid STARS for the action-packed escape thriller FORTRESS.

for the first time ever FORTRESS is finally available in 1:85:1 Widescreen ratiowith a brand new High Definition transfer of the picture quality and new 5.1 surround soundthis new blu-ray released by Miramax is very nice sharp & clear picture qualityso obviously much better quality than the old dvd versionthere's no extras, not even the Theatrical trailer ojn this new blu-ray reissuebut there's a catch this new blu-ray is the edited version where some of the violent scenes have been cut, 1-2mins worthand the ending has been heavily cutthe movie was entirely filmed in QLD Australiaso apparantly the region 4 AUS dvd has the Unrated cut version with all the violent footage intactand the ending fully Unedited but only in 1:33:1 Fullscreen ratio which has been formatted to fit Widescreen TV'Sthe picture quality would only be Digital remaster in 1:33:1 ratio with 2.0 stereo mixthe only thing Great about the new blu-ray is the new HD 1:85:1 ratio apart from that the film is the edited versionso if you want the Unrated cut and can tolerate the Picture quality then buy the region 4 AUS dvdyou need a all regions player for the region 4 dvdso 3 stars for this new blu-ray based on only new HD 1:85:1 ratio but no extras

ASIN #B00005O5B6. Yup wide-screen, despite description on site, and even the box reads "standard/ 1:33."What a pleasant surprise!Futuristic (well, 2017) sci-fi/ prison movie hybrid from Stuart Gordon(The re-animator.)Stars Christopher Lambert (Highlander), Kurtwood Smith (Robo Cop), Jeffrey Combs(Dr. Herbert West from The Re-Animator), Tom Towles(Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Lori Lacklin(Taking Care of Business - she's the one in the thing.)Fun B movie, good sets and production values despite low budget; it looks as good as a lot of todays blockbusters, actually.Actors play it "straight." No ironic, self-aware camp, but still some intended laughs in the right places.Would love to see a proper bluray!

i was browsing through the Blu-ray's under $10 section and came across this movie which i'd completely forgotten about until now...the Blu-ray release of this film was put together by a company called: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, which i've never heard of so wasn't expecting much in the way of video quality. i guess i stand corrected however. let me just say that this is a much better HD transfer than Lionsgate did with the original "Total Recall." a lil a grainy side?, yes. but overall definitely not the worst i've ever seen. in fact i've fallen in love with the movie all over again :)Blu-ray specs arevideo: 1920x1080p 1.85:1 WidescreenAudio: the back of the box just says English 2.0 Stereo, but it's actually English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (Surround).subtitles are not availablethere are also no special features, but overall still definitely worth buying. hope this review helps anyone reading it

In the future it's forbidden to give birth to more than one child for each woman.You can escape to Mexico to avoid the authorities in USA, which is exactly what John and Karen Brennick were trying to do when Karen is pregnant with her second child.When they think they have made it they are discovered and sent to the Fortress, where the prisoners are controlled by lasers, neutron-cannons, cameras, mind-scanners and electronic pain-causing devices in their stomachs.With those odds, John plans to escape with his wife....Here in England, this was released a the worst time possible, literally four weeks after 'No Escape' so by then people would have had their fill of inescapable prison movies.Luckily though, this film never takes itself seriously, and it can be at times,a lot of campy nonsense.Lambert is good as the lead, but a lot of the time, his threats are a little laughable. The story and the set up are smart, but the actual narrative lets it down a little.The final third is what you would expect, with Lambert with his Raiden hair, spilling blue blood everywhere.Fun while it lasts, and then once the sentence is over, you won't remember a single thing from it.

I don't know why, but I had a desire to watch 'Fortress 2' as I'd never seen it, but being a completist, I felt that I should Re-watch 'Fortess' beforehand, hence this purchase.It turns out its as I remembered. Pretty ridiculous but fun. It looks like they had a fairly decent budget. A really good, quirky cast. Well worth revisiting on a COVID afternoon.

Love Fortress. Its one of my favourite movies.The story is great, the characters are great. Never get tired of watching Fortress. The movie has definetly has become a must buy. The blu ray version picture wise I think is good but not WOW difference. Still good though. It’s the german release and you get English language option. Great movie. Just get it.

Fortress is a futuristic, big brother gone mad type of movie. Standard stuff with a innocent (guilty in big bro go mad future) man sent down and battling his way through inmates, wardens and cyborg killing machines, (luckily he's the most decorated captain in the history of the black berets!!!) in order to be reunited with his wife. Typical acting from Lambert, and 90's bad guys Smith and Wells are welcome inclusions to the production. There are some interesting ideas in this film, one of which being a behavior control device called an intestinator, which causes pain if turned on by the Fortress warden, although I'm not sure, even in a crazy big bro future anyone would get away with intestinating pregnant women!! Impenetrable Fortress, exploding 'gut' bombs, cyborgs and big arse guns...... Whats not to like? I managed to pick it up for pennies. Sci-fi/Fantasy collections need this!!

I was really, really impressed with this! Brilliant movie to watch, I loved the story, it was easy to follow and wasn't rushed, the story developed gradually and at the pace it should have. The acting was great, everyone played their part well, I really loved Jeffrey's performance of the timid, eccentric D-Day (which is why I bought this in the first place). I'm glad that I was able to enjoy EVERYTHING about the movie, not just my favourite actor.