ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Mark Turner Prison movies have been around for some time. THE BIG HOUSE in 1930 is a perfect example of how far back. But most movies glossed over the ins and outs of prison, focusing on those trying to escape of the camaraderie found among cell mates. But that isn't reality. It wasn't until films made in the 70s began talking about the cold hard facts of prison life including rape, drugs and murder.When ANIMAL FACTORY came out in 2000 it received high praise from critics as well as those who saw it. But those numbers were small and the film fell into that void of movies you may have heard of but were completely forgotten. With this new Arrow Video release the chance to see it in the best format possible has arrived.The centerpiece of the story is Ron Decker (Edward Furlong), a young man arrested for dealing pot and who is to be made an example of. Sentenced to hard time in one of the worst prisons possible the odds of his surviving unscathed on his own are slim. Fortunately he's taken under the wing of Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), a long time prisoner who knows how things work and is willing to protect him.Rather than what most would expect here, someone offering protection in exchange for things like sexual favors, Copen becomes a father figure to Decker. He's seen what can happen to a young man here and you get the sense that he wants to atone for past deeds by making sure this man has the opportunity to get out and live his life the way he should.The film focuses on how the prison works more than anything. While overseen by the warden and the guards it is the prisoners who do most of the work here. We're not talking making license plates of doing laundry but things like fill out reports for the guards, typing up parole requests and more. The guards may oversee them and break them up when a fight begins but for the most part the prisoners run the books.With that in mind Copen is able to land Decker various jobs in the prison that offer him a chance at easy labor. He takes him into the crew that he's assembles, one that no one messes with and that can get things accomplished behind the confinement walls. Problems might erupt, violence might occur but Copen and his gang avoid that as much as possible.As Decker's opportunity for parole gets closer Copen instructs him on how to stay clear of problems that might prevent that from happening. When inmate Buck Rowan (Tom Arnold) attempts to rape him, Ron loses sight of the big picture and sets out to kill him. Unsuccessful in his attempt it ruins his chance of parole and earns him 5 more years in prison.Still wishing a better life for the youngster Copen begins looking for a way to escape. His involvement in the Rowan affair could also lead to his being moved to another prison where he would have to start all over again. The time for escape is now and they begin to find a way to make it happen.Actor Steve Buscemi has a small role here on screen but a major one behind the camera as he directed the film. While not the most graphic and hard hitting of prison films life there is depicted well enough to instill fear in anyone who thinks they could do easy time. This is a difficult world to travel in and one not to be taken lightly. It is a violent world where the odds of a guard being there at the right time to prevent something bad happening are slim to none.Dafoe is one of the great actors today. His portrayal of Copen shows that a performance is as much about subtle nuance as it is about speaking the written word. You get the impression by his movements and actions that he has a genuine concern for this young man as opposed to trying to find someone to be his slave.The weakest part of the film is Furlong. I've never been a fan and his record shows that his abilities are not up to par with those around him. He arrived with a splash in TERMINATOR 2 and from there never made anything worthy of mention or recognition. Here he does little to increase my admiration for him allowing the rest of the cast to carry the film.What's more interesting about the film that you learn from the extras is that it is based on the book of the same name written by Edward Bunker, an ex-con and criminal who left behind a life of crime to become a novelist, screenwriter and actor. Most will remember him as Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS. He has a small role here as one of the prisoners.Arrow Video is releasing the film with a great digital transfer and extras enough to keep your interest. Those include an interview with Barry Forshaw discussing Eddie Bunker's varied career, an audio commentary track with novelist/co-writer/actor Bunker and co-producer/actor Danny Trejo (who also stars in the film), a theatrical trailer, reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork by Jacob Phillips and for the first pressing only a collector's booklet containing new writing on the film by Glenn Kenny. Once again Arrow Video shows why they're becoming one of the best companies around for films like these.

tomgillespie2002 Steve Buscemi's first feature as director was Trees Lounge, an engaging drama about the bored, alcohol-drenched inhabitants of a small town, and their day-to-day interactions. For his second, Buscemi explores many of the same themes of aimlessness and having too much time on your hands, but changes the setting and tone entirely. Adapting Eddie Bunker's novel of the same name (the real- life ex-con also shares script writing duties with John Steppling), Animal Factory is about as unglamorous as prison drama gets. With a heightened sense of realism, violence and rape lurk at every turn, often happening so quickly that you barely have the chance to comprehend it. Buscemi and Bunker also find time to explore an engaging father-and-son relationship, albeit one taut with tension and distrust.After receiving an incredibly harsh sentence for drug possession, young Ron Decker (Edward Furlong) is packed off to prison where his youthful looks quickly attracts unwanted attention. Proving himself to be completely ill-equipped to handle the danger he faces, he is taken in by the shaven-headed Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), who teaches him the ropes and how to spot a threat. A man of little physical prowess, Earl has risen to a position of authority by using his background in law to improve the living and working standards of his fellow inmates. Surrounded by his gang of trusted bruisers (including Danny Trejo, Mark Boone Junior, and The Wire's Chris Bauer), Earl promises to protect the vulnerable Ron. Pondering Earl's true intentions, Ron at first keeps the smiling convict at arm's length, until a bond is formed that just may help the young offender to make it out alive.By shaping the drama in the most unsensational way imaginable, Buscemi adds the necessary grit to Bunker's knowing words, with many of Bunker's novels taking inspiration from his own time in the slammer. Performances impress across the board, as you would expect from an ensemble taking direction from such a seasoned pro (who also appears). In particular, there are memorable roles for Mickey Rourke, playing Furlong's motor-mouthed, transvestite cell-mate, and, of all people, Tom Arnold, who is unnervingly convincing as a predatory rapist with his eye on Ron. But the film belongs to its two leads. Dafoe brings extra layers to his somewhat sensitive gang leader, and Furlong, one of many promising young actors who emerged in the 90s to disappear into the ether, is particularly effective as the protagonist. Changing his behaviour to suit his surroundings, we see the prison sculpt him into the type of career criminal the system's suppose to prevent. While the matter-of-fact approach prevents it from generating any real momentum - despite an attempted prison-break climax - Animal Factory is quietly powerful in small moments.

Spikeopath The prison genre of film has a very chequered history, and the number of films are many, very much so, both good and bad. It has gotten to the stage where in this day and age we yearn and need more from our prison based films, something more substantial away from rape and violence, away from father figures, or of redemption and friendship bonds. Unfortunately Animal Factory relies on all the clichés of the genre to tell its tale, which is actually at odds with how good a film it is. Deftly performed by the principal cast members, mounted with a keen eye by director Steve Buscemi, and played with an authentic vibe that lures you in and keeps you hooked, but there is unfortunately nothing remotely new here. However, if you are not over familiar with the prison based arc of cinema? Then this delivers rewards, and such is the quality of production, it doesn't deserve to be marked down. 7/10

writerasfilmcritic I wouldn't bother commenting on this movie were the other remarks not off the mark, in general. "Animal Factory" is not a film for the discriminating movie fan, this despite the fact that it at first seemed to break new ground. The story is simply too implausible. First off, the kid busted for drugs and sent to prison looks and behaves like a prepubescent subteen, not just a boyish young man, and this is not much of an exaggeration. That this girlish kid wouldn't be passed around the cell block and used by half the prison population is a stretch in itself, but for him to be taken under the wing of a hardened con, who has absolutely no ulterior motives, simply makes no sense at all, particularly because the script focuses almost exclusively on drugs, violence, and homosexuality as the entire concern of everyone in the film. Sorry, I just couldn't get past how absurd it is for a kid like that to be thrown in prison with a bunch of sick criminals, and please don't tell me it's a routine occurrence, because I don't believe it anymore than I believe this twirp would have been out there on the street moving $200,000 worth of marijuana without getting shot dead. His dad is a joke, by the way, but that's another issue. What positively sickened me about the DVD was the optional features after the credits rolled. The director, Steve Buscemi, seemed a bit nervous at having to be interviewed, but he's an intelligent man and I would have expected a bit more from him than this movie considering his acting performances elsewhere (such as in "Fargo"). Willem Dafoe made some interesting observations that were better than his likable but rather sugary performance in this flick. Mickey O'Rourke's laid back transvestite character was just one more of the film's oddities, representing a prison population where, rather strangely, the cons were allowed to look and act almost any way they pleased. But his appearance and remarks in the interview after the movie were gross. He was sitting there in his long fingernails, minus his front teeth, sort of waving his hand around effeminately while talking about transvestites and behaving as if he weren't really sure if he were still in the movie and supposed to be in character or not. When is Hollywood going to get past this fad of featuring gays and other deviant characters in practically every flick they put out these days? Is it ever tiresome. You really can go about your life without running into and interacting with such people every ten minutes, but Hollywood wants to populate the world with them coming out from under every rock. Ever since his performance in "8 1/2 Weeks," where he sexually brutalized and humiliated Kim Basinger, I've thought O'Rourke was a tasteless sleaze. Yeah, he can act, but there's more to life than that. The guy is just plain weird and he gets away with it again and again because nobody dares say so, I guess because they are afraid of him.Tom Arnold played a real scuz in this movie. Surprisingly, he was one of the more effective characters, the only one who treated the kid the way he really would be treated were he thrown in the slam for real. Once again, however, it was implausible that he was so easily dispatched. He was kicking Dafoe's butt when the kid came up from behind and nailed him with a shiv. By the way, this theme of the prison pussy finally standing up like a man and sticking a shiv in somebody has been overdone. For that matter, so has the prison flick. In a nation of 300,000,000 people, one would think that a few million of us aren't such unimaginative conformists that we could think up something new, but to do that, we might shake the status quo to its very timbers. Best we stick to the standard five themes -- romance, crime, sports, adventure, and mindless yoks.