Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Benas Mcloughlin
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Stephanie
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
bregund
This movie-length after school special with swear words beeped out was probably groundbreaking in 1982, but the expected moment of high courtroom drama and its "message" is delivered with all the ham-fisted finesse that must have seemed impressive to rural folks during a time when television consisted of three stations (four if you count PBS). As if to drive the point home that this is the 1980s, there is a montage set to rock music, ending in fake blood and a hospital stay. Watch the drunk driving scene closely, the driver is obviously a middle-aged stunt driver. In contrast to some of the superlatives thrown in Sheen's direction by other reviewers, I thought his performance in general was forced, such as when he went nuts over the spilled milk or started shouting in the courthouse; it is possible for Sheen to overact, and for low TV production values to be confined to only a few takes instead of the multiple ones that might have guaranteed a better portrayal of a struggling blue-collar worker who has been out of work for six months. So back to the "message", it's clear that incarceration exacerbates the issues that cause a man to be imprisoned in the first place, but it was a few weeks in the slammer, not a multi-year stretch in a federal prison. He could have read books or drew pictures to kill the time, so I'm calling BS on the message as it was portrayed. One last thing, that Ed Lauter was a solid character actor who nicely filled out any film he appeared in.
tigerandcamille
We came across this on Netflix and finally watched it. It's worth a watch for the laughs. Martin Sheen is over the top with his acting, of course. Emilio tried to be a tough guy but this was no Mighty Ducks. In the drunken driving scene (with the hood up), he amazingly drives on the sidewalk and makes it back to the street until he hits a police car at a donut shop. Warden Caruso has a humorous soft spot for Danny. He just wants this kid out of his jail and there is nothing he can do. That is except carry him out of solitary confinement when the guards refuse to call him at home at Danny's request. Danny Boy is losing his mind after weeks in his own cell. If only he hadn't talked to the man hitting on him in his own holding cell through the bars. Now his life has turned into a month long nightmare.
sittler
I could see this movie being shown to high school kids as a warning about the evils of juvenile delinquency. The downward spiral of Estevez's character Danny begins when he is arrested for drunk driving. Rather than going down to the station to release his son, Danny's father (real-life dad Martin Sheen) tells the police to let him spend the night in jail so to teach him a lesson. While Danny is sitting in his cell, a neighbor prisoner attempts to assault him but is thwarted and severely beaten by the teenager. This incident begins a domino effect as Danny's night in jail turns into years of incarceration.
Havan_IronOak
In this film Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez play father and son with bad tempers and a lot of pent-up anger. When the son Danny gets arrested one night for driving drunk and rear-ending a police car, his out-of-work father decides to `teach him a lesson' and decides to let him spend the night in jail. One thing leads to another and soon Danny is spending day after day behind bars having become enmeshed in the system.Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez are both very good in their respective roles and the other characters are well done as well. While the script has a bit of an `after-school-special' feel about it, it is consistently interesting and it does serve to tell a story that needs telling.
