Vince Vaughn is probably the most derided actor working in Hollywood. After making such a great impression in Swingers in 1996 he has mostly sleepwalked through some middling to poor comedies. In recent years though, he has shown signs of having a career revival. Starting with series two of True Detective, he has followed that up with the promising looking Term Life and was one of the better things about Hacksaw Ridge. Now he has teamed up with Bone Tomahawk director S. Craig Zahler for Brawl in Cell Block 99.
Bradley Thomas (Vaughn) resorts to drug dealing after losing his job and finding out his wife (Jennifer Carpenter) is pregnant. Caught, and imprisoned for seven years, he receives a message telling him that his wife and unborn child will be killed unless he murders a fellow inmate.
Despite some good performances from Don Johnson as the sadistic warden and a scenes stealing one by Fred Melamed as a pedantic guard, it is Vaughn who dominates this film. He has a towering physical presence but for much of the film he comes across as a quiet and reasoned man. Until we get to the titular brawl at the end of the movie that is!
Zahler, who also wrote the screenplay, has delivered a slow burn of a movie, interspersed with moments of extreme violence. It’s muscular style, and no-nonsense characterisations, are more reminiscent of a 70s film and I could easily imagine Clint Eastwood of that vintage starring in.
There has been a very limited cinema release of this movie, but if you can’t find it on a big screen near you, it is also available on-demand.
Rating: 9 out of 10