Stephen Dorff doesn’t get along with vicious cellmate Val Kilmer in chilling prison drama – 4 stars ****
By W. H. Bourne
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 7/17/08 – Val Kilmer didn’t get his wish to be one of the bad guys in ‘The Dark Knight’, but shows how menacing he can be starring in ‘Felon’. It’s not without irony that Stage 6 Films low budget ‘Felon’ releases the same day as Warner Bros. big budget ‘The Dark Knight’. Kilmer was Batman in ‘Batman Forever’ in 1995.
Val Kilmer shines as enigmatic killer John Smith. “When Val came in and I first got to see John Smith’s character, I didn’t even recognize him,” says star Stephen Dorff. “When I saw the finished film, I was blown away by his performance. I knew what we were doing in this 3-foot by 5-foot foot cell was strong, and I felt connected to him in those scenes. But, seeing the film, I thought he was just spectacular.”
Stephen Dorff is phenomenal as an ordinary Joe whose life is shattered after killing a burglar. Dorff’s brilliant performance takes us through a hellish physical and emotional journey during his prison transformation. ‘Felon’ is based on actual events and atrocities of California’s Corcoran State Prison.
“The details are real,” says Dorff. “Corcoran state prison was shut down by the FBI around seven years ago. Mike Wallace went in with a film crew. They were shooting inmates, staging gladiator type fights with the inmates and betting on the outcomes.”
“How to stay alive in this nightmare that he keeps waking up to everyday,” says Dorff. “It was a tour de force character on the page,” says Dorff. “It’s a down and dirty realistic film about this guy and this world he enters into.”
“It was a fantastic script, simply the best script I’d read in the past five years,” says Dorff. “From the minute I read it I wanted to do it. I think that the prison films that have been good are more period films like ‘Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘Escape from Alcatraz’. There hasn’t been any contemporary films that reflect what people see on TV like ‘Lockdown’.”
“All the cast out in the yard are real parolees, real guys who have served time, real guys who looked the part,” says Dorff. “The tats are real. There’s no Hollywood character actors trying to portray gangsters.” Writer-director Ric Roman Waugh spent two years visiting prison facilities researching ‘Felon’. The film was shot in New Mexico State Penitentiary, the scene of the deadliest prison riot in U.S. history.
Harold Perrineau, from the HBO prison drama ‘OZ’, gives a fantastic performance as a vicious and vengeful corrections officer. “I worked with Harold on ‘Blood and Wine,’” says Dorff. “He was able to find his character and play this corrections officer who loses control. There is this darkness that he has that’s just incredible.”
‘Felon’ is a riveting film that takes the viewer to an unimaginable, harrowing world. Dorff’s brilliant performance takes us through a hellish physical and emotional journey during his prison transformation. “Some of it felt so real, it felt like a documentary,” says Dorff. For all its realistic low budget grit, ‘Felon’ is sparkling diamond that, hopefully, will be remembered during award season.
‘Felon’ is an intense, riveting sentence for moviegoers.
Sony Pictures announced the launch of Stage 6 Films last year, a label to acquire and produce films in the $1 million to $10 million budget range for theatrical and direct-to-DVD release.
‘Felon’
Running Time: 1 hr. 44 min.
Release Date: July 18, 2008 (Limited: Los Angeles and New York)
Rated R for brutal violence, pervasive language, and brief nudity
Distributor: Stage 6 Films
‘Felon’ on DVD $24.96
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 12, 2008
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