User Reviews

Formula for Riot is simple; put haphazard fight scene in prison, followed by random investigation of corrupt cop, crime syndicate or elaborate conspiracy, then do it all over again for one and half hour. I dislike speaking ill of actors when they are trying to broaden the characters, but the acting involved here is weak. Furthermore, the action sequences can be too timid or exaggerated, sometimes in the span of same few minutes, in exception of a couple of decent performances.

If there is a convoluted way to present B-movie, this is it. There are so many interweaving subplots, from the cliché dead wife vengeance angle, the pursuit of dirty cops, sudden undercover agents. At one time there's even the daughter of the villain who strolls from out of nowhere, gives a speech while another subplot happens simultaneously, then leaves. The script looks like every plot from similar movies scrambled together in one joint.

Dolph Lundgren plays as a socially awkward inmate who might have shady secrets, however his attempt to portray a more simple man is very bland. It like seeing a giant pretending he's shy even though he towers above practically everyone. Meanwhile, Chuck Liddell delivers one of the most unconvincing villains in recent years. He seems emotionally detached and the odd accent doesn't help much either.

Action scene, where all the hope lies, is unstable. Some extras either look confused or overly zealous. At one point some civilians would act ridiculous hammy then running to the wrong way, the next moment there's a guard who is hit by a punch and does somersault to sell the move. Fight scene can look good, but it's mostly the actors doing slow choreography and the usual punching the air motion.

The good points here are the main lead Matthew Reese, who looks like a proper action star. He presents the better action scenes which is a level above the rest. The other most notable performance is surprisingly Danielle Chuchran as supporting female. Her role is simple, but she does more heavy lifting than most actors here, doing decent fight scenes as well as average Mission Impossible espionage stuff.

The movie is a spectacle as noisy and messy as the title suggests. Aside from one or two good instances, this jumbled mess of narrative and choreography is not an appealing case for a visit.

Jack Stone (Reese) - not to be confused with Hack Stone - was a Cop On The Edge, but now he's a cop in prison. He put himself there so he could get revenge. Super-evil baddie Balam (Liddell) runs the prison with an iron fist from his own plush, private area.



Many inmates are his underlings that do his bidding, so when Jack Stone first arrives on the inside, he's going to have to fight his way all the way to the top - to Balam, the Russian Gangster who ruined his life by committing some vile acts. However, it's not all hopeless; Jack Stone finds some friends along the way, most notably William (Dolph), the kindly janitor. But what is William's secret? Also Alena Childs (Ryan) is on the case along with the good guys. Our three heroes have to fight not just Balam and his goons, but they also have to fight city hall. Corrupt politicians and wardens are on both the take and the make. Naturally it all ends in a classic prison RIOT...

Riot - not to be confused with the classic Gary Daniels Riot - is a decent enough example of a latter-day DTV prison action outing. It's very clearly influenced by Death Warrant (1990) and Bloodfist 3 (1992), among other examples you could possibly name. As for our main hero, Matthew Reese, he's in the grand tradition of Joe Flanagan and Dean Ambrose.

One of the better aspects of Riot is, unsurprisingly, Dolph Lundgren. Perhaps sensing that Matthew Reese couldn't carry the entire film on his shoulders, producers brought in the almighty Dolph. (To be fair, we don't know for a fact that that's what happened, but it's as likely a scenario as any). Dolph puts in a genuinely excellent performance, and even gets to stretch a little as an actor. Casual fans might not believe it, but casual fans won't be watching Riot anyway.





There are plenty of prison fights, including a handful on the female side of the prison (we assume the male and female prisons are on opposite sides of the same building?) - and we believe Danielle C. Ryan can have a bright future in DTV action if she wants one.

While the stunts and brawls are more than competently executed, in the editing they did that annoying thing where they take out frames of film during the fight, presumably to increase the speed and the impact level. Consequently, it has a bit of a herky-jerky look that they're not even trying to hide. Modern-day DTV filmmakers seem to think that it's just a matter of course to do things this way these days, and we're all supposed to accept it. Well, we don't like that very much. We say let the fights speak for themselves, with no trickery.

In classic fashion, people are after the information that's on "the discs", but because we're now in 2015, they also want what's on "the thumb drives". Similarly, Riot adheres to what we've seen before in the realm of the prison movie. The problem with that is there is only so much you can do in that setting, and it starts to get a bit repetitive after a while. But, naturally, it all comes to a head in the time-honored prison riot, which is done quite well.

In the end, Riot delivers exactly what you would expect - and what you would want - in a beat-em-up prison movie. It doesn't undercut your expectations, nor does it exceed them

Lots of action, so a good movie to watch. Come on! Chuck Liddell losing a fist fight. That just doesn't happen. I know it's just a movie, but Chuck would never lose in hand to hand combat!

What a pity Steven Segal got old.I can just see him lumbering along the cell passageways knocking aside friend and foe alike,beetled of brow and trying to remember which side to put to the camera. As it is we have a gentleman named Matthew Reese who may have more speed and energy than Steve but lacks his baleful charm and self - awareness. He plays a cop involved in a bank raid(the best part of the film) in order to get arrested and take revenge on a mobster who had killed his wife. "Riot" has a bigger body - count than "Where eagles dare",most of the prison population of the U.S. fight each other unconvincingly.there are plot lines that wither an die every few minutes and some girl on girl action that may please those who like that sort of thing. Dolph Lundgren is the only person I have ever heard of that is in it and it was premiered in Nigeria. It really is that good.