Lock Up 1989

Reviews (14)

1. R

   Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine 8 月 23, 2026

   Fight! – Stallone v. Schwarzenegger: A Rivalry of Muscular Proportions This film feels like a collection of films Sly had already starred in and would be starring in. Definitely, if you close your eyes enough, you can see this as a prequel to Escape Plan. But seriously, this was pretty good. It’s not the greatest but it’s a good time and Stallone gets to chop some of his dramatic bones, all while delivering some amusing moments. The script and overall story are pretty simple, yet Flynn and co. make the most of it with some good characters and dynamics between them all. There’s some thrills, some comedy and some glimpses of his F.I.S.T. days, mostly for the way he becomes…

   143
2. H

   Helen_S 8 月 23, 2026

   It’s been way too long since I watched this big epic ball of cheese!! One of the funnest Stallone performances and prison films. Donald Sutherland was such a psychopath. Sway to the closing credits 😛

   56
3. 1

   19oldboy91 8 月 23, 2026

   Frei nach Schema-F werden wir Zeuge wie Sly von dem großartigen Donald Sutherland als Gefängnisdirektor, ebenso von seinen Mitgefangenen und kurzzeitig durch sich selbst drangsaliert wird, Freundschaften eingeht, sie wieder verliert, die Liebe und die Hoffnung in einem Auto wiederentdeckt, einmal gehabt, umgehend aus den Händen gerissen sieht, scheiternden Fluchtversuchen, vorab gestoppte Racheakten der eigenen Güte und Klugheit, und eine obendraufgesetze Haube Schmalz als Topic der jeden Zweifel eines Happy Ends im Keim erstickt.

   55 40
4. J

   Jules D. 8 月 23, 2026

   This movie is total cheese… but it’s tasty cheese. It’s not the best cheese… but it’s not bullshit Kraft Singles either.

   116 1
5. J

   Josh Lewis 8 月 23, 2026

   Solid mix of bleak prison drama, hangout movie and escape thriller with Stallone as an upstanding convict punished for whistleblowing on the brutal conditions under the cartoonishly evil prison warden played by Donald Sutherland who tries to make the final months of his sentence as torturous as possible. Doesn’t quite reach the highs of Don Siegel and it’s last-minute resolutions feel a bit too easy for all that ugly build-up but I can see why the romantic tough-guy martyr complex at the center of the script appealed to Stallone (he plays the wronged man who gets to befriend the local inmates and is willing to suffer to make their lives a little bit better well) and Flynn gives it some dirty texture and blunt violence leftover from his 70s action movie days. Also cool to see that Tom Sizemore was turning in strong and memorable supporting character performances from day 1.

   96 1
6. F

   Filipe Furtado 8 月 23, 2026

   John Flynn directs this Stallone prison film for maximum grim effect. For an expensive star vehicle, it is pretty sleazy, with no inmmate romanticism, very little bonding but lots of violent detail. The cast is packed with character actors who seem like they been there forever including a very good early role for Tom Sizemore plus Donald Sutherland as the mean sadistic warden up to get Stallone in a personal vendetta, a wonderful piece of evil scene chewing (he got a razzie nom for his efforts, a reminder that the razzies are the worst). And Flynn has a terrific control of his scenario with multiple tense violent stand offs even when the writing faulters. The film is only limited some…

   47
7. G

   gregs1999 8 月 23, 2026

   It was an alright feel good prison film, but the best part is Donald Sutherland as the warden. Dragged a little too much here and there.

   56
8. C

   C.K ❄ 8 月 23, 2026

   A good drama with little action. Stallone is very calm most of the time and he uses his brain more than his body here.

   118
9. K

   Kevin Majestyck 8 月 23, 2026

   I get the beatings, but ruining that Mustang is some cruel and unusual punishment. LOCK UP is Stallone mostly going for dramatic weight, whilst still giving his audience a climax where he throws some fists and bests a villain (Donald Sutherland, as wicked warden Drumgoole). And it mostly works for me, since I’ve come back to it more than once since first seeing it. Sly’s character Frank falls into the sort of rut that often happens when star ego demands only positive traits in their character. Kind, righteous, jailed for a crime that audiences will sympathize with; there really is no inner journey. His need is to expose the warden as the real criminal. This ends up making the flawed…

   52 3
10. H

    Hexagore 8 月 23, 2026

    Watched the UHD 4K Blu-ray from Studio Canal UK. Frank Leone: “Rape this!” Directed by John Flynn who’s responsible for the excellent “Rolling Thunder (1977)”. A first time watch as it always went under my radar with Sylvester Stallone trying to portray an everyday man named Frank in prison, except he isn’t. He made a mistake and is doing time for it. He did a prison escape once, making prison warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland) look bad which got him demoted, and Stallone is serving the last six months of his sentence in a minimum security facility for good behaviour. Meanwhile, the misgruntled Drumgoole is transferred to a hellhole maximum security prison, and because of inexplicable bureaucratic loopholes he manages to…

    51 6
11. S

    Shady 8 月 23, 2026

    Now this is what you call underrated. By 1989, people were tired of seeing Stallone act in the same kind of films so Lock Up just fell under everyone’s radar and continues to, to this date. A shame really. The only thing that’s stopping Lock Up from being even more good that it’s a movie from 1989. If it’d came out in 1979, we could’ve had a different movie. An even better movie. At the end of the day, Lock Up is very much a 80s flick and that is a good and a bad thing in this case. Years after the release Stallone said – “Not a film that was produced and performed with enough maturity to really make…

    58
12. J

    Josh Gillam 8 月 23, 2026

    Lock-Up was one of Sylvester Stallone’s last star vehicle of the 80s, and (even with some familiar elements) leans into a more dramatic/lower key feel compared to what he was making around this point, a story that sets his veteran prisoner in conflict against Donald Sutherland’s vengeful governor. Stallone’s comparatively more restrained performance feels like it’s going for something closer to roles earlier in his career, allowing a vulnerability in that wasn’t always the case in his films of this era. He’s genuinely good here, really selling this ordinary man pushed to his limit in a system that tries everything to break him down. It’s really engaging to follow his character in this setting, a more personal side that mixes…

    89 2
13. C

    CinemaSerf 11 月 10, 2022

    “Frank” (Sylvester Stallone) has only six months left on his prison sentence when he is put into the care of warden “Dromgoole” (Donald Sutherland) – a man who loathes him. Over the course of the film we learn just why as he ensures that that “Frank” is victimised, attacked, goaded and constantly provoked. Can this determined prisoner find the mettle to resist the temptation to fight back against his persecutor, and can he manage to find a way to illustrate just how devious and brutal this man is to the authorities? This is a well paced and fairly action-packed prison drama with Sutherland in quite good, menacing, form. It also benefits from a reasonable supporting cast with Sonny Landham (“Chink”), Tom Sizemore (“Dallas”) and the young Larry Romano (“First Base”) all delivering strongly as the warden decides to attack those close to “Frank” to push him ever closer to the edge. There’s not really much jeopardy though, the narrative is pretty procedural and Stallone does enough, but no more, with the rather mundane dialogue that doesn’t really add much to the simple visuals that are effective at times, but again – we have seen it all before. Stallone put so much of himself into his “Rocky” persona, unfortunately he has little left to inject into this and I found it all just a bit dull.

14. G

    Gimly 9 月 7, 2018

    My roommate and I were on a Stallone kick recently, but we never got around to watching _Lock Up_ because we were looking for some hard (see: over-the-top) action, and this sounded more like a wistful drama. Eventually though, _Lock Up_ came due, and I… actually kind of loved it? It’s about as cheesy I had feared, but I what never occurred to me is that that cheese would totally work. I mean, it’s not exactly Shawshank we’re working with here, but if I were putting together a list of all the good prison movies ever made, _Lock Up_ would be on it.

    _Final rating:★★★ – I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go._