Fortress 2 (2000)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Dreadfully Boring

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Fortress 2 starts as escaped convict & terrorist John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) is recaptured by the Men-Tel corporation & sent right back to prison. Brennick is at first confident that he can escape again but isn't so sure when he realises he is incarcerated in a prison floating in outer space. To add to his problems are a bunch of nasty Russian gangsters, Sato (Yuji Okumoto) one of the sadistic prison guard's & the prison Govenor Petet Teller (Patrick Malahide) who lost his original high powered job when Brennick escaped from the Fortress seven years earlier & he wants revenge. However Brennick is determined to overcome these obstacles, escape & once again see his wife & son...Also known under the title Fortress 2: Re-Entry this Americam Luxembourg co-production was directed by Geoff Murphy & was the sequel to the surprise sci-fi action thriller success Fortress (1993) with Christopher Lambert which did quite well on video & was a pretty good film too, unfortunately Fortress 2 isn't a good film & I have no hesitation in describing it as total crap. The whole gimmick of Fortress2 being set in outer space doesn't add up to much & the scientific physics don't really convince, for instance space shuttles dock within what seems like seconds & a totally ridiculous scene in which Lambert is blasted into outer space without a spacesuit or anything & manages to 'swim' his way across to another door & survive by simply holding his breath! There'a also an unintentionally hilarious part when they fix a security camera to a Cockroach & the Govenor steps on it & Lambert goes up to the inmate who was keeping the Cockroach as a pet, puts his arm around his shoulder & ruefully says in all seriousness 'it was for a good cause'. The pace is alright & the film moves along but the story is pretty much the same as the original with Lambert trying to escape from a seemingly inescapable prison that has a slightly demented Govenor, a female computer & some sadistic prison guard's. Been there, seen it all before & brought the T-shirt.The special effects are a mixed bag, some of the CGI computer effects are alright while others are awful. The sets look cheap & the film has an ugly look about it. The action scenes are very flat & unimpressive, they have no pace or excitement & apart from one or two half decent punch ups Fortress just doesn't deliver on the action from & since the sci-fi aspect looks so cheap & have no regard to accuracy that the whole film just doesn't work or satisfy.With a supposed budget of about $12,000,000 I can't really see where the money went if that figure is true, filmed in Luxembourg the production values look cheap. The acting isn't anything to write home about, Lambert looks like he is just going through the motions, Patrick Malahide is awful as the main villain while veteran actress Pam Grier looks embarrassed to be here which is understandable.Fortress 2 is a terrible sequel to a pretty decent sci-fi action thriller that didn't deserve a sequel as bad as this but got one anyway, what can I say this poor both conceptually & technically.

I have vague memories of Christopher Lambert acting good.... I know he could do it..... With every new film from him, this memory becomes more and more diffuse.... I remember I saw Highlander and I was so impressed, then I saw Knight moves and I thought, this guy is great so I rented 3 more film of him, Druids, Adrenaline and Fortress 2.... I remember that evening as one of the most terrific experiences of my life, at the beginning I thought, OK, this film is so bad, but OK one actor can make also sometimes a bad film, so I saw the second one, then my fears began to grow, it was the worst movie ever !!! I couldn't recognize Christopher Lambert, acting was so bad and script so terrible that I almost started to cry, and then....... I put FORTRESS 2 !!!!!! I am still recovering of seeing this film, I know i will have some irreversible sequels on my brain, I lost all my respect of C.Lambert for the rest of my life, also I couldn't try to rent another movie, i was so terrified I could get another crap like Fortress 2.Really it was one of the worst movies ever, no screenplay, no acting, crap special effects, crap editing, it was so awful that i will keep paying my psychiatrist for many years until i will be prepared again to see another movie of him.

Fortress 2: Re-Entry is actually a good sequel, it's nice to see Chirstopher Lambert playing as John Brennick again. The violence from the first film isn't in this one as much but it's still there in parts.The idea of having a Fortress in space than underground was clever and adds something new. The prison director isn't as sinister as Poe in the first film but he is good.The special effects were OK and the prison looked good. Another interesting thing was instead of having a device that causes pain in the body we have a camera that allows the prison director to monitor them and stop them from escaping. But for John and a few other prisoners they can out smart this device and use a way to escape. Fortress 2 is a good sequel and sci-fi movie.

I think this one just had a better look & feel to it. I liked the atmosphere more than the first. I also would maybe watch this one again but I don't know about the first. It was too depressing. This one was fun. This director did what we wanted & didn't kill off all of the main characters. If Dday didn't die on the first I would have liked it more. It had too much of a mad max look to it which is a look I don't like. It's like a futuristic look but yet it's still dull looking. The second was just more fun to me. I just hate when directors will kill off my favorite characters one by one making it more & more depressing. I also really liked the whole space idea because I'm thinking to myself "how... is he going to get out".