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Movies / On DVD / Animal Factory
Animal Factory

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Animal Factory (2000)

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83 %
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Reviews Counted:30

Fresh:25

Rotten:5

Average Rating:6.7/10

Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins

Genre: Television

Synopsis: For his second film as a director, actor Steve Buscemi (TREES LOUNGE) brings ex-convict Edward Bunker's poignant jail drama to the screen. Trapped with a long-term prison sentence in a Pennsylvania... For his second film as a director, actor Steve Buscemi (TREES LOUNGE) brings ex-convict Edward Bunker's poignant jail drama to the screen. Trapped with a long-term prison sentence in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary, 21-year-old Ron Decker (Edward Furlong) feels like a terrified fish-out-of-water. His cellmate, Jan the Actress (an impressively unrecognizable Mickey Rourke), is a cross-dresser who won't stop talking. Enter Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), an aging convict who has been in prison so long that he runs the show. Earl takes Ron under his wing, and a strange and intense relationship develops between them. However, the relationship offers Ron the protection he needs and gives Earl the feeling that he is a father figure. After Ron's appeal is denied, ensuring his place in the penitentiary for five more years, Earl thinks up a dangerous plan of escape that will either set them free or cost them their lives in the process. Buscemi's drama successfully balances the brutality of prison life with the touching, intimate relationship between Ron and Earl, providing ANIMAL FACTORY with a sensitivity that most prison films rarely contain. The movie features an atmospheric score by actor-musician John Lurie. [More]

Starring: Edward Furlong, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke

Starring: Edward Furlong, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke, Steve Buscemi, Tom Arnold, John Heard, Danny Trejo, Mark Boone, Eddie Bunker, Chris Bauer

Director: Steve Buscemi

Director: Steve Buscemi
Screenwriter: Eddie Bunker
Producer: Julie Yorn, Elie Samaha, Steve Buscemi, Andrew Stevens
Composer: John Lurie

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Animal Factory

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
06/24/03
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
07/08/03
Guardian [UK]
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
05/16/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
06/28/03
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Here we see prison as we’ve seen it before, but with a touch of originality.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
02/07/01
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Apollo Guide

Gets much of its power from Willem Dafoe's potent portrayal of Copen.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

"Animal Factory" shows in unflinching scenes of stabbings, race riots, drug use, attempted rape, and constantly boiling chaotic violence, how hardened criminals are formed by incessant molding inside American penitentiaries.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
05/16/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Where Darabont's drama is an overlong 142 minutes, Buscemi's is a just-right 94, and where Shawshank is predictable, Animal Factory surprises.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
01/01/00
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

there are two reasons to fast-forward this offering when it's released on video: (1) Mickey Rourke's over-the-top bejeweled drag queen and (2) Tom Arnold's truly rotten performance as a baddy who has the hots for boy-buns. Roseanne's finally gotten her re

Full Review Source: Detour Magazine | comment Comment
11/17/02
Brandon Judell
Brandon Judell
Detour Magazine

Intriguing.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
01/01/00
E! Online
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
07/07/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

We may have seen this type of Animal before, but Furlong and Dafoe's work -- and Buscemi’s honest, caring touch with these fringe-dwellers -- make it seem fresh.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Today | comment Comment
01/16/03
Brent Simon
Brent Simon
Entertainment Today

Perhaps at 95 minutes, the film is just too short to do justice to all these matters, and maybe one needs to read the Edward Bunker novel to fill in the blanks.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/01/00
Eric Monder
Eric Monder
Film Journal International

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/08/02
Film Threat
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Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The bleakness and myriad cruelties of the prison system are telegraphed with a graceful touch.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Ernest Hardy
Ernest Hardy
Film.com

Steve Buscemi has given us a solid.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeremiah Kipp
Jeremiah Kipp
Filmcritic.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jam! Movies
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1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
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