Wildly uneven, rife with a virtual checklist of human tragedies that build to easy emotional crescendos but fail to engage the audience well enough to evoke any meaning.
Comment
12/15/03
Civil Brand (2003)
11 %
Reviews Counted: 18 Fresh: 2 Rotten:16 Average Rating: 3.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Synopsis: “Welcome to the plantation, sister Frances.” With those words, Frances Shepherd, a beautiful young mother and nurse, is greeted upon her arrival at Whitehead Correctional Institute, a maximum-security prison for women. Surrounded by hardened repeat offenders, this meek... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Lisa Raye, N'Bushe Wright, Monica Calhoun, Mos Def, Clifton Powell
Director: Neema Barnette
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
It's impossible to ignore the strain of misogyny that taints the movie.
10/16/03
It's guilty of gross B-movie meltdown, but mitigating circumstances include honest anger and a scattering of vivid scenes.
10/13/03
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10/11/03
There's way too much of the usual bonding, beatings, petty humiliation by guards, cat fights in the yard and trips to the hole.
10/10/03
Barnette, a veteran TV director, means this as an exposé of prison abuse and exploitation, but the film is too simplistic and derivative to succeed.
10/10/03
It presents a heated-up, awkward blend of earnest outrage and down-and-dirty exploitation.
10/09/03
Top Critic
Plagued by continuity problems, ham-fisted storytelling and a problematic voiceover by Da Brat, Civil Brand feels less like a prison movie than a prison sentence.
10/09/03
Without a scorcher like Pam Grier, the sub-NYPD Blue dialogue and acting dilute what could have been a shrieking wake-up call about for-profit prisons.
10/08/03
If Civil Brand hopes to raise awareness or instigate reform, what it really needs is a greater focus on character over convention.
09/09/03
Hollywood still doesn?t seem to understand that just because someone can sing doesn't mean they can act. If this film doesn't prove that point, nothing will.
08/30/03
Although the film loses its way in the late going with a preponderance of melodramatic elements that dilute the more compelling social message, for much of its running time it packs a visceral punch.
08/30/03
Top Critic
Women behind bars! While that's the perfect set-up for a late-night, soft-core cable movie, this flick is guilty of being nothing more than a jailhouse crock.
08/29/03
The movie is every bit as exploitative as the old Roger Corman babes-behind- bars flicks without having nearly as much campy fun.
08/29/03
After two smart acts, the film almost becomes the exploitation flick it so desperately wants to avoid.
08/29/03
A compelling, highly charged film that brings a contemporary perspective to classic prison picture elements.
08/28/03
Top Critic
If Civil Brand works ... as an updated women's prison melodrama with a strong whisper of political consciousness, there are some crippling flaws in the film.
08/27/03
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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