Brawl In Cell Block 99

Cover Photo courtesy of Redbox

I’m going to breakdown a movie I watched last night. Brawl In Cell Block 99; spoiler alert incase you haven’t already watched it.

The main character is Vince Vaughn. You probably know him from comedy movies like the Wedding Crashers; although he has played in more serious roles, i.e the psycho remake (as Norman Bates).

This movie is more of a serious roll. We don’t get too much background on our character, though it is implied though out the movie.

Before I get into it, the basics of the movie are simple:

Stand up guy gets put in a bad spot, and has to do what he needs to get by. Which ultimately lands him in prison.

Okay last chance..here we go:

As the movie opens we see our character, Bradley Thomas (Vince Vaughn) head back to a mechanic shop where he works, ultimately just to be let go.

As if that doesn’t suck enough, he goes home to see his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) sitting in her car. She seems to be putting on makeup, we’re left to assume she’s going to leave somewhere but didn’t get the chance.

This already doesn’t sit well with Bradley; to add insult to injury he notices a hickey on Lauren’s neck..

Quick sidebar:

If you have never been in a relationship, the feeling of sickness and adrenaline, can be suffocating in the event you catch someone cheating. It’s one of the worst feelings there is. Having been on both sides of the equation; I’m no angel but it’s a very shitty thing to do or go through. Especially if in the moment it doesn’t make sense.

Back to the movie:

After realizing it, he asked for her phone. While trying to look through it; Lauren comes out and admits she’s been seeing someone else. She then goes into the house and the effect of the action begin.

The aftermath:

The adrenaline I mentioned, is clearly displayed here. Bradley proceeds to pull a “street fighter” (video game) on the car.

Within 7 punches the car window breaks, he pulls off the rearview mirror, breaks off the driver side mirror, punches the hood, then almost effortlessly, pulls it off and throws it across the street.

Now he punches the drivers side headlight and pulls out the wiring.

After that he goes inside, Lauren asked if she should leave, and as in any relationship it’s time for “the talk”.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

How long, is it serious, and why?

We find it’s been three months, it’s not serious, the why, hit close to home for me. Apparently they lost a child to a miscarriage; which has put space between the two. I’ve been there before, it definitely can break the will of any relationship.

However if you can get past it, there’s a chance the bond can be stronger than ever before. But to be honest, that doesn’t happen 9 times out of 10.

The blame and resentment can be a blanket of disparity. Just try to remember it’s not a fault but terrible things happen.

Assumptions:

Lauren thought Bradley was cheating. Being out late, but it turns out he was working and working out. Trying to stay “clean”, we find out they both are addict’s in recovery. To what substance? Not sure what Lauren was on but we find out later Bradley was an alcoholic.

I’m going to put a quote in here:

Bradley: “I wanted things to be different than they’ve been.” ” Our marriage, us, we’ve been uh..”

“It’s like when I go to the Mini Mart at the gas station and get coffee. They’ve got three containers. Ones got cream, Ones got milk, and the other’s got that grey skim stuff.”

“Every time I go in there, those labels are faced away, and I have to guess which has the real stuff, the cream.

But every time, the first container I grab is always that milk or skim stuff. It’s never the one I want.”

“The law of averages says one out of three times, I ought to get the cream, but it doesn’t happen. Maybe if I go in there a thousand times, it’ll even out like it should. I’ll have a run of picking out the cream, fifty or a hundred times in a row, but uh.. I don’t think so.”

“I don’t things even out fair like that.”

I put that in here, just because it’s realistic. The discomfort, trying to make sense of it all, the comparison to things we can’t control.

Moving forward, Bradley decided he’s going to “move packages” for a friend. Obviously his “friend” doesn’t work for UPS.

Gil, Bradley’s friend is a heavy. A dealer who pedals heron, crystal meth, and cocaine. It’s a far cry from a dream job but it’ll pay the bills. Bradley is a driver: the job description is simple, drop off the product, get the money.

One thing I liked about this movie, in the process of leaving a drop spot, Bradley noticed a guy strung out on drugs. The guy was sitting on a bench scratching, dressed in real beat up clothes. As Bradley looks at him, you can see the gears in his head moving. The disgust on his face says it all.

As it always happens; things go smoothly until other people get involved. From the jump, you can tell it’s going to head south quickly.

Gil decided he’s going to partner up with another heavy dealer, to expand the operation.

An addict can spot an addict. If you have ever heard of “gay-dar”, it’s like that.

If you haven’t it basically means one gay dude can spot another. At least that’s how a gay friend of mine explained it to me.

Roman, one of the henchman to the new partner seems to be on something. Bradley points this out, but dispite his warning he’s forced to do it anyway.

Bradley was hesitant for a good reason. As it turns out, these new guys are careless. After grabbing a shipment of drugs, Bradley tells them to drop the drugs and they’ll get it later. Of course these jerk offs don’t listen! Low and behold, the cops are waiting for them.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

The two henchman decide they’ve got an idea. Let’s shoot it out with the police. Yeah.. because that’s a great idea. Nothing pisses me off more, than people who can avoid trouble with the law, head straight towards it.

I’ve been in some real bad spots in my lifetime, thanks to idiots like that.

Bradley can get away clean, as he was not spotted. Instead he shoots the henchman, saving lives of some cops.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean he won’t do time. The interrogation is one of my favorite scenes from the movie.

Interrogation:

Cop: *points at the American flag*

“You want to burn it? You wanna wipe your ass with it? You wanna cut up into little pieces and send it to Putin?”

Bradley: “I have one over my front door.”

Cop: “So you’re a patriot? Mind if I sit?”

Bradley: “I’m going to assume that was rhetorical.”

Cop: “Would you rather I leave?”

Bradley: “I’m not going to tell you anything you want to hear, and prison will give me plenty of time to look at guys I don’t like”

Cop: “what is it that you think I want to hear? Hmm? The names of your associates? The people who profit off of all your hard work while they wipe thier dirty asses with that?”

*Points to the American flag*

“You can pretend you don’t care, but I saw that video. I saw how you took down those low life’s even though you could’ve got away clean.

I knew before you told me you got an American flag inside your home. You probably have more than one.”

Bradley: “I got two.”

Cop: “Because of your selfless actions, no police were killed in that event, which tells me that you know the difference between right and wrong and that you have a moral compass.

So help us. Give us some names. Give me one important name. Who are you working for?”

Bradley: “I work alone.”

Cop: “Who supplies your crystal?”

Bradley: “Some guy.”

Cop: “Some guy” got a name?

Bradley: “I forgot.”

Cop: “Would you remember if I showed you a list of names?”

Bradley: “I don’t like to read. Won’t even see a movie if it’s got subtitles.”

Cop: “Well, what would happen if I read them aloud? You wouldn’t even have to say anything. Just nod your head up and down.”

Bradley: “I’ll narrow it down for you. What’s your name?”

cop: “Detective Lawrence Watkins”

Bradley: “That wasn’t it.”

Cop: “You find this humorous”?

Bradley: “Your tricks are.”

Cop: “You know every once in a while I see a man who could just as easily be on this side of the table, a man of principal, who had a run of bad luck and just went the wrong way.”

Bradley: “I’m not gonna talk.”

Cop: “I know this is your first offense but you’re looking at four years maybe five. Do you know that drug traffickers actually serve those sentences?”

Bradley: “I’m aware that the system is harder on guys that distribute drugs, than it it is on men who commit acts of violence against women and children. Do you think that’s fair?”

Cop: “You ever see a man with meth mouth? Hmm? You ever see a 14 year old girl addicted–”

Bradley: “I’m not going to argue with you, Larry. I’m not going to give you any info. I know what I did, and I know what the sentence is going to be. It’s done.”

Cop: “You have other options.”

Bradley: “I don’t.”

Cop: “Your wife told me that you were going to have a baby girl. You’ll be in prison when she says her first word, I guarantee you that word will not be” “Daddy”.

After the detective gets the last word, he exits the room. Guilt trip in tact Bradley waits for his wife. He tells her, he doesn’t want her or the baby at the hearing or to visit him in prison. Reluctantly she agreed.

The Sentence:

Now off to court we go. The judge awarded Bradley with seven years (if memory serves). In a medium security prison known as “the fridge”.

Prison:

On the way to his temporary hell, another inmate basically said “too bad we’re going to the fridge, I wish we were going to that prison in Austria.”

Bradley’s retort ” You should aim higher with your wishes”.

From the start you can tell some of the COS (correction officers), are being ass hats just for the hell of it.

Bradley surrendered his possessions in a slot, like they’ve got at the bank drive through. He shuts the door a little too hard making the co jump. He’s then instructed to grab his things and move to the back of the line.

Overkill but if you’ve got the power why not abuse it?.

Next is the strip search.

Co 1: “Drop your clothes in the box”

Bradley: I figured.

Co 1: “Looks like we’re locking up another genius.”

Co 2: “Oh. Should we let him go so he can cure cancer? Help the scientists unify string theories?

While in prison one of the COS, asks Bradley if he’d want to join a boxing program.

The movie oddly. Decided to use a background of boxing to discribe Bradley. It’s strange because it’s never used for anything else. We don’t see his past and other wise would never know he had boxed in his life.

The plot thickens:

After a few days in the fridge, an associate of the new partner (Eleazar) visits Bradley posing as the family GYN. Instructing Bradley (Eleazar) needs someone “whacked” the target being a Christopher Bridge. Who is serving a sentence out in “red leaf”.

Red leaf is a maximum security prison. In order for our character to get there he must be transferred.

If he doesn’t follow directions there’s a Korean doctor, who specializes in abortion. His unique ability: removing limbs from the fetus, while keeping it alive to be born. The threat is do it or we’ll dismantle the baby.

To show they’re serious they broke into the home of Bradley and Lauren. Shooting Lauren with darts knocking her out. Kidnapping her, then taking pictures for proof of Life.

Warning:

I do want to mention that there’s one vomit warning. When the house alarm goes off mute the TV, and you should be okay. Pretty sure that’s the only one.

The Transfer:

Of course Bradley does as he’s told. Assaulting a few COS to get to red leaf. This place is horrendous. Bradley is put in a cell with a broken toilet, that’s backed up. It’s pretty gross.

Continueing on, the prison has something called the hole. That’s where cell block 99 is located. That’s where they keep “thee crazies”, child molesters ect.

To get there he’s got to act up again. He gets into a fight, the first time in the yard and once again assaulted cos. His cell on 99 is wildly inappropriate. No lighting, broken glass everywhere, you know, the Disneyland of prison.

Bradley gets a belt put on him similar to a shock collar for an animal. If he doesn’t move quickly enough he gets zapped, talking back, and even just for fun. A real treat.

In comes the over the top violence:

If you’ve got a weak stomach for Gore you might want to skip this one.

Towards the end we find out our buddies from earlier are in this prison. The jerk off from earlier (Roman), Eleazar, and a few other hand jobs he hangs with. They seem to have a couple guards “on the take”.

They hand deliver Bradley to them. After figuring that out, Bradley takes parts of his shoes out and jams them between the belt to absorb the shock.

Knocking out one co, he takes the keys from another and begins to “get even”.

He gets a guy down. With his foot on the back of dudes head he said “move and I’ll kill him!”

Of course they don’t listen. He stomps on the head, they moved again, Bradley pressed harder then proceeded to drag the guy face across the floor. Brutal.

Eleazar calls his associate telling him to start the process and flush the baby down the toilet. Bad move.

Once Bradley gets to Eleazar, he by force gets him to agree to bring Lauren to Gil, unharmed.

The force being Bradley will put Eleazar in with the other inmates to rape, then murder him. Getting passed around like a joint, doesn’t appeal to Eleazar so he agreed.

The Ending:

Lauren gets released to Gil unharmed. Gil then shoots Eleazars’ associate. Lauren then grabs the gun and kills the Korean doctor.

Bradley says his good-byes, kills Eleazar by stomping his head clean off.

Then the warden of red leaf shoots him dead.

We don’t see how it ends up for Lauren or the baby. That’s it roll credits.

There’s some things you can be critical about, but it is what it is. Bit of a different take on a prisoner movie, but I liked it. It’s always good to see an actor expand their craft. It won’t win any awards but that doesn’t mean it’s unwatchable. I’ve seen some terrible movies.. this could have been way worse.

I think some of the exchange between the characters is what makes it a good film.

You don’t have to be heartless to be a drug dealer, but the path mostly only has one way: Prison. Death if you’re lucky enough to not rot in a cell before the impending doom.

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