Australia, United States · 1992
Rated R · 1h 35m
Director Stuart Gordon
Starring Christopher Lambert, Kurtwood Smith, Loryn Locklin, Clifton Collins Jr.
Genre Action, Thriller, Science Fiction
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A futuristic prison movie. Protagonist and wife are nabbed at a future US emigration point with an illegal baby during population control. The resulting prison experience is the subject of the movie. The prison is a futuristic one run by a private corporation bent on mind control in various ways
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While confined to the futuristic prison interiors, the film works reasonably well; but once Lambert springs his wife from the women's section and escapes, the limitations of budget and narrative imagination start to show. As it moves away from the ensemble feel of the early scenes, this quickly degenerates into a part explosive, part sentimental star vehicle.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Fortress isn't terrible science fiction, but it's pretty bad. Hampered by a poorly- constructed storyline, the movie never gets on track. Instead of entering the rarefied atmosphere inhabited by such films as Aliens and the original Terminator, it falls in line with the likes of Freejack and Alien 3. Not the best company to be in, but it could be worse. Watch 1992's Split Second and you'll understand how bad things can get in this genre. After that experience, Fortress will look like high art.
Lambert fails to convince as the action star and somehow it is left to a computer to steal the show.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Even the requisite gore is sub-par, so it's not even neat when some poor sap explodes and his entrails whiz by. Perhaps Gordon should go back to mining H.P. Lovecraft's territory.
Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington
For a film that first seems a throwaway, it has unusual intensity and grip. It’s not another over-reaching, under-financed “Terminator” or “Total Recall” wanna-be.
Washington Post by Richard Harrington
A moment past its concept, Fortress settles into a mix of sci-fi and prison cliches that result in predictable and often silly confrontations, including a not-so-great escape. Much of the blame lies with Lambert, as vapid here as he has been in the "Highlander" fiascoes.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
For all its faults, Fortress has an unusually energetic imagination. At its best, it blends "Robocop," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Brave New World" into something scary, original and grimly amusing.
Baltimore Sun by Stephen Hunter
The most satisfying escape of the day was mine, from the theater, at movie's end.
Tampa Bay Times by Steve Persall
Fortress is a 91-minute sentence of bland deja vu for sci-fi watchers.
Entertainment Weekly by Ty Burr
When Lambert is onscreen, Fortress is just an effective action cheapie. Whenever Smith is the focus, it approaches junk poetry.
There's no such thing as a free ride.
It's a kind of magic.
Throughout time they have hunted each other fulfilling the prophecy, that there can be only one.
Some fight for power. Some fight for us.
She was their teacher. They were her hope.