Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Bradley Thomas	Vince Vaughn	½
Lauren Thomas	Jennifer Carpenter
Warden Tuggs	Don Johnson	½
The Placid Man	Udo Kier	½
Gil, Bradley's boss	Marc Blucas	-
Andre	Mustafa Shakir	-
Wilson	Thomas Guiry	-
Eleazar	Dion Mucciacito	-
Roman	Geno Segers	-
Lefty	Willie C. Carpenter	-
Mr. Irving	Fred Melamed	-

Review

S. Craig Zahler has established himself as the great hope and future of the American action movie. After his triumphant debut with Bone Tomahawk in 2015, he returned in 2017 with this cleverly written fresh take on the vigilante genre; a film that moved Vince Vaughn back into consideration as the relevant dramatic actor he showed promise as when he first broke through in the 1990s. Throughout the history of the one-man-army sub-genre, rarely has there been an entry with a more thorough and intriguing dramatic build-up than in this one. The marriage problems the characters of Vaughn and Jennifer Carpenter experience are so recognizable and well-told that Zahler after his prelude has a rare luxury: He has created a backdrop to take the movie in any which direction, keeping us on our toes and guessing in the process. So when the film ultimately moves into a little more familiar vigilante territory, we're invested and on for the ride like never before. Brawl in Cell Block 99 is Zahler at his most Tarantinoesque so far in his career, but he doesn't exhibit any of Tarantino's irony or distance. With Zahler you're right in the thick of it, not only experiencing and enjoying every move and every hit, but also feeling the need for it. And that is ultimately what this sub-genre is all about.