Fortress 2
Tags: comedy, murder, cult, violence, absurd, revenge, sadist, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
In a dystopian 2017, ex-army officer John Henry Brennick and his wife Karen are attempting to cross the Canada–United States border to Vancouver to have a second child. Strict one-child policies forbid a second pregnancy, even after their firstborn has died, so Karen wears a magnetic vest to trick the security scanners. A guard notices and raises the alarm.
Brennick is caught, believing Karen to have escaped, and sentenced to 31 years at the Fortress, a private maximum security prison run by the Men-Tel Corporation. To maintain discipline all inmates are implanted with "Intestinators" which induce severe pain or death as a form of physical control and mental conditioning. The prison is co-run by Director Poe, who oversees Zed-10, a computer that monitors day-to-day activities. The prison is located underground, in the middle of the desert, inside a deep pit that can only be crossed by a retractable bridge, while the prisoners are kept in overcrowded cells secured by laser walls.
John is imprisoned with inmates Abraham, a model prisoner who works as Poe's manservant and is awaiting parole; D-Day, a machine and demolitions expert; Nino Gomez and Stiggs, who tries to extort John. John learns his wife has been captured and is held in another level with his unborn child who, being illegal, is now officially owned by Men-Tel and will be confiscated at birth.
Stiggs has a friend, Maddox, who intimidates John and the two are involved in a brawl which culminates with Maddox being shot by a security turret. John manages to grab Maddox's Intestinator and gives it to D-Day before he is taken away to be subjected to a mind-wipe procedure as punishment.
Poe, infatuated with Karen, tells her that if she lives with him he will treat John well and release him from the mind-wipe chamber. She accepts to help John. Poe is revealed to be a cyborg, powerfully enhanced by Men-Tel cybernetics. Four months later, a heavily pregnant Karen manages to use her access to the prison computer in Poe's quarters to help John by restoring him from his mind-wiped state. Karen steals a holographic map and gives it to Abraham to give to John. D-Day dismantles Maddox's Intestinator and uses a magnetic component to pull out the others' Intestinators.
During their next work shift John's group puts their Intestinators in an air-duct and stage a brawl, causing Zed to trigger the devices and blow the duct open to prepare their escape. Poe promptly flushes the duct with steam and sends in "Strike Clones", networked cyborgs armed with flamethrowers and machine guns. Stiggs surrenders and gets shot dead, but the rest of the group kill a Strike Clone, steal its weapon and use it to kill the remaining clones.
Zed alerts Poe of Karen's actions. He reveals to her that her child, like all MenTel-owned babies, will be extracted in a fatal Caesarean to be made a cyborg. Abraham and Karen resist, but are powerless against the cyborg Poe and Abraham dies of strangulation.
Hijacking one of the gun turrets and using it as an elevator, John's group travels to Zed's control room. John takes Poe hostage and orders him to release Karen. Poe gives the order, but Zed refuses the command while stating that MenTel does not engage in any negotiations during hostage situations and a gun turret blasts Poe, blowing him to pieces and leaving John's group with no leverage. Once brought over to the core computer, D-Day hacks into Zed and accesses a powerful virus confiscated at the start of his sentence. D-Day manages to activate the virus after being shot and incapacited, causing a complete systems crash and all automated security to fail. John and Gomez rescue Karen, hijack a truck, and escape to Mexico where Karen enters labor in an abandoned barn and gives birth to her and John's child.

Review: I don't like the idea of the new Fortress being located in space it doesn't work out right in the long run.
The intestinators from the first movie have been replaced by a sort of camera which is implanted into your brain there's the usual evil prison director controlling the Fortress and ZED the talking computer is back.
John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) gets caught (again) and is thrown back into the Fortress.
As for the plot - it was far too unbelievable and, dare I say it, actually quite boring.This time, the prison is in outer space (!), and instead of those little metal tracking devices used in the first Fortress, prisoners are given a "behaviour modifier" than is implanted in their brain.
The motion picture is supposed to take place 7 years after the former , as John (Christopher Lambert) is a rebel whom the resistance asking for help , but he escapes to avoid the authorities in USA , which is exactly what he and his wife Karen Brennick (Beth Toussiant replacing Loryn Locklyn) were trying to do when with her second son (their first child was born dead) escape .
It is set 7 years after the original when rebels are captured and sent to a new fortress prison , in outer space , there takes place an exciting final confrontation between the starring and baddies , it is very stimulating and gets some exciting surprises .
We're stuck with " Brennick is in prison, now he must bust out " as soon as the movie starts.There's plot holes galore, stupid scenes, and some terrible special FX.Lambert must have been really hungry for the fifty or so grand he was paid to do this train wreck.I'm a fan of cheeseball, low budget films...
There are a few moments like that found in this film, but unless you want to see how NOT to make a movie, don't bother with this one.1 out of 5..
Well, I did, anyway.Of course, that wouldn't be too likely as this new Fortress is in orbit 26,000 miles above Earth, which, when it's suddenly revealed (to the horror of the oblivious prisoners/"labourers"), feels like it should have been a key twist that you couldn't possibly have seen coming...
The sets and effects are basically fine, some of the set pieces are pretty tense (if ridiculously set up), but the flimsy script, non-existent pacing, absence of worthwhile new ideas and charisma-free supporting cast all seem to have come from a film with one tenth of the budget - Pam Grier excepted, though she may as well not be in it at all considering the total irrelevance of her character.And does everyone really have to talk so quietly?
I know they're in prison, but Mr. Lambert always whispers everything anyway - and here so does Patrick Malahide, so get ready for a lot of scowling and rewinding if you want to follow the few halfhearted shreds of plot on offer.Oh yeah, and that very last scene is, basically, the worst thing ever.
Naturally he soon begins planning an escape.Aside from the opening action scene which is OK the film starts to sink pretty fast.
But what i will say is that this movie opened my eyes to a new kind of science discovery, appearently a person CAN hold his/her breath in outer space without spacesuit or helmet........right...
Even though this movie wasn't a huge hit, do you think we will get to see a Fortress 3: Banished to the Planet Ziest....(it would be a good tie-in for Highlander 2 or not...).
Fortres 2 is Scifi thriller like its Prequel Fortress.It is a very contemporary film, and a good sequel.The story continues with John Brennick, who 10 yrs later is still hiding from the Mentel corporation (whose prison 'fortress' he had destroyed 10 yrs ago during his escape from there), living in North America with his wife and son, gets apprehended again by Mentel and is sentenced to death in 'fortress 2' which is a space based prison .
But the positive minded and brave John sets about to find a way of of Fortress 2 too and save his family on earth.Storyline great, music is good, stunts are cool.Bad thing is some very explicit nudity, but only that.Like The prequel ,this is also watchable.
So if the viewer will enjoy the first 10-20 minutes (once the action is placed in the prison), then this joy will last to the end; unlike in the first picture of this diptychYes- there are plot holes and behaviors illogical to some extent, that normally would disqualify any movie from taking it serious.
Here, he returns in a sequel to the fairly low-budget B-movie action-science fiction flick, Fortress.
Unfortunately, that means that the film seems more like an overblown remake with the same guy portraying the lead, rather than a sequel.
how about if we try to do something of even lesser quality and see if people will like it?" Probably writer/producer/actor John Flock, who, going by the plot and the writing of this film, really is as dumb as he looks.
I recommend this only to huge fans of the first Fortress, Lambert or B-movies.
I'd say it was actually a 6, but I wanted to give it a better score because some voters give movies low scores just based on one item, whether the movie has one stupid moment (Lambert floating in space) or because of an actor in the film (again Lambert) or because of a genre (sci-fi).The movie has good explosions (i.e. not a chick flick), a decent production design and interesting sets, some reused ideas from Fortress 1 and some good fights and effects.
Several years after he managed to escape the Fortress, John Brennick and his family are still hunted by the Men-Tel corporation.
There where the first Fortress was an original SF story, this sequel's best points are the settings in space and a few very original twists.
I am still recovering of seeing this film, I know i will have some irreversible sequels on my brain, I lost all my respect of C.Lambert for the rest of my life, also I couldn't try to rent another movie, i was so terrified I could get another crap like Fortress 2.Really it was one of the worst movies ever, no screenplay, no acting, crap special effects, crap editing, it was so awful that i will keep paying my psychiatrist for many years until i will be prepared again to see another movie of him..
I mean this film is unrealistic, i mean it is supposed to be such a high tec prison so one wouls think that escape was impossible, not with Christopher Lambert.
I realy enjoyed the first film as the characters were interesting and the way they escaped was clever and fairly realistic but this seqel is quite simply bad.DO NOT WATCH!!!.
Yeah, that is how brilliant the writers behind "Fortress 2" were; just take part one and re-write parts of it and change the location of the Men-Tel Corporation's facility.The story takes place seven years after John and Karen Brennick managed to flee the Men-Tel Corporation high security prison in the first movie, and they are living in a remote area, constantly on the run from Men-Tel. And apparently they have been helping some kind of underground resistance group to thwart the work of Men-Tel. But Men-Tel catches up with them and captures John, bringing him to a new prison facility...Alright, lots of similarities to the first movie, as I stated above.
I am not personally a fan of Christopher Lambert's acting skills, so there weren't any great performances that stood out in "Fortress 2: Re-Entry".This movie doesn't offer anything great in any way thinkable, and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.
I guess if you are a big fan of Christopher Lambert, then the movie will have any worth to watch, otherwise, then it is just not really worth the effort.
Heh Heh Heh. You pretty much know what to expect when you see the name "Christopher Lambert" on the box of a direct-to-video action/sci-fi flick.
You don't watch a Lambert film expecting massive plot development, you watch a Lambert flick to hear Christopher Lambert deliver his lines in a voice that sounds like he just scraped his larynx with a brillo pad.
Re-entry was an ok sometimes good sci-fi thriller but wasn't no where near as BRILLIANT as the classic first but it never was going to be as Re-entry was made on an even lower budget & a straight to video movie but it had some cool moments & fights but it was really nice seeing Lambert back as Brennick as that is the best character he's ever played in my opinion!!!
Has some moments but the fx are too cheap looking & the main bad guy of the new space prison was Terrible & stupid & boring & the whole film is dull as there's no real scary danger or brutality like the first film had or that great music score or that great 90's atmosphere it was lacking in all of that.
Now Christopher Lambert was good none of this is his fault & he acts fine but his excellent character Brennick just isn't in an exciting suspense film like that original so can't blame Lambert.
Even by film standards of the year 2000, the sets and the special effects look straight out of a low budget TV show of the era.
Rotten script, poor sets, so so acting and one dimensional supporting characters, even if Liz May Brice was very pleasing on the eye, which only served to verify how much on the cheap Fortress 2 was done compared to Fortress.Plus Christopher Lambert fails to have noticed that his wife played in the original by Loryn Locklin was replaced by Beth Touissant, which explains why she only had 2 scenes.The models were good though, and you have to give the makers credit for their cheek in Brennick's space walk without a space suit.The luckiest cast member however was Arnita Swanson as Combs, who rightly saw what a stinker this movie was and decided to literately jump ship..
I find it somewhat hard to determine though, whether or not I can consider "Fortress II" to be such a movie.Sure, all the ingredients for an unintentionally funny film are there: ludicrous script, bad acting, lousy effects, laughable dialogue and a gross neglect of even the most basic laws of physics (where did this space station's gravity come from, again?).
It's just not worth your trouble, not as a worthy sequel to the actually quite bearable first "Fortress" and not even as a "Plan 9 from Outer Space"-like dud..
Many years after he first escaped from prison, John Brennick and his family are still on the run from Men-Tel.
Sadly I wanted to feel that SOMEBODY had cared about making this as good a film as they could  but it looked like they just rushed it together and did nothing to sort out plot holes.
It is all nonsense of course and major things that move the plot along are simply stupid (even in sci-fi world).Let me list just a few: 1 - Someone hacks into the system CCTV with a home-made remote control 2 - Brennick gets access to Teller's offices by strapping a miniature camera to a cockroach 3 - Men and (gorgeous) women shower together in this prison (thanks Theo!) 4 - Brennick gets thrown out into space but holds his breath for 30 seconds, opens another airlock from outside and climbs back in.Let me repeat that last one slowly  man-holds-breath-in-vacuum-of-space.
I know that the plot is never going to be totally realistic (being set in an space-based prison and all.) but I expect films to at least TRY to be realistic within their own settings  this just smacks of laziness to me.The cast are video quality.
The saving part of this movie is the few good actors in it, Christopher Lambert, Beth Toussaint and Aiden Rea. If you are bored and need something to cheer you up or are into low budget scifi then by all means watch it..
But don`t worry if you can`t remember the original FORTRESS because you`ll still find the sequel crap .Strangely enough there might have been some potential with this film .
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsHaving dished out the Under Siege sequel,one would expect director Geoff Murphy to do similar honours with the follow up to the superb Fortress.Unfortunately,this was not to be so.This is quite a dire sequel that leaves you with a swelling desire to view the original again as soon as possible.Somehow,Patrick Mulahide's prison director Teller doesn't hold the same entrancing screen presence of Kurtwood Smith's prison director Poe.In fact,he seems to be an exact re-write of his ,with a desperate hammieness added to try and cover over his insincereity.None of the other characters are even remotely diverting.The dialogue is clichéd and almost plageristic.There's a stereotype black guy who's distinctly irritating.And ,totally unlike in the first film,hardly anything is seen of Brennick's wife,replaced by Beth Touissant ,but honestly,why bother.The film's ultra low budget is unbelievable and there are no clever touches like the stri-clones from the first film.It's so apparently been made to follow on from the first one with an interchangeable plot,and it ultimately emerges as absolutely awful.Truly the biggest let down of the year.NO STARS.
"Fortress 2" is the sequel of "Fortress" and it has to do again with the Fortress but in this movie we are seven years after and Brennick and his family are still on the run from the Men-tel corporation.
In a raid Brennick with some rebels are captured and they sent to a new more sophisticated fortress prison in outer space.
But Brennick will not give up because he wants to get back to Earth where his son is.I liked this movie but not as much as the first one.
I also liked again the interpretation of Christopher Lambert but I think that it was not enough for this movie..
Fortress 2: Re-Entry is actually a good sequel, it's nice to see Chirstopher Lambert playing as John Brennick again.
The violence from the first film isn't in this one as much but it's still there in parts.The idea of having a Fortress in space than underground was clever and adds something new.
Fortress 2 is a good sequel and sci-fi movie..
Not a bad action flick, but nothing like the first film..
The whole movie centered around Chris Lambert's character trying his best to escape from the prison complex.
In the first film, the other characters were interesting, each with his own personality and reason to be on Chris Lambert's "Team".In contrast, Fortress 2 seems to plod along.
If you put your brain on hold for a couple of hours and just enjoy the action and suspense of it all (without trying to compare it to the first film), then you will probably come away thinking that it was an average bit of action film making with a very strong lead character (Chris Lambert)..
Without spoiling the movie - Brennick is captured and sent to a new fortress, one that orbits the earth.Lambert is back as Brennick and is in good form.
Go into this film expecting the same level of quality as the first FORTRESS movie offered and you'll be disappointed again.
Fortress 2 starts as escaped convict & terrorist John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) is recaptured by the Men-Tel corporation & sent right back to prison.
However Brennick is determined to overcome these obstacles, escape & once again see his wife & son...Also known under the title Fortress 2: Re-Entry this Americam Luxembourg co-production was directed by Geoff Murphy & was the sequel to the surprise sci-fi action thriller success Fortress (1993) with Christopher Lambert which did quite well on video & was a pretty good film too, unfortunately Fortress 2 isn't a good film & I have no hesitation in describing it as total crap.
The acting isn't anything to write home about, Lambert looks like he is just going through the motions, Patrick Malahide is awful as the main villain while veteran actress Pam Grier looks embarrassed to be here which is understandable.Fortress 2 is a terrible sequel to a pretty decent sci-fi action thriller that didn't deserve a sequel as bad as this but got one anyway, what can I say this poor both conceptually & technically..
The original 'Fortress', while being pretty good, makes one wonder why they even bothered with this one.
This is what I'd call a completely unnecessary sequel, simply made to cash in on Christopher Lambert's previous waning success and provide fodder for the already overflowing direct-to-video market (and it shows).What they try to pass as a story involves essentially rehashing the original plot line, except moving it to space (wow, what a concept).
So successful that it gained a sequel half a decade later.John Brennick, one of the only three people to escape the Fortress, is living the quiet life with his wife Karen & young son Danny.
Sent to a new 'escape-proof' prison, Brennick tries to bust out – not an easy thing to do when you're trapped in a space station orbiting the Earth.The thing about Fortress 2: Re-Entry is that it is not as bad as the original.
But the plot line here is that his character is recaptured by the evil company that controls everything and put on a space station where the Warden is planning to make a superweapon and threaten the world.In short, it's every bad prison movie you've ever seen, except it's in space.This might have been interesting with better dialog writers and not having Lambert in it.