"The Condemned" amounts to a card-carrying B-movie, resonating with all the usual values in brawny-man-turned-actor movies: a sort of rebel-patriotism, hatred of government, a hint of homophobic humor (our hero calls his opponents "sweetheart" before killing them) and one big all-American bruiser (the heart-stoppingly intimidating former wrestling pro Steve "Stone Cold" Austin) who will soak up a lot of punishment from the usual scumbags (basically thanks to government slimeballs and entrepreneurs who never go to the gym) before exacting a sort of Old Testament revenge.

Austin plays Jack Conrad, a former Delta Force soldier who has weathered his share of quiet, dirty battles for the government, until Uncle Sam neglected to rescue him from a Central American jail. He gets a chance to rewrite his future when a ruthless entrepreneur, Ian Breckel (Robert Mammone), springs him from captivity and lands him on a remote island, where Jack is forced to pit his wits and might against nine other tough guys and gals (including British soccer-pro-turned-acting-heavy Vinnie Jones) in a kill-or-be-killed game. There will be only one survivor, and the carnage will be filmed on multiple cameras and broadcast on a pay-per-view Internet show.

But after indulging the audience in butt-kicking action, director Scott Wiper and his small squad of co-writers segue into disingenuous moralizing about the way society enjoys watching violence. It's hard to imagine an audience that won't break up in laughter at this bewildering mixed message: Enjoy this movie, but you really shouldn't be watching it.

-- Desson Thomson (April 27, 2007)

Contains violence, profanity and implied rape.