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‘Fortress’
By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 06, 1993
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A few years back, sci-fi action took a dive with a series of underwater "splashers" ("The Abyss," "Leviathan," "DeepStar Six"). The coming trendlet is "stashers," films set in futuristic prisons, and first out of -- or perhaps into -- the blocks is "Fortress." It is directed by Stuart Gordon, a genre favorite sometimes dubbed Gore-don for such grotesquely excessive films as "From Beyond" and "Re-Animator." This is Gordon's first big-budget film as well as his first action-adventure. Unfortunately, it shows.The story is set in a near-future America so overextended from the population boom that each woman may become pregnant only once. John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen (Loryn Locklyn) try to flee to Mexico when she becomes pregnant again after the death of their child. Captured by cold-hearted border police, the "breeders" are sent to the Fortress, a high-tech underground prison owned by Men-Tel, an international conglomerate, and run by a supercomputer, Zed-10 (you can call it HAL). Mundane matters are attended to by Prison Director Poe (all-purpose villain Kurtwood Smith), who clearly enjoys such toys as laser beam prison bars and "intestinators," which we and the prisoners must swallow as devices that can inflict pain or cause death (by inner microwaving). Guards are human mutants turned into "strike clones," surgically altered to be more efficient. Even Poe is "enhanced." If only the script had been. 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. For some reason, Lambert sounds dubbed, his nasal Peter Lorre-ish voice seeming to drift in from a nearby multiplex screen, an effect particularly odd in contrast to Smith's stentorian mannerisms. Also, Lambert has little presence, evidenced by the minimal distinctions in his acting style before and after he undergoes a stay in the prison's "mind wipe chamber." Although it's a good sign that the writers have envisioned a future that includes minorities (unlike the majority of such films), the supporting roles here tend to the same type of stereotypes that, rendered as cliches, deflate the plot. As an indictment of high-tech repression, "Fortress" fails miserably. It's been done so many times that to do it again badly seems a waste of a decent budget. "Fortress" is rated R for violence.
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