The sudden prison craze of the late '80s (including flicks like Stallone's LOCK UP) is surely the source of inspiration for this entertaining slice of Van Damme action. You would be hard pressed to make this film look good in light of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, but let's face it, Tim Robbins never gets to go around and kick people in the face in that film, even if it is ten times better made. I was pleasantly surprised to find this in the budget section, which is where most of Van Damme's films seem to be hiding these days. Made the same year as A.W.O.L. but not quite as good, this is still fun stuff. Van Damme gets to go through all the old prison clichés - homosexual inmates, transvestites, getting locked up naked in a cockroach-filled hole - in a manner which is never fun, but wholly unpleasant.In fact, the film seems to simply switch from Van Damme getting beaten up in one bad situation to just put him in another, and another, and so on until the end. Most of the film is dark and dank looking, so this ultimately makes for one majorly depressing movie, well that is if it wasn't for the cool action sequences.The cast is of the typical B-movie variety, with Robert Guillaume enjoying his role as one of those 'old black sympathetic guys' who seem to fill up just about every prison movie of the '90s. The actor playing the evil Sandman, Patrick Kilpatrick is also memorably over the top, with a manic laugh and even stranger features. Other memorable faces fill out the cast, but Cynthia Gibb has a thankless role as the token love interest who gets about five minutes of screen time and is pretty much degraded. Armin Shimerman (Quark from DEEP SPACE NINE) is the only other familiar face, as a corrupt doctor who faces gang vengeance.Thankfully, the interesting and unlikely plot about unorthodox organ donation is pretty fun to watch, and there are lots of fights and punch-ups to keep things moving along. The movie is pretty average, well that is until the ending, then it becomes something else entirely.Never have I seen a reel of film that is so over the top, but done in such a straight-faced manner. This is the ultimate in unintentional humour, the final fight between Van Damme and the Sandman is sheer brilliance because of the absurdity of it. It starts off with Van Damme having a huge spanner hit him across the wrists and head, then the Sandman whacking him in the chest and stomach with the aforementioned hammer. This would have killed most people, but has no effect on Van Damme who is being pummelled one minute and then up and running the next.The next fight involves a circular saw which just happens to be laying around, and the Sandman gets his hair sliced off in one cool and startling effect sequence, which I've been wondering how they achieved. After this Van Damme gets thrown off a ledge and hits the ground some thirty feet below, only to groan and grunt a bit, then he gets up and keeps on fighting! The Sandman uses a broken light bulb (which in reality would be extremely fragile and hardly effective) to lacerate most of Van Damme's body. But our favourite Muscles from Brussels eventually kicks the Sandman into a burning room, but the Sandman runs out, puts out the fire and keeps on fighting! This is hilarious stuff.Let's just recap here: by this time, the Sandman is suffering from third degree burns over 70% of his body, and would probably be unconscious with the pain. He definitely wouldn't be coherent, and he couldn't stand up either. Van Damme, meanwhile, has had his skull fractured and his arms broken with the spanner, his stomach crushed and mutilated with the same spanner (kind of like how Houdini died), he's been thrown off a ledge and had the rest of his ribs and bones broken in the resulting fall, and also he's had most of his body sliced open and must have lost a couple of pints of blood. Still, he's one tough guy, and he has just enough strength to kick the Sandman's head onto a handy spike, then breaks his jaw and kills him.In another hilarious moment, all the prisoners stand back to let him pass (despite the fact he's an undercover cop), because he's earned some respect from the fight. This has to be one of the best fight sequences I've ever seen, just because it's so damn funny and an unexpected treat. That's right: watch this film for the ending alone.

RCMP Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is in L.A. and brings down madman Christian 'The Sandman' Naylor. Sixteen months later, he returns to investigate Harrison penitentiary where the assistant warden as well as some prisoners have been killed. He goes undercover as a convict with lawyer Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) posing as his wife. Sergeant DeGraf (Art LaFleur) runs the prison with an iron fist. Hawkins (Robert Guillaume) is the one-eyed elder statesman prisoner. Louis runs into gang trouble but the prison holds darker secrets.There are a lot of cheesy B-movie aspect to the prison. Most notable is the basement brothel. The production is second rate. The good part is that Van Damme gets to do some butt kicking. There's nothing wrong with that. If anything, it needs more Van Damme butt kicking. The investigation is lackluster. There isn't much tension. Van Damme fans may like this but nobody else will.

Let me cut right to the chase here: the only reason to watch this movie is The Sandman. The poor guy barely gets to be in this, but when he gets his moment of glory he totally delivers. The Sandman is one of the most ridiculous villains I've ever seen, and therefor also one of the most entertaining. When he shows up the movie immediately looks better, because up until then there really isn't much going on. Van Damme investigates some mysterious murders in a prison, but it's pretty obvious what's going on so the moment where you're supposed to gasp at who's behind everything doesn't work. Also, while it's a good thing Van Damme is less of an egomaniac than Steven Seagal and actually lets himself get hit once in a while, this movie pushes it too far to the other side. Van Damme takes about a thousand punches throughout this movie and is on the ground for most of the running time, in fact he only wins the end fight (talk about a spoiler!) by dumb luck/opponent. Obviously this makes more sense than a fighting machine taking down dozens of prisoners at a time, but who the hell wants a Van Damme movie to make sense? "Death Warrant" gets a pass because again, The Sandman is great, but it definitely isn't Van Damme's best.

Dare I say that when this movie was made JCVD was at the peak of his physical shape ? He really looks awesome in this movie. He's a pretty good actor as well, which is evident when you compare Chuck Norris' movies from the same era.Although the movie is more than 20 years old, it doesn't look dated. The movie is also not a mindless martial arts movie either. It has some good story behind it. Even compared to "Lionheart" made the same year, this movie is way ahead in terms of quality.Amanda Gibbs is gorgeous in this movie. Too bad that we didn't get to see her during the '90s asides from this movie.Seriously, this is one of the best JCVD movie made and is recommended for viewing even if you're NOT a JCVD fan.