honest image about prison life. about decisions, angry and value of the other. a film who remembers many others about same theme but it remains special for the poetic note, for the different acting by the young cast, for the details who desires give a profound spirit to a delicate subject. the violence is not ignored but it is not the purpose. and the key of that subtle exercise of honesty is its end. because it is a film about deep freedom , about the dimensions of an age, about friendship and about sense of life. an inspired one. the sensitivity in different nuances, the force of image, the dialog are the basic virtues of movie. and a great cast who does a remarkable job. that could be all. so, see it !

In various aspects, Dog Pound fulfills with its purpose: bringing us a raw and intense look to a "juvenile detention center", supposedly dedicated to the juvenile delinquent's rehabilitation, when it is in fact a sadistic and brutal environment which stimulates the cruelty, the intolerance and the violence as the solution to every problem. I have to say that Dog Pound kept me interested; however, its story is almost non-existent, and it's reduced to a series of vignettes which follows the experience of three young interns of a recent entry.The main problem from Dog Pound is that it doesn't provide too much to the "prison cinema". On the positive side, the performances are very good, and I also appreciated the fact that none of the performers are models/actors, something which helps to the realism of the story. The only problem with the cast is that the actors are too old for the characters they interpret. If director Kim Chapiron had selected 15 or 16-year-old actors, Dog Pound would have been more shocking and subversive. Unfortunateley, he let that chance go.In conclusion, Dog Pound entertained me; it brings an interesting message; the performances are solid; and Chapiron's direction is agile and efficient, with the emphasis on the clarity and free of stylish distractions. However, it didn't leave me completely satisfied, mainly because it doesn't bring anything new to the "prison cinema". I consider it worthy of a moderate recommendation by itself, but there are much better "prison films" out there, such as Bad Boys (1983), Celda 211 and Un Prophéte.

Right from the start of the film, or "yaaaah, movie" as the yanks say, you know the whole film is going to be $hit, what with the over acted yelling involving that miserable looking idiot and the screw.I couldn't quite pinpoint it, but the whole flow and style of the film was cheesy, two dimensional and unrealistic.The dialog is laughable, the main screw walks round with a cup of tea/coffee most of the time.Every main scene from Scum is ripped of in Dogpound. The snooker room scene is replaced with a table tennis scene, instead of one of the antagonists getting walloped with a snooker ball filled sock, hes smacked in the face with a table tennis bat. Even the bathroom scene is somewhat copied. And the rape scene was utterly pathetic. THe guy being raped easily could of/should of defended off his attackers.THe film goes and ends nowhere. I absolutely hated it.

Having no idea this film existed after randomly coming across it, I sat down and watched it expecting to just fill some time. In short, not expecting much at all.So when I started to watch a creeping sickening feeling came over me. It very quickly starting injecting Scum like scenes and characters. My first thoughts were "This is surely going to be a painful experience and unfortunate rip-off of a fantastic iconic movie" You can't get away from the fact it's "highly influenced by" rather than remake but I couldn't have been more wrong in my assumption of it's overall quality. I'm not saying it's better and I'm not saying it's a worse film than Scum. I think for a younger audience, watching this first then Scum would sway them towards a Dog Pound vote. As I grew up with films like Scum and other films from that generation, I'd be on Team Scum.However, the film itself is very enjoyable with some great acting from the lead playing Butch. The other parts played seemed a little diluted for me though. Possibly too many characters and roles to build viewer relationships with. Luckliy Adam Butcher (playing Butch) fills the with a cracking portrayal.At the end of a film I always ask myself. "Have I just wasted two hours of my life?" On this occasion it'd certainly be no.