In the future it's forbidden to give birth to more than one child for each woman.You can escape to Mexico to avoid the authorities in USA, which is exactly what John and Karen Brennick were trying to do when Karen is pregnant with her second child.When they think they have made it they are discovered and sent to the Fortress, where the prisoners are controlled by lasers, neutron-cannons, cameras, mind-scanners and electronic pain-causing devices in their stomachs.With those odds, John plans to escape with his wife....Here in England, this was released a the worst time possible, literally four weeks after 'No Escape' so by then people would have had their fill of inescapable prison movies.Luckily though, this film never takes itself seriously, and it can be at times,a lot of campy nonsense.Lambert is good as the lead, but a lot of the time, his threats are a little laughable. The story and the set up are smart, but the actual narrative lets it down a little.The final third is what you would expect, with Lambert with his Raiden hair, spilling blue blood everywhere.Fun while it lasts, and then once the sentence is over, you won't remember a single thing from it.

This is a different kind of film. It is an interesting sci fi thriller revolving around a couple who are imprisoned in a futuristic prison for trying to have more than 1 child, which is against the law of the land. Some action scenes and dialogs are good. The film is short and watchable, without getting bored.But the concept as such is illogical. Some are very amateurish. Music score is not impressive at all.The film is not suited for kids owing to its adult scenes.They say Arnie was going to do this protagonist's role. I am sure he would've been very good at it.I never knew there's a sequel to this film until I saw it. I am going to watch fortress 2. Let's see how it is!

As I child, my parents let me watch all sorts of violent movies and I really can't thank them enough for it. I will name a few that stayed in the memory to this day: Speed, Hard Boiled, Under Siege 1 and 2, Terminator 2, Highlander, Braveheart and this movie, Fortress. Fortress stars Christopher Lambert in his best role (yes, even better than Highlander). In the future you can't have more than one child or something like that and he and his wife are sent to a new super prison where escape is impossible, or so it seems! I have a problem with the tagline 'the only thing it couldn't hold was an innocent man'. Lambert is not innocent. His wife is pregnant again and no matter how stupid the law is, he broke it. So I suppose the only thing it can't hold is a group of guys who plot to escape using the explosive stomach bombs that are planted in them on arrival. Yes, you heard correctly, stomach bombs! If you go out side the perimeter...BOOM! Kurtwood Smith makes a great turn as the Head of the Prison, and as the pawn of the complex computer system that runs THE FORTRESS! I loved this movie as a kid, and I watched it recently. Guess what? I still love it. It's got character to make up for it's clichés and a whole bunch of originality to make up for Lambert's French-Canadian-Lambert accent. His acting is what I call Lambertesque. The non stop action makes this movie a great watch for any 1) man 2) fan of 80s/90s action 3)Lambert fan 4)Anyone open mindedI highly recommend it.

I have always enjoyed watching "Fortress", no matter how bad the actual movie is. And that is of course also exactly what these type of movies got made for; to bring some mindless entertainment.The movie in itself is still pretty bad though. The story is quite ridicules and filled with some highly unlikely moments and plot-holes. I mean really, if this is supposed to be a future thought out and created to perfection, it should be back to the drawing boards for the scientists and world leaders, who came up with this stuff and laws.It was still a pretty awesome movie to watch when it came out. All of the effects and sets were pretty decent looking for its time and they helped to give this movie a real futuristic feeling, though when you watch it now it all mostly is being ridicules. It got made back in the days when Christopher Lambert was still quite a big name in the business. This movie got really made as a vehicle for him, as the main action-hero of the movie. He just isn't the most compelling actor that ever lived. Kurtwood Smith is the main villain of the movie and he did a pretty decent job with restraining himself to not go over-the-top with his character, like probably a lot of other actors would had done. The movie also has some other decent actors in it, that fits their roles fine, such as for instance Jeffrey Combs, Lincoln Kilpatrick and Vernon Wells.The story and its storytelling are at times really quite messy and bad but when you can look all past that, "Fortress" is still some good mindless fun for you.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/