In this third offering by the combination of Jean Claude Van Damme and director Ringo Lam, Jean Claude plays the role of Kyle Leblanc, a man who is sent to one of eastern Europe’s most brutal prisons for the murder of his wife’s killer. There he is exposed to corruption within the prison system and a warden who attempts to provide entertainment for profit by pitting one inmate against another in no holds barred fights.

While on the surface this appears to be pretty typical fare for a Van Damme film this su…prisingly has a lot more character depth and a lot less “pretty” fighting – i.e. the high sweeping kicks in slow motion that we are used to seeing. Instead this is replaced with a more grounded realistic fighting style in which we see Van Damme get beat down more than he wins, at least in the beginning. During his first fight he is thrown into solitary and there undergoes a transformation from a decent, caring human being to a creature solely dedicated to survival and will do whatever needs to be done to achieve that goal. It is interesting to watch him lose his humanity and his reaction to that acknowledgement. A very different role for Van Damme, and while acting has never been his strong point, he does show some ability to get into the role.

Speaking of “different” roles – at one point Leblanc is thrown into a cell and his cellmate is none other than the NFL’s favorite cocaine spokesperson L.T. – Lawrence Taylor who plays Prisoner 451, named after Fahrenheit 451 because he burned 3 people to death. The film essentially tries to be a character drama and deliver a message about peace and brotherhood, and while it had potential it did not fully live up to it due to several misleading climaxes and an ending that really did not make much sense.

Video

In Hell is presented on a dual layered disc that had both widescreen (1.85:1) and full screen (1.33:1) versions. The image quality is quite good with little grain. It is a very dark movie (the brightness is meant to reflect the emotional tone I believe) as 90% occurs in the prison with a lot of grey and black hues. At times it was difficult to make out certain details in scenes. This then is contrasted with the bright outside scenes and to make a point, my eyes actually had to adjust to the wide difference in luminosity between in the prison and outside. As mentioned before the colour palatte is quite drab and intentionally so but it also seemed to have diminished skin tones. The overall image is sharp and clear.

Audio

There are three language tracks English, French and Spanish which are presented in Dolby Stereo 2.0. There is a English 5.1 Dolby Digital track which was quite impressive. Lots of ambient sounds came through the surround speakers – inmate chanting and cheering, rain drops, and footsteps by approaching guards. The music was also well represented in the surround speakers. During the fights there was adequate use of bass effects. The dialogue is clear (even though it’s hard to understand what Van Damme is saying sometimes but that has nothing to do with the soundtrack).

Special Features

There is a 15 minute “The making of In Hell” featurette which include interviews with the producer, director and actors. As in the film itself, there is little to feel good about, the commentary focuses on how grim a story they were trying to tell. There was a little too much praise for Ringo Lam as the movie did not hit as many chords as it was intending – you’d almost think that they were talking about Mel Gibson directing Braveheart or Ridley Scott directing Gladiator. Oscar contender this is not.

Final Thoughts

While this is somewhat of a change for Van Damme (and I applaud him for taking the risk), it did not hit on all cylinders. Bad dialogue, bad acting and a very illogical ending takes away from what could be considered a new start for Van Damme; better luck next time. If you are in the mood for a prison drama, try “The Shawshank Redemption.” It hits on all of the points this movie was trying to make.

Special Features List

• 15 minute “The making of In Hell” featurette
• Audio Commentary