The Condemned

Ten death-row inmates from squalid Third World prisons are marooned on a jungle island and told that the last one left alive will go free—with all their killings to be broadcast as a pay-per-view Internet reality series. Among the contestants is an American spy (Steve Austin, the latest pro wrestler to try to follow the Rock into movie stardom) who doesn’t want to kill but won’t take any crap from anybody. It all makes for a nifty vicarious wallow for the “No Fear” T-shirt crowd. Writers Andy Hedden, Rob Hedden and Scott Wiper (who also directed) punctuate the grisly mayhem with some sanctimonious tut-tutting about whether “the condemned” are the killers or the soulless Internet viewers taking it all in. Personally, I say the real condemned are the audience in the theater. (Any word from the governor?)