Customer Reviews

Doing Hard Time [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of the recurring motion picture subjects that resurfaces yearly (at least) is the inside prison movie. The public's curiosity about what happens behind locked bars is endless. The long running HBO series OZ added to the numbers of that audience and that seems to be what spawned DOING HARD TIME.

Director Preston A. Whitmore II understands this genre of films and has taken a rather simple story and told it well. Strapping young Boris Kodjoe is devastated when his young son is accidentally killed during a drug deal between two thugs who are arrested and jailed for drug crimes but not for the killing of Kodjoe's son. Revenge blooms during Kodjoe's growing escape through alcohol and on one drunken night he assaults a police officer and gains his goal of arrest and jail time in the same prison where the perpetrators are doing hard time.

How this revenge ultimately plays out is the gist of the film. In the prison we meet all the usual prisoner types and they are actually well crafted and acted by a crew that includes Michael K. Williams, Sticky Fingaz, William L. Johnson, etc and the other side of the bars by Steven Bauer, Giancarlo Esposito and Jazmin Lewis. Not a great or an important film, but a tightly directed and convincingly portrayed prison flick. Grady Harp, December 2004

The only thing that made this movie "credible" was the acting from the dude with the cornrows from "The Wire" -series by Hbo-.
He plays that H-mo thug on that show, although he is constantly typecasted as a "knuckle-head-grimy individual" he does it superb,he kept this movie gangsta when it was "soft".

Story goes like this,Boris Kodjo loses his son in a gangwar crossfire and Kodjo's character "Michael Mitchell" starts to lose it sort of mentally and just can't cope. He eventually loses his wife too when she can no longer deal with his constant drinking and giving up on life mentality as a result of his son's death. There is a a supposedly "dramatic" scene where he is ying in a bubble filled bathtub crying and drinking himself into a "stupor" ala a bottle of jack Daniels..but the scene looks more like he was awaiting his wife to come and join him in the tub and get busy...and Boris (sorry to say)
CAN'T ACT his way out of a paperbag! I mean the crying scenes looked like he was laughing, no tears, oh god!
People like him fall into the "Lucky" territory,
you have no talent but just got "lucky" and it never hurts to
get by on looks neither.

He then plans his revenge on doing research on how to make a "paper machaey" gun???? that blows fire when you attach a rubberband to it??? like a sling-shot...I'm sorry I didn't get that part..they got too "MacGuyer" right there.
He gets pulled over one day for drunk driving,gives the cop a WICKED beatdown with an 8-ball in a sock...then sent to jail....the SAME jail that the gangbangers responsible for his son's death are at. And then the movie turns into "Bad Boys"...the Sean Penn version...you know the rest.

Anyways Boris Kodjo co-produced this movie so that's why he's on the cover art to lure the chicks in...but he is honestly bearly in the movie until towards the end (he was apparently too busy calling the shots as co-producer)ALOT of the time was taken up with the gangbangers he was after with them doing some drug deals with "Dirty" played by Sticky fingers from the rap group onyx, the movie was turning into "OZ" for about 1 hour of the film and made you forget about the original plot of revenge..I was getting so deep involved in the subplot of "who is trying to get dis money" or "you workin' for me now!" dialogue that when the real plot came back I lost interest.

There are ALOT of men's butt nudity scenes in the film including kodjo's, the ladies'll like that one.
Overall the movie is worth a look though even though it's
predictable and poorly acted by Kodjo.

OZ, in the opinion of someone I know who was in prison, was closer to reality than most of these American-made prison flicks which are so afraid of REALITY and sex, and usually brush over or totally leave out the one thing that is VERY IMPORTANT to every man in jail.

I've been told there is so much sex in prison, men get more of it there than they get in real life. Funny how hetero males "transfer" so quickly behind bars and suddenly don't find male/male sex so "disgusting."

I liked this movie, regardless, but I'm a reality freak. Give me ALL of it and tell it to the young so they'll know what to expect. It might just keep them from breaking the law.

The acting here isn't anything special, but Boris Kodjoe proves that he SHOULD take more acting lessons, perhaps he can cross over and become as big as Denzel Washington. There aren't many black "matinee idol" types gracing the screen these days. In America, they'd rather put Flava Flav in a big movie than someone like Boris Kodjoe.

Really good movie Starring Boris Kudjoe. Impressive preformace for Kudjoe going outside the box doing a film about a professional brotha taking the law into his own hands after the death of his son. Wow I really enjoyed Mike Williams from the show, The Wire (HBO). The movie Doing Hard time was a good drama which should have gone to the theatres. I am glad I saw and brought the movie. I recommend this as a must see.

I was at first intrigued at the possibility of Boris Kodjoe showing some diversity as a tough guy in this role, however after viewing the first few minutes I came to the conclusion that Mr. Kodjoe is lacking in acting ability.

If you are looking for a low budget Oz replacement then you will enjoy this film. Their are many shots that will satisfy the ladies, but overall the movie is predictable in it's genre.

Of course a few turn in some pretty good performances, but otherwise I suggest renting or buying the season of Oz because the plot and storylines are better.

I wanted MORE from this movie. I had high expectation and it just did not deliver as I thought it would. Not the typical "prison" movie.

Boris Kodjoe definately shows what it takes to survive behind The Big House, The Prison Walls !!! This is not a film for everyone[especially if u have family or friends in prison], but it does show the reality of what life is like behind those prison walls & it's not always good... I enjoyed this film very much & if you enjoy prison movies & don't mind some violence, then check this film out.. It is done in high standards & does reflect what can & does go on at times in prison.... Overall, I enjoyed this movie & recommend it to check out...

This movie was extremely stupid with bad actors, terrible scenes, and way too many stereotypes. Boris Kodjoe was the reason I even RENTED this movie, and I was taken back by his bad acting. He was pretty okay on Soul Food and is hysterical on Second Time Around, but I think the bad acting around him made his acting bad too. The guy with the braids was too proper for his role (at least on film) and the other guy had a disturbingly hairy booty. Ugh. He was okay as an actor though. The woman security guard was alright, but I wasn't really convinced. The only person who really did a good job in this movie to me was the woman from Parenthood. She played her part well, but then again, she's a pretty good actress. The male security guard who got paid was cool too. BAsically the movie is about a guy trying to get revenge on one of the criminals who may have killed his son in a gun fight. He purposely gets himself into jail and in between the rivalry of the two men who had the gun fight, a leader [...], and another war between a gay inmate and the [...]leader. How Boris conveniently knew which jail he'd be sent to and how the prisoner knew who he was and was so nonchalant about it made this movie not only unrealistic but terribly portrayed.