Felon

'Prison desensitizes you'
Writer/Director Ric Roman Waugh may not have a large number of completed films under his stuntman belt, but if FELON is any indication of the quality of work we can expect from him, it seems he has a solid future. There are many films about prison life and prison breaks that keep coming down the pike, but few of them have the quality of being character studies of how prison affects the minds and lives of both those incarcerated and those on the outside who must deal with the realities both concurrent and future of living in the shadow of ultimate effects of prison experiences. FELON is a strong character-based prison drama.

Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff) is a young man on the rise: he is planning to marry the mother Laura (Marisol Nichols) of his child Michael (Vincent Miller), his small business is finally becoming successful, and his family life is happy. One evening Wade's and Laura's sleep is interrupted by an intruder who steals Wade's wallet, then runs out of the...

Grim, powerful tale
What would you do?

A young man, just coming into his own, with a growing business and a loving young family, wakes beside his fiancee one night with the realization that someone has invaded their home. It all happens so fast: he tracks the burglar, follows him out of the house with a baseball bat, and seeing the man going for what he thinks is a weapon, he unleashes a killer blow to the back of the man's head. The burglar, as it turns out, had no weapon; his only take, the homeowner's wallet. And because the killing blow happens outside the home, the young man is charged with murder.

Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff)has apparently never been in trouble with the law before, past what most of us have; and he enters the world of jail scared and confused. His fiancee, angry with the system,sticks with him (a good performance by Marisol Nichols), shielding their young son from the worst of the truth, and keeping contact going with Wade, which is the only thing that sustains...

Harrowing prison movie with solid acting
I loved prison flicks like "The Last Castle" [with Robert Redford and James Gandolfini], The Rock [with Sean Connery] and Brubaker [with Robert Redford], and so when I saw this at the DVD store, I decided to give it a chance. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised - despite the non-existent hype, this was quite a solid prison movie with an excellent cast.

The story centers around Wade Porter [Stephen Dorff] who plays an average Joe type character, leading a relatively idyllic existence with his fiancee Laura [Marisol Nichols] and his young son. They are preparing to get married and have dreams for their future when it is all shattered one eventful night with a home intrusion. Wade chases down the intruder and swings at the guy with a bat resulting in the intruder's death. Before you know it, Wade is sentenced on involuntary manslaughter charges to a prison term of three years. But, worse things are in store for Wade - on the trip to prison, he inadvertently finds himself...

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