Fortress

Ultimately, Fortress is a formula picture, an action film that has to resolve itself in a conventional way. Still, until its last five minutes or so, when it takes a slightly silly turn, Fortress is nicely realized and holds your attention. [4 Sept 1993, p.E1]

Fortress doesn't dig enough beneath its own surface, or create the tension it should. But its originality and taut muscularity make up for those limitations, and a winning supporting cast makes up for the granite-headed Lambert (already lined up for a sequel), who is only marginally less robotic than anything he's fighting. Locklin is bright and appealing. And "Re-Animator" star Jeffrey Combs keeps the party hopping as an explosives expert in the nerdy Bud Cort/wasted hippie mold. "This is highly sensitive," he says, examining a potent device. "We are talking TNT on PMS!" [6 Sept 1993, p.21]

For all its faults, Fortress has an unusually energetic imagination. At its best, it blends "Robocop," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Brave New World" into something scary, original and grimly amusing. Read full review

For a film that first seems a throwaway, it has unusual intensity and grip. It’s not another over-reaching, under-financed “Terminator” or “Total Recall” wanna-be. Read full review

When Lambert is onscreen, Fortress is just an effective action cheapie. Whenever Smith is the focus, it approaches junk poetry. Read full review

Lambert's utter lack of facial or vocal expression makes him a good low-grade hero, but it's the fine supporting cast and especially Gordon regular Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator") who steal the show. As a burnout case who rallies for the film's disappointing climax - where a lot of clone robots get "blowed up real good" - Combs provides the perfect reminder that this is enjoyable trash, but trash that's been recycled with care. [4 Sept 1993, p.C5]

A technically accomplished but dramatically uneven futuristic action film. Read full review

Nothing about the outcome of "Fortress" will surprise anyone, but getting to that point entails some nerve-racking excitement and even a few laughs. A raft of top-flight special effects add visual and conceptual interest to the proceedings - that Gordon wisely limits to 90 minutes - while an actor named Jeffrey Combs (in the role of a gonzo computer whiz named D-Day) does a crackerjack job in support. [10 Sept 1993, p.L22]

Fortress is as harrowing a cat-and-mouse game as the conflict between Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive," and the new arrival also offers the perk of being about ideas bigger than mere pursuit. [3 Sept 1993]

While confined to the futuristic prison interiors, the film works reasonably well; but once Lambert springs his wife from the women's section and escapes, the limitations of budget and narrative imagination start to show. As it moves away from the ensemble feel of the early scenes, this quickly degenerates into a part explosive, part sentimental star vehicle. Read full review

Fortress isn't terrible science fiction, but it's pretty bad. Hampered by a poorly- constructed storyline, the movie never gets on track. Instead of entering the rarefied atmosphere inhabited by such films as Aliens and the original Terminator, it falls in line with the likes of Freejack and Alien 3. Not the best company to be in, but it could be worse. Watch 1992's Split Second and you'll understand how bad things can get in this genre. After that experience, Fortress will look like high art. Read full review

You don't walk into Fortress expecting much, and the fact that it entertains as well as it does comes as a surprise. There's plenty of violence and gore here -- Gordon hasn't forgotten his Re-Animator roots -- and the plot offers enough curves and twists to make you overlook the movie's limitations. [7 Sept 1993, p.D6]

Fortress is a 91-minute sentence of bland deja vu for sci-fi watchers. Read full review

Lambert fails to convince as the action star and somehow it is left to a computer to steal the show. Read full review

A moment past its concept, Fortress settles into a mix of sci-fi and prison cliches that result in predictable and often silly confrontations, including a not-so-great escape. Much of the blame lies with Lambert, as vapid here as he has been in the "Highlander" fiascoes. Read full review

The most satisfying escape of the day was mine, from the theater, at movie's end. Read full review

Even the requisite gore is sub-par, so it's not even neat when some poor sap explodes and his entrails whiz by. Perhaps Gordon should go back to mining H.P. Lovecraft's territory. Read full review

Audiences will likely feel that they're being intestinated while sitting through Fortress, a soporific and perfectly fatuous exercise that should lure modest audiences for a weekend or two before receiving a life sentence on video. [7 Sept 1993]