Penitentiary III

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Audience Member Five years after we last saw Martel "Too Sweet" Gordone (Leon Issac Kennedy), he's back in jail after being framed for murder. And by set up, Too Sweet is given some PCP in his water bottle during a boxing match and he turns his opponent El Cid's (Madison Campudoni) brains into so much jelly. Who would set up our hero in such a way? Serenghetti (Anthony Geary, yes, Luke from General Hospital) who makes a team of fighters in the big house that once a year challenges the warden's (Ric Mancini) team of fighters. The last thing Too Sweet wants to do is ever box again with blood on his hands, so he sends The Midnight Thud to assault our hero and take his manhood. Fog surrounds the jail cell, we hear bestial growling and then realize that Thud is played by Raymond Kessler, who you may know better as small size wrestler The Haiti Kid. Yes, a small but feral beast is unleashed for eight minutes of battle and wow. Just wow. By the end of the movie, the crack smoking Thud — he smokes so much that he kills the rats in his cell — trains Too Sweet through yoga as he goes for revenge, as his cellmate Roscoe (Steve Antin, Rick from The Last American Virgin and the brother of New York Doll Robin Antin) has been beaten unmerciful by another PCP fighter See Veer (Danny Trejo). This movie has it all and by all, I mean Rick Zumwalt (Bull Hurey in Over the Top) as a prison guard, Magic Schwarz (Stone Cold, Mad Dog Joe DeCurso in Grunt! The Wrestling Movie) as Hugo the final boss, Too Sweet in a leather codpiece/Bruce Lee outfit, Geary having a luxury cell with a French chef and a trans lover, Zap from American Gladiators, female boxers decided to stop fighting and instead start kissing and boxing matches that feel more like pro wrestling. Jamaa Fanaka directed and wrote all three movies in this series as well as Welcome Home Brother Charles and Street Wars. Somehow, this series went for urgent melodrama to a Mr. T appearance to this and I'm there for all of it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member The most deranged and ridiculous B movie of all time. If you make it to the end, you will see more shlock in the few minutes it runs than you will in the rest of your life. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member One of my least favorite movie from the 80's, "Penitentiary 3"(1988). Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member The original "Penitentiary" was a fairly popular prison boxing movie that was campy and over-the-top, but it looks like a complete model of restraint compared to the last entry in the trilogy, which features, among other things, former WWF midget wrestler The Haiti Kid as a vicious crack-smoking rapist named "Midnight Thud"! I'm sure Midnight Thud wasn't the only person involved with this movie who was smoking crack; "Penitentiary III" is a complete laugh riot that's nearly impossible to rate because in spite of being an incompetently made mess, it's never less than entertaining. The Haiti Kid almost single-handedly makes this worth seeing on his own; the hilarious (not to mention LONG) fight scene between him and the hero has to be seen to be believed, as are the film's training sequences, where the midget suddenly becomes the hero's mentor and motivates him by repeatedly slamming a door into his abdomen while yelling "GUTS! GUTS! GUTS!". Other highlights include seeing Anthony Geary of "General Hospital" fame as a BIZARRE prison gang lord with a drag queen companion, and one of the very first film appearances of Danny Trejo. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Check out my review at: http://thiscoleslawmakesmesick.blogspot.com/2009/08/where-are-you-midnight-thud.html Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Penitentiary III

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