NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
Dotsthavesp
I wanted to but couldn't!
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Leofwine_draca
Strangely, this cheapo effort from Crown International Pictures seems to have got plenty of air time on UK TV channels over the years. I remember when Bravo used to show it all the time at the turn of the millennium, and now Talking Pictures TV have picked it up as part of their Crown package. I guess the title is what sells it, but the film doesn't match.Whichever way you look at it, this has to be the worst Crown picture of all, and they made a lot of dross over the years. DEATHROW GAMESHOW paints picture of a mildly futuristic society in which the masses turn in to see contestants in life-or-death games. THE RUNNING MAN is clearly the film that's being ripped off here, but it's not even close to the quality of that cheesy Schwarzenegger action flick.Instead DEATHROW GAMESHOW is a bore, devoid of laughs and incident. A number of prisoners take part in tasks they can't possibly win, and then the deaths are usually cut away from. This is bargain basement stuff, with appallingly over the top acting and not one ounce of wit in the script stakes. Yes, there's a little obvious satire, but when most of the laughs come from reaction shots of a fat guy eating spaghetti or the crude name-calling of the host then you know you're in trouble. This really is hopeless and I can think of few films worse or indeed less funny.
Tony Schlongini
This movie is extremely funny. You can watch it tons of times over and over again and still laugh. It is included in the Mill Creek DVD box set, that has classic campy films from "Crown International Pictures," Don Papalardo is hilarious, the same actor plays Luigi's mother. Inmates from prison are sent to compete on a crazy game show. They are all technically sentenced to death, so it does not matter if they die on the game show. Lots of T and A. The loony guy that wants to get on the game show is a riot. Don't miss this classic 1980's masterpiece. I would love to see it shown on turner Classic Movies. I give this movie ten out of ten stars.
TheExpatriate700
Deathrow Gameshow takes a potentially hilarious premise and wastes it. It has a few humorous scenes interspersed with a lot of crud. A bit of satire, in this case, does not go a long way.The film's low budget does it in. With a title like Deathrow Gameshow, you would expect a lot of funny death sequences. However, few of the deaths are actually shown on screen, probably due to the lack of a special effects budget. Instead, the film relies on scenes of a fat man chewing spaghetti with his mouth open for laughs.Also, the acting plain reeks. The lead is boring, as is the supporting cast. The line delivery is amateurish and stilted. Only a few of the jokes, such as a reference to a character as a "human rectum," manage to survive.
Sic Coyote
This movie is so stupid and it knows it is, and it's really funny, but not a lot of people know that. It may not win awards for it's production values or realistic acting but what it IS is damn funny! I mean where else do you find classic lines like "He's serving 65 & life for molesting a collie in front of a catholic school" or "If your head lands in the basket face up we'll give them $4,000!" answer, you don't! It's not big(production) it's not clever but it is so much fun. It's a bit like a troma release but with less of the gore (probably down to that stuff costs money) in fact I wish that troma owned it right now. My reason? Why because Troma's DVD output is fantastic when it comes to extras, but unfortunately Rhino(who is releasing this movie on dvd in america on the 10th of October for $10) has a very POOR reputation for disc quality and extras. I'm still going to buy it anyway because this is such a class movie.
