Civil Brand (2003)

hyped garbage

best movie i've ever seen.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Women prisoners strike up a friendship with a young law student who works as a part-time prison guard. Together they discover that a corporation funds and is profiting from the plantation-like work environment they are forced to work under. In a botched attempt to organize a protest against their "slave labor", the women take over the prison - A rare glimpse of the effects of the prison industrial complex on female inmates. Most of the time i do like this kind of movies about inmates or Prisons in general and i really don't care if it's a woman or a man but this was a poor excuse of a film both in terms of drama and even action. The only good thing about it was actually the women who portrayed this roles i think that each one of them did a good job but both the script and the characters are poorly made with most of the film being about only rape or just people talking all the time plus the movie has one of the worst gun sound i have ever seen in my life it felt like 2 tracks hitting each other it was pretty dumb. Overall Civil Brand is a poorly made film with some pretty good actors get wasted. (1/10)

Caught the beginning of this film on cable, found it interesting enough, that I purchased the film on Amazon. Honestly, I didn't expect much, women's prison films are notoriously bad or depressingly sad; however, I have to say that I was surprisingly pleased with Civil Brand. While the story initially seems to revolve around Frances Shepherd (lovely LisaRaye)) a women convicted to life for killing her abusive husband, the film quickly transforms into an ensemble event, with an interesting, and for a women's prison film, very attractive cast. First we're introduced to Sabrina (rapper Da Brat) who narrates us through this tale. Once inside we meet Lil' Momma (gorgeous Lark Voorhies) the religious teen doing time for killing her rapist step-father; militant Wet (always impressive Monica Calhoun), prison snitch Aisha (the underrated Tichina Arnold) and finally gangster girl Nikki (the delectable N'Bushe Wright). Instead of focusing, as most prison films do, on infighting between the inmates, the film successfully sheds light on the abuse women prisoners often encounter while locked up. In Civil Brand, that abuse is orchestrated by the notorious Captain Deese (the always worthy Clifton Powell). From slave labor to rape, Deese is the perfect despicable villain needed for such a movie. While the performances range from watchable to very good, none stand out more than that of N'Bushe Wright. Not since Pam Grier have I seen an actress pull off the role of a tough-as-nails bad girl, and look so hot doing it. Those that don't know her by name, may remember her in similar roles in the films Blade and Dead Presidents. This woman should be an A-List actress, why that hasn't happened is a mystery to me. Anyway, I digress, Civil Brand is worthy of 91 minutes (the actual running time) of your day. If you like action films, if you like action films with great looking actresses, this is the film for you.

I'm pretty sure a lot of movies we watch contain errors that were honest mistakes. This movie may have a few major mistakes, but overall we understand where the author was trying to go. Last year I began writing a script myself and after proofreading several times I still may have over looked a few mistakes. The bottom line is Civil Brand was a good movie. I believe the director used the right actresses to star in the movie because they fit the characters easily. Acting is something you have to feel and I believe this is why the movie is considered to be one of our best. There's a major difference between Black Movies and movies with Black stars. Civil Brand is a black movie all the way through. It may be a beginning for us who knows, but most importantly it's something done by us. A $500.00 budget is nowhere near enough to make a movie without pressure, so I say please keep up the good work women. All of the women in this movie are setting the path for aspiring, actresses/ writers like myself.

When you consider that Lions Gate reneged on a promised 25 day shooting schedule with no advance notice, forcing the director to finish the film in 14 days, the movie is not bad. Props to Neema Barnette for championing this film and finally getting it into movie theatres.