The story: Animal (Ving Rhames) is transferred to Susanville Prison where he meets a dangerous inmate Pastor named Kasada. Kasada wants Animal to become a money fighter once again, but he refuses. In retaliation, Kasada has Animal's youngest son (James Jr.) framed for a wrongful murder. Animal is forced to fight again, while his son tries to find a way to stay out of jail.

"Animal 2" can best be described as a rejected episode of the show "Oz." There is violence, deaths, betrayal, a manly soap opera story-everything you'd expect to see in the show. However, the script by Jacob Adams is laughable. Granted, it was nice to see a script that was more character driven, but that doesn't excuse the plot holes. The characters may be in prison, but they seem to have no trouble getting away with crimes or connecting with the outside world. Kasada, the villain of the story, seems to know everyone in the entire state, therefore conveniently causing trouble for folks outside the prison. In addition, tons of inmates get killed without a single security guard being nearby. Aside from a few scenes, I never saw a security guard roaming the cellblocks! Why didn't anyone bother to try and escape? No one would put up a fight.

As you can imagine, Ving Rhames is the only reason to consider watching this movie. Hearing him deliver lines in his one of a kind tone is always worth of a smile. Here's a list of my favorite lines from the movie:

"You the one doing all the talkin'...Giving the mother f***ing General Patton speech and tryin' to rally the troops and s**t."

"I've got no intention of rapin' yo ass."

"When the storm comes, you can't always trust the weather man."

The DVD

Video:
The widescreen video quality could have been sharper. I noticed fuzziness and jumpy frame edges here and there, but overall it could have been worse.

Sound: The English 2.0 Dolby track drove me nuts. It's not that the track was horrible mind you. On the contrary, the dialogue was audible for the most part, although it could have been clearer. The problem was the music. The soundtrack constantly blared the same three one note hip/hop score/songs. The music kept getting louder and louder as the film progressed as well. Couldn't they afford more songs?

Extras: The extras: A theatrical trailer for "Animal 2," trailers for "Final Draft," "Dead Mary," "Bottom Feeder," "The Cradle," and a 27 minute Behind The Scenes featurette. The featurette is average at best. Included are cast and director interviews, set clips, movie clips, clips of scenes that didn't appear in the movie- the usual.

Final Thoughts:
If you think about it, the prison setting in "Animal 2" can be a metaphor for Ving Rhames career. When he's not starring in blockbusters like the "Mission Impossible" series, he is imprisoned by doing crummy direct-to-dvd releases like "Animal 2." Hopefully, he won't be stuck doing Animal 3 to pay the bills. Skip it.

Film and television enthusiast Nick Lyons recently had his first book published titled "Attack of the Sci-Fi Trivia." It is available on Amazon.com.