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Prison Break: The Final Break
Fox // Unrated // July 21, 2009
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Spoiler Warning: This review will talk about events that happened in the fourth season of Prison Break, especially the ending. If you haven't seen the whole series yet, you might want to skip down to the technical parts of the review.
Prison Break was a great show until it jumped the shark at the very end of season two. The final two seasons got progressively worse, with many people returning from the dead, outlandish schemes, and characters changing their personalities for basically no reason. The show wrapped up definitively at the end of season four, but the producers though they could milk the concept a little more. So they filmed a direct-to-DVD movie that takes place after the main events of season four end, but before the "four years later" epilog. Bringing back all of the popular characters from the series, this seems more like a cheap attempt to cash in rather than a story that naturally evolved from earlier events.
If you haven't seen the earlier seasons of Prison Break, avoid this movie. You won't have any idea what is going on or who the characters are. This is intended only for fans of the show. Because of that I won't spend a lot of time recapping what happened before. If you'd like to find out, you can read my reviews of the earlier seasons here.
So, after bringing down The Company, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and his brother Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) are free men, with full pardons. To celebrate Michael and Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) get married but at the reception afterwards the police bust in and arrest Sara for the murder of Christina Scofield (Michael and Lincoln's mother, as seen at the end of season four.) Apparently the immunity and pardons that were passed around at the end of the last season didn't apply to Sara for some reason and none of the Feds that helped out previously are willing to step in again.
Sara gets sent to an over crowded women's prison while awaiting trial. It just so happens to be the same jail that is housing The General and T-Bag in the men's facility. Oh yeah and Gretchen is in with Sara too. When The General finds out that Scofield's love is in prison, he puts a $100,000 price on her head. Not only that, but since Sara helped Michael escape in the first season of the show, the prison guards take great pleasure in beating her. Knowing that his wife (and unborn child) is not safe and since the warden will not approve a transfer, Michael decides he has to break Sara out.
There's good and bad in this movie. Basically it's two episodes that never aired stitched together, so it does have the same feel as the rest of the show. Being only an hour and a half long, there isn't time for anything really stupid to happen, aside from the basic premise. The movie is filled with suspense and thrills, along with twists, betrayals, and the last minute rescues that the series was famous for.
Having said that, this movie, like the last two seasons, has a lot of problems. The biggest one is that this whole production feels like an attempt to cash in just one last time. The plot is something that was pulled form out of thin air, rather than a loose end that needed to be tied up. The premise is pretty stupid, and I can't really see Michael and Linc calmly letting the police take Sara away, especailly not from her wedding reception. There are a lot of amazong conicidences in this movie, but worse than that is the fact that the final resolution is both very predictable and very stupid. I knew what was coming from early on in the movie (after all, we all know that Michael is dead four years after season four ends, and this movie is entitled "The Final Break") but I was really disappointed the way things played out. Not the actual resolution mind you, just the way that they did it. I can think of half a dozen scenarios that would have been more satisfying than the idiotic (and non-leathal!) thing that did transpire.
The DVD:
Audio:
The 13 episodes that constitute the third season come on four discs (four episodes each on the first three discs with the sixth containing one episode and the bonus items.)
Video:
The 1.78:1 widescreen image looks good. The picture is sharp, and the contrast and black levels are all excellent. There are a lot of low light scenes, and these all looked fine, though grain was more evident than in the exterior shots. Details in the shadows are good, though not outstanding. During the exterior scenes the lighting is much brighter, and in these shots the colors are more vivid and solid.
Audio:
This Blu-ray disc comes with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack that sounds good, but isn't as intense as it could be. The show is mainly dialog driven, with an occasional gun shot, but nothing more than that. The sound effects and incidental music come through strong and clear and add a lot to the atmosphere that the show has. While the audio doesn't have the same impact and richness as a theatrical feature, it does suit the show well.
Extras:
There isn't much in the way of bonus features on this disc. The only thing are two deleted scenes that don't add much to the plot.
Final Thoughts:
Unfortunately, this final installment of Prison Break was not able to recapture the excitement and suspense of the first season. After seeing the very end of season four, the outcome of this movie won't be much of a surprise, and with the suspense gone the movie just isn't as exhilarating as it could have been. It's too bad this show didn't just end after the second season. If that had happened the show would be remembered as one of the best on TV. As it is, this movie doesn't do much to wash the taste of the last two seasons out of one's mouth. Hardcore fans will enjoy this, but make it a rental.
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