Roxilla

‘I can haz freedom?’

Well, what do you know – Etv managed to deliver the goods last night, and showed a seriously good B-grade called Midnight Express.

This little 1978 gem is based on the true story of Billy Hayes, who was arrested in Turkey when trying to smuggle hash out of the country back to the states. He is initially only meant to serve 4 years and a bit, but then his sentence is changed to life. The movie focuses on his experiences as he battles in a hectique Turkish prison and eventually takes the ‘midnight express’ out of there and escapes to Greece.

I loved this movie for a lot of reasons, and as an Oliver Stone classic, I knew it would be hardcore. The lead actor looks like a cross between Brad Pitt, Josh Hartnett and Mark Whalberg, and John Hurt has a classic role as a wacked out English dude. It deviated from the book pretty hectically, and it was not very Turk-friendly which was a bit kak, but nevertheless B-grade doesn’t get better than this.

But, and this is what really got me about this movie, the funniest thing is how many parallels there are to Prison Break. The inmates aren’t as hot, and the prison makes Fox River look like my old high school, but things like the prison cat that the crazy Brit loves, which is then killed by a nasty cell mate, and them finding the blue prints from an inmate who had designed some of the areas, and them pushing out the bricks to get into the underground area… they even had a sanatorium, and evil wardens.

Quite amazing really, and it gave the movie that added bit of entertainment and made up for all the really gross scenes. Overall, it’s a classic old skool B-grade and Etv earns a gold star for getting this right.