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Animal Factory

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Animal Factory (2000)

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Reviews Counted:30

Fresh:25

Rotten:5

Average Rating:6.7/10

Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: For his second film as a director, actor Steve Buscemi (TREES LOUNGE) brings ex-convict Edward Bunker's poignant jail drama to the screen. Trapped with a long-term prison sentence in a Pennsylvania... For his second film as a director, actor Steve Buscemi (TREES LOUNGE) brings ex-convict Edward Bunker's poignant jail drama to the screen. Trapped with a long-term prison sentence in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary, 21-year-old Ron Decker (Edward Furlong) feels like a terrified fish-out-of-water. His cellmate, Jan the Actress (an impressively unrecognizable Mickey Rourke), is a cross-dresser who won't stop talking. Enter Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), an aging convict who has been in prison so long that he runs the show. Earl takes Ron under his wing, and a strange and intense relationship develops between them. However, the relationship offers Ron the protection he needs and gives Earl the feeling that he is a father figure. After Ron's appeal is denied, ensuring his place in the penitentiary for five more years, Earl thinks up a dangerous plan of escape that will either set them free or cost them their lives in the process. Buscemi's drama successfully balances the brutality of prison life with the touching, intimate relationship between Ron and Earl, providing ANIMAL FACTORY with a sensitivity that most prison films rarely contain. The movie features an atmospheric score by actor-musician John Lurie. [More]

Starring: Edward Furlong, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke

Starring: Edward Furlong, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke, Steve Buscemi, Tom Arnold, John Heard, Danny Trejo, Mark Boone, Eddie Bunker, Chris Bauer

Director: Steve Buscemi

Director: Steve Buscemi
Screenwriter: Eddie Bunker
Producer: Julie Yorn, Elie Samaha, Steve Buscemi, Andrew Stevens
Composer: John Lurie

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jan 9, 2001

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Animal Factory

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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A sober drama set in a maximum-security prison where a middle-aged "King of the Yard" mentors an inexperienced middle-class young man.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
01/01/00
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

It confirms that Buscemi is a director that's here to stay.

Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine | comment Comment
02/04/02
Jason Clark
Jason Clark
Matinee Magazine

What it does lack is a performance by Furlong that's the equal of Dafoe's.

Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) | comment Comment
08/14/03
Harry Guerin
Harry Guerin
RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)

The bleakness and myriad cruelties of the prison system are telegraphed with a graceful touch.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Ernest Hardy
Ernest Hardy
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The most disturbing thing in Animal Factory is watching sleepy Edward Furlong try to act.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/25/02
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

there are two reasons to fast-forward this offering when it's released on video: (1) Mickey Rourke's over-the-top bejeweled drag queen and (2) Tom Arnold's truly rotten performance as a baddy who has the hots for boy-buns. Roseanne's finally gotten her re

Full Review Source: Detour Magazine | comment Comment
11/17/02
Brandon Judell
Brandon Judell
Detour Magazine

Where Darabont's drama is an overlong 142 minutes, Buscemi's is a just-right 94, and where Shawshank is predictable, Animal Factory surprises.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
01/01/00
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Steve Buscemi has given us a solid.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeremiah Kipp
Jeremiah Kipp
Filmcritic.com

Here we see prison as we’ve seen it before, but with a touch of originality.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
02/07/01
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Apollo Guide

A picture about adapting one's instincts, and Mr. Buscemi's deftness works well in this context.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Perhaps at 95 minutes, the film is just too short to do justice to all these matters, and maybe one needs to read the Edward Bunker novel to fill in the blanks.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/01/00
Eric Monder
Eric Monder
Film Journal International

Similar to "Shawshank", "Animal Factory" is a far-less-established outing, but never the less interesting. Without the weighty support cast it mightn't have been as intriguing though, because there's a lack of depth missing from the screenplay

Full Review Source: Moviehole | comment Comment
06/20/02
Clint Morris
Clint Morris
Moviehole

A scary and unflinching look at prison life.

Full Review Source: Planet Sick-Boy | comment Comment
07/09/02
Jon Popick
Jon Popick
Planet Sick-Boy

Prison flick from ex-con screenwriter is raw and realistic, with powerful acting.

Full Review Source: Netflix | comment Comment
11/07/02
James Rocchi
James Rocchi
Netflix

The prison atmosphere of constant danger was fully captured, as the film had a gritty, realistic look.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

We may have seen this type of Animal before, but Furlong and Dafoe's work -- and Buscemi’s honest, caring touch with these fringe-dwellers -- make it seem fresh.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Today | comment Comment
01/16/03
Brent Simon
Brent Simon
Entertainment Today

"Animal Factory" shows in unflinching scenes of stabbings, race riots, drug use, attempted rape, and constantly boiling chaotic violence, how hardened criminals are formed by incessant molding inside American penitentiaries.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
05/16/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Gets much of its power from Willem Dafoe's potent portrayal of Copen.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

One has to admire Buscemi's film not only for its achievement, which is considerable, but also for the traps it gingerly avoids, which were equally great.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
01/01/00
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

It's the relationship between Willem Dafoe, as Earl, the hard-time veteran, and Edward Furlong, as Ron, the new boy he takes under his wing, that makes the film so compelling.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
08/17/01
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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