Brokedown Palace reminds me a lot of Midnight Express, except Midnight Express was a good movie. Claire Daines (Romeo + Juliet) stars as the girl who is always getting her best friend played by Kate Beckinsale (Last Days of Disco) in trouble. The script really hits the fan when she convinces her friend to take a trip to Thailand rather than Hawaii after high school graduation.
Every time I go to Southeast Asia there is a highly publicized story about two foreign girls caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country. The story is always the same, some really cool guy asked them to take a bag for him and they had no idea what was in it until the cops hauled them away. So I had a mild premonition as to the plot of this movie, when a dashing young Aussie saved the girls from embarrassment after they tried to get free drinks at a posh hotel by giving a phony room number.
The bulk of the movie focuses on the trials and tribulations of two heroines who claim that they did not know they were smuggling between four and six kilos of heroin (depending on which scene you are watching) in a backpack, and the strain that is placed on their friendship by a little thing like a 33 year prison sentence.
The movie has its moments, but ultimately fails because every time it starts to get believable or good something is thrown in that just makes the whole thing seem silly. The plot has so many holes you could drive a mule train through it. There are only three things worth seeing in this movie: 1. A good shot of the Golden Palace (very impressive), 2. Beckinsale tasting a surprisingly spicy Thai dish, and 3. Beckinsale in an half-shirt.
Wait for HBO.
Every time I go to Southeast Asia there is a highly publicized story about two foreign girls caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country. The story is always the same, some really cool guy asked them to take a bag for him and they had no idea what was in it until the cops hauled them away. So I had a mild premonition as to the plot of this movie, when a dashing young Aussie saved the girls from embarrassment after they tried to get free drinks at a posh hotel by giving a phony room number.
The bulk of the movie focuses on the trials and tribulations of two heroines who claim that they did not know they were smuggling between four and six kilos of heroin (depending on which scene you are watching) in a backpack, and the strain that is placed on their friendship by a little thing like a 33 year prison sentence.
The movie has its moments, but ultimately fails because every time it starts to get believable or good something is thrown in that just makes the whole thing seem silly. The plot has so many holes you could drive a mule train through it. There are only three things worth seeing in this movie: 1. A good shot of the Golden Palace (very impressive), 2. Beckinsale tasting a surprisingly spicy Thai dish, and 3. Beckinsale in an half-shirt.
Wait for HBO.