Donald Sutherland Box Office Bomb Needs Saving

Lock Up follows Frank Leone (Sylvester Stallone), a petty criminal who’s incarcerated in a minimum-security prison in New Jersey. As the film opens, Frank is working on a car at a mechanics shop and is seen kissing his girlfriend Melissa goodbye (Darlanne Fluegel) as he gets a ride back to the prison after his weekend furlough. But Frank’s life as a prison trustee is about to take a pretty nasty turn.

Lock Up sees Frank dragged from his cell in the middle of the night and forced to transfer to a maximum security prison that’s run by a brutal warden named Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland). As Frank protests his transfer and its legal merits, Drumgoole gleefully explains to him that he was able to arrange for it with the state prison board. It’s revealed that years earlier, Frank was serving time in a prison under Drumgoole’s command, only to expose the corrupt warden’s actions to the press and cause him a lot of grief.

Frank befriends several other inmates who all try to dodge the abuse from Drumgoole’s crooked guards in Lock Up. Additionally, the inmates have to always be on the lookout for prisoner Chink Weber, a ruthless enforcer that is one of the inmate lackeys assigned to do Drumgoole’s bidding.

Lock Up becomes a battle of wills as Drumgoole does everything in his power to try to break Frank. Using the guards and other inmates to carry out physical and psychological torture, Drumgoole believes he has finally found a way to make Frank snap. If he succeeds, Frank will likely remain in prison for the rest of his life.

Donald Sutherland plays the part of Drumgoole so well that it makes him difficult to see in films where his character is likable. Lock Up is Sutherland as the worst of the worst, character-wise. His portrayal of Drumgoole and the way he exudes malevolence is the perfect anecdote for Stallone’s every-man.

Audiences get great performances from Tom Sizemore, John Amos, and Frank McRae, all of whom give the Lock Up extra layers of atmosphere. Sonny Landham makes an exceptional prison yard bully and gives the performance of a lifetime. You’ll also see Danny Trejo in one of his earliest roles. The iconic actor portrays one of Chink’s prison gang members.

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Lock Up follows a mostly exciting storyline, though many of its tenants are farfetched, even for an action feature. But it’s a film that keeps audiences interested without too many wasted scenes.

You won’t find Lock Up available on any streaming platform. But you can still see the late Donald Sutherland in one of his best villainous roles by purchasing it on Amazon Prime Video.