Stealth was the flop that sort of embodied Sony’s bad 2005. It seemed like the glossy, vacuous style that director Rob Cohen had perfected in The Fast and the Furious and xXx had finally failed, and many wondered if Cohen, not exactly a visionary, would just fade away.
Not so fast! He’s back with a new film called Scared Straight, and the premise is so right up this poor man’s Michael Bay’s alley that I can’t imagine the movie being anything but sublime. It’s Cohen’s version of The Rock: the governor’s son is sent to prison as part of the Scared Straight program, which is – as I am sure some of you fucking punks know – meant to show troubled kids where the path they’re on will take them. But there’s a riot in the prison (must be Mystery Meat day in the cafeteria!) and the kids end up being taken hostage. The governor’s son must team up with the other juvenile delinquents and a surely rough edged but good hearted con to stop the riots and escape.
But wait! This wouldn’t be a Rob Cohen film is this was just the original Bad Boys meets the riot scene from Natural Born Killers. No, this isn’t just any old prison – it’s a super-duper high tech prison. Possibly with lasers! And certainly with things that – by design or otherwise – can explode. "It’s going to be a sophisticated, state-of-the-art prison, which of course will be its weakness,” says Cohen, pretty much explaining Stealth in a nutshell. (PS, I liked Stealth)