The new World Wrestling Entertainment-engineered B-movie The Condemned boasts an elegantly simple premise that a tough-guy auteur like Walter Hill could really sink his teeth into. Ten condemned badasses are forced to fight to the death on a remote island for the amusement of a deranged television producer and millions of Internet voyeurs. But the film keeps adding layers of superfluous nonsense to its plot until all that's left is glowering ultra-violence and a whole lot of missed opportunities. For starters, only nine of the film's condemned badasses are genuine bad guys and gals. The tenth is simply a stand-up dude, unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It will shock no one to learn that he's also the guy with his name above the title and millions of kids cheering his every wrestling match.
