Gary Jones | Through the Shattered Lens

Well, I finally did it. I finally made it all the way through a movie starring Robert Bronzi, the Hungarian Charles Bronson lookalike who started making movies a few years ago with titles like DEATH KISS (2018), ONCE UPON A TIME IN DEADWOOD (2019) and 12 TO MIDNIGHT (2024). Any person who’s read any of my work on here knows that Charles Bronson is my all-time favorite actor, and that I’ve been obsessed with him for over 40 years. I’ve known about Bronzi since he first popped up in 2017, but I haven’t had much interest in him because his only similarity to Bronson is his very basic look. I watched enough of DEATH KISS back in the day to know that he doesn’t have any of Bronson’s charisma, grace or acting ability. I turned it off or fell asleep and never finished it. Well, this past week, I was on the set of a movie that’s being filmed here in Central Arkansas that’s using my brother’s convenience store as one of its filming locations. I was talking to a producer of the film (David Wade), and of course, as the conversation went on I eventually told him that I’m obsessed with Charles Bronson. If you hang around me long enough, that information is sure to be shared at some point! Once David knew this, he told me that he acted in a film with Robert Bronzi in 2021 called ESCAPE FROM DEATH BLOCK 13 that was filmed at the Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio, the location made famous as the prison used in the classic THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994). He was impressed that I was fully aware of Bronzi and his resemblance to Bronson. I promised him that I’d watch the film since he’s in it, so here we are!

The plot of ESCAPE FROM DEATH BLOCK 13 is simple. After his brother’s death, Hungarian construction worker Mick Kovacs (Robert Bronzi) travels to America seeking justice. Visiting a recycling factory owned by the shady Renda (Nicholas Turturro), Mick demands compensation owed to his brother’s family. When Renda’s goons attack him, Mick is framed for extortion and attempted murder, and finds himself in the Pleasant Hill Penitentiary, where he faces sadistic guards, violent inmates, and the corrupt Warden Jack (Debbie Scaletta). Before going to prison, Kovacs is offered a deal by Detective Borelli (Lyindaa Russell) and FBI Agent Langley (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) to uncover a drug ring. Once inside, he discovers that Renda and the Warden are responsible for his brother’s death. Driven by a desire for vengeance, Mick sparks a violent riot in hopes of bringing justice to all those who have done his family wrong!

I’m not going to spend much time reviewing ESCAPE FROM DEATH BLOCK 13. If you’re a movie viewer who thinks the idea of watching an ultra low budget prison movie, filmed at Shawshank prison, with terrible acting, terrible special effects, and a lead actor who looks kind of like Charles Bronson sounds fun, then this could be the movie for you. This movie is not even close to the quality of Bronson’s 80’s Cannon films. Those films had good directors who delivered entertaining low budget action films, and Bronson was always worth the price of admission. Bronson’s Cannon movies were extremely profitable, especially in the golden age of VHS rentals. In the case of ESCAPE FROM DEATH BLOCK 13, director Gary Jones has delivered a terrible movie that is fun if you like bad movies. This movie knows it’s a bad movie, leans into its turkeydom, and hopes you will like it because Bronzi looks like Bronson, and there is action. In other words, it’s complete schlock that’s looking for an audience that digs the cheesiest of cheese. There’s not a thing wrong with liking cheesefests. I just want to make sure you know that’s what you’re getting into!

I did find it interesting that ESCAPE FROM DEATH BLOCK 13 is full of references to Charles Bronson’s TV and movie filmography. In this film, Robert Bronzi plays a character named Mick Kovacs. From 1958-1960, Bronson starred in the TV series MAN WITH A CAMERA playing a character named Mike Kovac. Nicolas Turturro plays a bad guy named Renda in this film. Al Lettieri played a bad guy named Frank Renda in Bronson’s excellent 1974 action film MR. MAJESTYK. And finally, in this film, Kenny Hendrix plays a bare knuckle prison boxer named Chaney. In my personal favorite Charles Bronson film, HARD TIMES (1975), Bronson plays a bare knuckle boxer named Chaney. I will admit these references were fun to spot as they came up throughout the film’s 105 minute runtime, which is probably a good 30 minutes longer than it needs to be.

As I mentioned earlier, I watched ESCAPE FROM CELL BLOCK 13 because David Wade, who plays a prison guard in the film, asked me to. David does a fine job as guard Schaffner, with his performance fitting in perfectly with the vibe of the film. His friendly manner on the movie set at my brother’s store gave me a rooting interest in the film, and from that standpoint, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The 1993 film, When A Stranger Calls Back, opens with the recreation of an urban legend.

A teenager babysitter named Julia Jenz (Jill Schoelen) arrives at a big suburban house for a routine baby-sitting gig. The two children are already asleep in bed. All Julia has to do is sent in the living room and do her homework until the parents return from their party. Julia settles in. She gets one mysterious phone call but hangs up.

Then, someone knocks on the door.

The man on the other side of the door explains that his car has broken down and he asks if he can come inside to call his auto club. (This is one of those films that could have only worked in the age of landline phones.) Julia doesn’t want to let the man into the house but the man is insistent that he needs Julia’s help. Finally, Julia says that she’ll call the auto club for him but, when she goes to the phone, she finds that the line is dead. Rather than tell the man the truth, Julia lies to him and says that she called the auto club. The man thanks Julia and says that he’s returning to his car.

(What is an auto club?)

Eventually, the man returns, knocking on the door and asking if Julia really called the auto club. Julia continues to lie, even as the man becomes increasingly belligerent. What Julia doesn’t know but soon discovers is that the man is not outside talking to her but he’s actually inside of the house. And he’s abducted the children!

The opening scene, which of course harkens back to the original When A Stranger Calls, is a genuinely well-done and suspenseful sequence. Again, much like as if with the first film, the opening of When A Stranger Calls Back is so strong that the rest of the film can’t really keep up.

When A Stranger Calls Back is indeed a sequel to When A Stranger Calls, which means that, after Julia’s terrifying night of babysitting, the film jumps forward five years. The children are never found and the man who knocked on the door is never identified. Julia is now a college student but she’s still traumatized by the night and has a difficult time trusting anyone. When she starts to suspect that someone has been in her apartment, she turns to Jill Johnson (Carol Kane), who is a counselor at the college and also the protagonist from When A Stranger Calls. Jill helps Julie out, teaching her how to shoot a gun and also calling in the man who killed her stalker, John Clifford (Charles Durning). Clifford figures out that Julia’s stalker is probably a ventriloquist. Personally, I think the film made a huge mistake by making the stalker a ventriloquist instead of the ventriloquist’s dummy.

Despite strong performances from Carol Kane, Charles Durning, and Jill Schoelen, When A Stranger Calls Back suffers from the same problem as When A Stranger Calls. After a scary and effective opening sequence, the rest of the film just feels like a letdown. The killer in When A Stranger Calls Back is not quite as wimpy as the phlegmatic British guy from the first When A Stranger Calls but still, how intimidated can you be by a ventriloquist? An even bigger problem is that When A Stranger Calls Back cheats at the end, suddenly revealing that a character who we had every reason to believe to be dead is actually alive. It feels a bit as cop out on the part of the film, an attempt to slap an improbable happy ending on a film that would otherwise be pretty dark.

These films make me happy that I was never responsible enough to be a babysitter.