Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Aspen Orson There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

huggibear I had seen this movie years ago and didn't remember it until I just saw it again. I wanted to watch it to see the earlier cuteness of Kate Beckinsale. Now I can rate this movie since I'm into this sort of thing now. This is the kind of movie you just have to watch and form your own opinion of it because the story line is cut & dry and if I said anything about it, it would include spoilers and I can't do that here. But in a nutshell, 2 graduates decide to take a trip out of the country before they head into college. Something happens that prevents their return. The end takes a very unique approach to partially solving the problem they encounter. It was tremendously touching how it ends. Would you do the same thing for your friend, if you were caught up in that kind of situation? Now I've intrigued you to watch it. Go ahead, I believe you will like it.

grantss Best friends Alice Marano (played by Claire Danes) and Darlene Davis (Kate Beckinsale) are celebrating finishing high school by holidaying in Thailand. In Thailand they are befriended by Nick Parks who convinces them to travel with him to Hong Kong. Little do they know that he is using them to smuggle drugs into the country. While trying to leave Thailand they are caught with the drugs, arrested and sentenced to 33 years in jail. In desperation they hire a locally- based American lawyer, Hank Greene (Bill Pullman), to try to get them released.OKish drama. Had a very interesting set up and the plot was intriguing for the most part. However, it falters towards the end and the conclusion is rushed, implausible, trite and contrived. Could have been so much better.Decent, though not great, performances from Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Pullman and Jacqueline Kim.

Python Hyena Brokedown Palace (1999): Dir: Jonathon Kaplan / Cast: Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Pullman, Lou Diamond Phillips, Daniel Lapaine: Similar to Midnight Express and Return to Paradise only reduced tremendously due to its teenage delivery. Title refers to the destruction of fantasy to a dark reality. Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale are vacationing when a stranger invites them to Hong Kong where they are arrested for possession of drugs. Both girls suffer horribly and make a failed escape attempt. Danes sent an audio recording to a lawyer with her story. Setup is familiar and the prison scenes are standard with a conclusion of self sacrifice. Director Jonathan Kaplan does his best but this is not done on the same level he used on The Accused. The big issue is its familiarity and structure. It plays like a feminine Midnight Express with prison scenes in full overload of clichés. Their vacation is familiar, their time in prison is everything we expect, then Danes gives a halfhearted revelation that plays like a crowd pleaser as oppose to conviction. Bill Pullman as the lawyer is the best performance as he attempts to help these girls. Lou Diamond Phillips appears in a flat role. Daniel Lapaine plays the loser whom the girls hook up with thus leading to the trouble they land in. Theme of sacrifice is sidelined by its lame teen appeal that works against it thus bringing the palace down. Score: 2 ½ / 10

evening1 Anyone who has seen the National Geographic Channel series "Locked Up Abroad" will understand how believable this story is. However, it would have been better had it been based on a real-life arrest.The only part that fails to impress and satisfy is the facile, somewhat saccharine ending. (Another element that rang untrue for me was the girls' age. How many parents would send a couple of graduating high-school seniors to Hawaii on their own?)The performances here are uniformly excellent and the settings appear highly realistic.I loved the musical score, and the friendship between Claire Danes and Kate Bettinsale was entirely credible. The always-excellent Bill Pullman shines as a lawyer who toils on low-glamor cases in Thailand but hasn't abandoned his ideals. It is perhaps a strength of this film that the nature and responsibility for the crime remained somewhat ambiguous.This should be viewed by every young person traveling to an exotic locale. When it comes to one's bags, one can never be too careful!