MOVIE REVIEW

'The Condemned' subjects characters and audience to a kill-or-be-killed tale in which voyeurism wins.

By Michael Ordoña, Special to The Times

Stone Cold Steve Austin leaps from pro wrestling into more traditional sadism in "The Condemned." This product of WWE Films perhaps signals that organization's move from the world of fantasy into scarier "reality" fare.

A zillionaire collects 10 hard cases from death rows around the world (how about that, even "Running Man" rip-offs are being outsourced), throws them together on an island, and tells them to start a-killin' because the sole survivor will be freed. And it's a live-as-it-happens, pay-per-view Web cast.

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There's an author's message here, radiating harebrained hypocrisy: Shame on you and your voyeurism!

Isn't it awful that some people want to see necks broken like this — and helpless people pummeled like this — and women brutalized like this?

Much of the action is shot via motion-sickness cam. But when there's torture, the lens steadies, so we can drink it all in, the blood, sweat and tears. There are moments of entertaining apoplectic rage and laugh-out-loud sermonizing: "Those of us who watch — aren't we the condemned?"

"Condemned" is, if nothing else, an object lesson in how to punish women for fun and profit. But it's all for a point, the filmmakers would have us believe. One suspects that's a point of sale.

And that's reality.

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"The Condemned." MPAA rating: R for pervasive strong brutal violence, and for language. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. In general release.