Penitentiary III (1987)

If there’s a more campy 80s prison movie (male division) than this piece of low-budget madness, let me know about it. I need to see it. Until then, this film rules. The best part is easily the great, blood-splattered fight scene in a jail cell between lean welterweight-ish boxer lead Leon Isaac Kennedy (38 years old here, but looking a good fifteen years younger) and a musclebound Kung Fu dwarf who growls like an inhuman monster. Coming in at a close second is… everything else. There’s not a boring minute here. If soap opera star Anthony Geary isn’t going over the top with insane giggles and effete delicacy as the rich gangster who runs the cell block, the other inmates are in verbal sparring matches with other like foaming pro wrestlers or rats are crawling all over the cast while they offer no reaction or someone’s pissing in someone’s face. What passes for the plot: Ex-con boxer Kennedy gets thrown back behind bars after he kills one of his opponents in the ring. A vicious power struggle awaits him and he refuses to take part, which only leads to him getting severely fucked with by the community muscleheads. His pride, his fighting skills and a film editor who doesn’t care if anything here makes any sense are what he’s got on his side. The bad guys don’t stand a chance.