Broadcast live on the internet for a nominal fee: Ten death row inmates from around the world thrown on an island, given weapons and promised freedom if they are the last one standing. Go.

"The Condemned" is an awful movie on two levels. The first is simply that it fails as an action film. You would think a fight-to-the-death tournament involving Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vinnie "Juggernaut" Jones would be exciting. Unfortunately, the go-to fighting move for them and all of the other convicts is the classic repeated punch to the face.

And it doesn't help that the camera trained on them always looks like its being held by someone having a seizure. Seriously, there's ten times more choreography in WWE's "Smackdown" every week than what's attempted in the movie. The worst part? Stone Cold doesn't even stunner anyone. Come on.

The second problem is that the film fails as social commentary, which it really, really wants to be. The whole point of the film is to depict how evil the producer is who has set up this whole deathmatch in the first place.

His crew watches with disgust as the cons rape, torture and dismember each other. One by one, crew members drop out due to conscience or nausea. All the while the producer yells about how many people are tuning-in to see the carnage and how it's perfectly acceptable to show a contest where people murder each other because violence always enthralls an audience.

The irony? You're sitting in a theater watching "The Condemned"! You are there because "convicts killing each other on an island" sounded like something you wanted to see.

All mind-blowing hypocrisy aside, "The Condemned" simply isn't a good movie. You'll find more believable action in a pro-wrestling pay-per-view and better social commentary in a Garfield cartoon.

There are good movies coming out soon, save your money for them.

"The Condemned"
Lions Gate
At the Showcase and Quality 16
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars