I've been curious to see this remake of New World Pictures' JACKSON COUNTY JAIL (1976) for sometime now. It generally rates as 'dreadful' from the reviews I have read...but I would still like to check it out (for the cast, if nothing else) but since there appears to be no DVD release anywhere. Ally Sheedy, David Carradine and Charles Napier star, any thoughts?

Never trust IMDb commenters, particularly when it comes to exploitation movies. That said, well, MACON COUNTY JAIL is not all that great, but it won't hurt you to watch either. It's a Roger Corman by-the-numbers remake of JACKSON COUNTY JAIL, so if you've seen that one, you already know the plot and structure of this one. Carradine is Tommy Lee Jones, Ally is Yvette Mimieux, and Napier is the sheriff (but not a rapist).

MACON's biggest flaw is its ever-changing tone. It alternates scenes of dumb-country-bumpkin comic relief with more somber moments the writer/director is just not mature enough to handle (interestingly, the director is a woman, Victoria Muspratt). Muspratt's screenplay is not very good, and it's impossible to believe in its characters or situations--if she had just adapted Donald Stewart's JACKSON COUNTY JAIL script more closely, she obviously would have had a better movie.

Carradine's performance is good--the lifer with a heart of gold and a tragic backstory to match--but Sheedy never grew into much of an actress (and her character is too stupid to earn much sympathy from us), and the sturdy Napier is only given enough material to go through the motions with no character to work with. His sheriff is alternately murderous and compassionate, whatever Muspratt's plot needs at the
moment.

I'm pretty sure this one was a VHS only, so good luck finding it.

P.S. Carradine and Napier first worked together twenty years earlier in another Corman film, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.

New Concorde did put out a DVD of this, but it's long OOP.

Jeff's right. Netflix has it for rental. Looks like I rented it in 2005.

Thanks guys. Just for the record, I'm far too stubborn to take much notice of the IMDB comments: If I want to see something, I don't let (several) bad reviews stop me!

I caught about 15 minutes of JACKSON COUNTY JAIL on Satellite TV over ten years ago and have been curious to see it since. What probably stood out most for me at the time was seeing David Carradine, who, at the time, I hadn't seen in a film since such 70s movies of DEATH RACE 2000 and CANNONBALL (both of which were firm favourites of mine in my teens).

I have spotted a DVD around online - there's a pricy one currently on Amazon - but I was suspicious of it being an official release. I'll keep my eyes open for a VHS copy (and, possibly, the DVD!).

I'd skip this one if I were you. MACON COUNTY JAIL was made during a period in the '90s when popular culture seemed to decree that the only reason to watch a low-budget genre movie is to mock it. The movie plays very much into that zeigeist, and as a result a solid concept is wasted. To their credit, the leads play it straight, but every other actor in the film delivers intentionally bad, over the top performances. It seems as if they were directed to act as if they were "in on the joke." But the joke isn't funny and it never has been.

I much prefer the Roger Corman movies of the '70s in which the casts and crews were determined to make entertaining, professional pictures on limited resources. In contrast, every aspect of MACON COUNTY JAIL from the dialogue to the acting seems to use the genre and limited resources as an excuse for making a piece of crap.

This is generally the reason why I avoid B-pictures from the period, so I know exactly where you're coming from. Well I never had high expectations for this picture, so if I find a cheap copy I'll go for it.

Well, you'd be better off watching JACKSON COUNTY JAIL, which is a legitimately good B-picture, than MACON COUNTY JAIL.

(Does David Carradine cameo in JACKSON? I know Robert Carradine is in it?)

What I'd really like to see is the made-for-TV remake, OUTSIDE CHANCE. I've never heard of this happening before or since, where the producer, director, and many principal actors (including Mimieux, Severn Darden, and Howard Hesseman) from a theatrical hit reunited two years later to make the same movie for television. I'm sure a lot of stock footage from JACKSON was used.

I actually am expecting a copy of JACKSON COUNTY JAIL in the post anyday now, which is why I began thinking about MACON COUNTY JAIL again.

OUTSIDE CHANCE does indeed seem to be a curious and unique case, but I'm unable to find much online about it.

OUTSIDE CHANCE was released on VHS via Charter Entertainment many years ago and used copies shouldn't be too expensive to find. It is a strange tv-remake anomaly as Marty indicates. I remember the first time I saw the tape - I just thought it was a retitling of JACKSON COUNTY JAIL. A friend later informed me that it was a remake alternate version so I eventually picked it up for a viewing. It's not as fun or exploitative as the original JACKSON COUNTY JAIL, but it's definitely a heck of a lot better than MACON COUNTY JAIL.