Cell 213

As much as I roll my unworthy eyes at Claudio's reviews (4 paragraph synopsis of the story, 2 sentence 'review'...) I must admit that I agree with his sparse comments and his rating of this film.

I too rated it a '7'. BUT... you have to understand that this is a VERY slow-burn, low-key 'Horror' film where, when you get right down to it, not a whole lot happens. The strong point of this movie is it's well crafted and very effective atmosphere. *** IF *** you can get into Horror films that are mostly comprised of mood and atmosphere as opposed to a lot of Action and violence, THEN you might appreciate and enjoy this movie. I really liked the way the director used the photography and particularly the sound design to create what I felt was, in my lowly and wretched opinion, a very effective and suspenseful, moody Horror film.

Don't get me wrong... I frigg'n LOVE some of the all-out kick your balls up behind your ears Horror movies if they are made well, but I also enjoy low-key, well crafted, moody ones like this one. As long as you don't mind the light use of action and violence, you really can get caught up in the moody atmosphere of a movie like this.

The acting throughout was also very good, with the principles doing an excellent job in their roles. I think that since the story in itself is so simple and straight-forward, it really falls to the director to be able to bring it all together in such a way to create the suspense and tension in order to make it effective and to do what it is supposed to do.

So, unlike one of the early reviewers above who basically sliced and diced this movie telling us in detail WHY it was so bad, if you can appreciate THIS KIND of Horror film as I have tried in my inept way to explain so you can understand, then I would think that there is a good chance that you will find it entertaining. Remember too... it is basically Supernaturally themed, so if movies like that just make you roll your eyes and you feel that they are complete BS, then by all means give this one a pass...

Oh, FWIW I really dug the 'BLADE RUNNER' lighting at the very end...

(2011) Cell 213 PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

Cocky, philandering, lawyer, Michael Grey (Eric Balfour) who often attempts to free convicted murderers and rapists would do whatever it takes to win a case, even if it means resorting to unethical practices such as using scare tactics to scare crucial witnesses. Upon Michael visiting one of his clients, who's name is Charlie, who verbally confessed to raping and then killing an underage girl. Once conversing with Charlie at a closed room, he would then unexpectedly grab Michael's hand while holding his pen and then jab it onto his neck. Because there was no witnesses, except for the very resentful prison guard, Ray Clement (Michael Rooker) who just happened to walk in after Charlie was killed, Michael Grey then gets prosecuted and put in jail and placed into the same cell where, Charlie the child molester went berserk which is "Cell 213"- hence the title. And it is during this time is when Michael Grey start to hallucinate the same demons as Charlie. Watching this movie is like re-living a very bad dream since Michael Grey is an unlikable lawyer who frees admitted rapists and murderers, and as a result of attempting to receive the same treatment, he gets rejected from the very firm who hired him in the first place just because it has a reputation that needs to be respected. And although, this is a straight to rental movie, I like the direction this movie was conveying, which I started hating Michael to cheering for him, since he was portrayed as an underdog as the movie was progressing. I'd just wish there could've been a better ending since as the saying goes, "Two wrongs don't make it right"

This is not really a review, it should be taken more as a collection of impressions of the film.

To say that this horror is bad and ridiculous is an understatement, this stuff is really stupid, everything that happens is stupid starting with how the lawyer arrives in prison up to the limited and tremendous deductive skills of the detective who wants to shed light on the matter in the stupidest way possible passing through the ending which is trivial but still really stupid. The only nice thing about the movie is the prison dynamics which are interesting and follow the protagonist's growing madness well, but other than that it's really ridiculous.

I mean, there were a lot of implausible things that happened in the movie, but what film these days aren't rife with implausibility's? I didn't think the overall acting was that bad. Sure, there were many images on display that one has seen before in Biblical-type horror movies, but they were well presented here.

Truth be told, like a lot of flicks I watch, I don't bother to research in depth what it's all about. All I knew going into "Cell 213" was that it was a horror film. I'd even forgotten about the fact that it was supposed to be some kind of factious exposition between God and the Devil. At least it wasn't preachy. That would've brought the ratings way down. I recommend this flick. Could've better, could've worse. Mileage may vary.

Maninder Chana writes a story about a cocky and somewhat unethical ambitious young lawyer that finds himself thrown into a complete Hell when one of his clients unexpectedly kills himself while on a private meeting only days prior to his release from jail.

Stephen T. Kay sits in the Director chair trying to build some tension around the story in a by-the-numbers horror movie.

And when the only thing that comes to your mind when you see the Writer & Director of a movie is "who?" then you know things are not stacking on the right side. Sure, sometimes unknown Writers can create wonderful scripts and unknown Directors can make masterpieces...sadly neither of those is the case with this movie.

The script is a complete mess, and there's a reason for that: this was Chana's first attempt at a "full" story, since his whole career was built over short stories. And you can see that "limitation" permeating into this movie's script.

We have the main character Michael Grey (played by Eric Balfour) as a ruthless young lawyer trying to win cases at all costs whose ambition pushes him to do some really questionable things in order to "secure" a win in Court. And then when everything seems to go "according to plans" suddenly everything goes into "Chaos Mode".

And that's when everything goes awry: almost everything in the story is just completely ridiculous without any sort of verisimilitude whatsoever. Plot elements come and go without any sort of actual explanation. Characters are introduced without any idea of "what to do with them", sometimes even introducing totally pointless characters into an already confusing plot. It seems as if the Writer just doesn't know how to tell a detailed tale and just purposely keeps everything vague as a way of not bothering explaining anything.

In Kay's case, his best work has been the 2000 flick Get Carter, with Sly Stallone. So...yeah, he's no Martin Scorsese.

In the acting department Eric Balfour does a somewhat acceptable job as the lead character, followed by Michael Rooker, in one of his usual roles: a despicable and twisted prison-officer-with-a-moral- standard-of-his-own. Bruce Greenwood does an awful job as South River State Penitentiary's Warden, with a dull and uninspired performance. And Deborah Valente plays Audrey Davis, a Correctional Dept. officer best described as "forgettable".

Bottom line:

-Confusing, convoluted and sloppy script

-Average directing job

-Average-to-Mediocre acting

-Standard photography

-Bad FX

-Not scary

-Not "profound"

-No jump scares

-Awful as a Thriller

-Awful as a Horror movie

-Awful as a Supernatural story

-An all-around weak movie

If you're into masochism there's better things to do to achieve your goal. This movie is 109 minutes of pure boredom from start to finish. Stay far away from it.