This gripping story of a prison officer hiding as an inmate during a revolt will keep you at the edge of your seat. The pace of events regularly accelerates and will keep you from breathing.The film mixes the genres personal drama, thriller and action in an excellent way. Spanish actor Luis Tosar gives a terrific performance as the prison's kingpin. The protagonist, Alberto Ammann, makes it easier for viewers to feel involved in the prison's claustrophobic setting.The movie stands out of the pack of other prison dramas, also by adding the Spanish political situation as an external factor to the mix. The music fuels the tension and is definitely one of the movie's strong points. Knowing Spanish at a native level will certainly help you to enjoy this movie. For example, the prison's kingpin uses 'agua' to dismiss an official. It's the key word for illegal street vendors to warn each other that policemen are arriving.An excellent thriller, especially for those who like the genre.

Juan Oliver shows up a day early for his prison guard job. He gets a tour when he gets hit on the head. He's unconscious and brought to rest in cell 211. At the same time, the inmates revolt and break free. Juan is abandoned in the lock cell. When he wakes up, he has to pretend to be an inmate as he develops a relationship with riot leader Malamadre. The rioters find 3 Basque ETA prisoners and the political implication explodes. The prison genre is a well-worn path. This one manages to create something new. The tension is unrelentingly high. Juan is so exposed that the story never lets up. It's a great cat and mouse game as well as an intense thriller.

Cell 211 is a movie about a soon to be prison guard named Juan who becomes trapped inside a prison when a riot breaks out. He lies about his real identity and soon becomes best friends with the prisons tough guy. The movie is full with clichés and is often too far fetched. Juan seems to know everything and says all the right things at the right time, which becomes really annoying at one point. His girlfriend is pregnant (extra drama), and her parts in the movie are just horrible. Why the F does a pregnant girl attend a demonstration? And of course she gets hit, and of course it's one of the guards that beats her and of course this gets taped with his face clearly shown, and of course one of the prisoners gets this video on a mobile phone and shows this to Juan. I mean jeez... I could go on, there are many other situation which are so bad, so I was really surprised to see that this movie got a 7,6 rating (at the time of writing this). Oke it's not all bad, Juan's acting was pretty good and some parts were really suspenseful. I liked the first part were it was dubious if the prisoners would believe Juan's story - which was a turning point in the movie.Although I like prison movies, this is a very forgettable one and I would not recommend it to my friends. Too bad, I went in with high expectations (maybe this was the problem).

Cell 211 is a brilliant drama thriller that centers on rebellion and riot against the status quo. The movie quickly develops the characters with flashbacks and side stories and sets the premise and circumstances early on in the movie. The one thing that comes to mind while watching the movie is Murphy's Law; if something can go wrong, it will.Cell 211 is about two men, both of them in stark contrast with each other: one has everything to live for while the other has nothing to lose. It's a story of how a person falls victim to circumstance and ironically, ambition. The plot is set in a prison where the protagonist- a newly recruited guard- is caught in between a staged riot and is forced to pose as an inmate. Amidst the ulterior motives of the riot and the threat of a mole within the prison inmate foiling the riot attempt, the movie strikes a tense balance between control and chaos, where the protagonist attempts to maintain his impersonation in face of certain death.The movie is written spectacularly and portrays feelings of both betrayal and loyalty, and depicts how people show their true colors in face of changing circumstances to protect their own motives. The movie is a gradual portrayal of a man whose life changes in a day while inadvertently he himself changes with it. Cell 211 is an admirable movie which pulls viewers in quickly and keeps them on the edge of their seat, rooting for the main characters. A must see foreign film.