It's probably mostly due to the short 80 minute run time, but Riot in Cell Block 11 is way too simple of a story with little character development and a plot that feels very condensed. The acting is pretty good (if a little hammy from some of the actors) and the cinematography is serviceable, but I needed more from the story. We are supposed to empathize with the inmates, but we are only ever told that the guards are brutal and the conditions are even worse. I never saw a prisoner being treated badly. I never saw deplorable conditions. I did see empathetic guards and stricter guards, but nothing that makes me feel like the riot is justified, honestly, the more I see from the inmates, the more I sided with the guards. Things also play out way too fast and it's hard to have too much of a handle on the dynamics. It's a fine movie, but it needed at least another half hour to really accomplish anything.
It's probably mostly due to the short 80 minute run time, but Riot in Cell Block 11 is way too simple of a story with little character development and a plot that feels very condensed. The acting is pretty good (if a little hammy from some of the actors) and the cinematography is serviceable, but I needed more from the story. We are supposed to empathize with the inmates, but we are only ever told that the guards are brutal and the conditions are even worse. I never saw a prisoner being treated badly. I never saw deplorable conditions. I did see empathetic guards and stricter guards, but nothing that makes me feel like the riot is justified, honestly, the more I see from the inmates, the more I sided with the guards. Things also play out way too fast and it's hard to have too much of a handle on the dynamics. It's a fine movie, but it needed at least another half hour to really accomplish anything.
