Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

CELL K-11 is an odd little prison movie with grindhouse sensibilities. This one steps away from offering a realistic approach to instead go all-out with over-the-top characters and outlandish situations. The main character, as played by former E.R. actor Goran Visnjic, is the usual innocent guy who wakes up one day and finds himself thrown into the homosexual wing of a Los Angeles jail.This film seems more occupied with detailing transsexual culture more than anything else. The cast features a bunch of actresses playing transsexual or transvestite characters and many of them are believable in their parts, particularly Kate del Castillo, who steals the show as the completely convincing Mousey, the woman who runs the wing. Others like Portia Doubleday (MR. ROBOT) fare less well but still deliver kooky performances.The main problem with this film is the story, or rather lack of it. It seems to slide along aimlessly, giving a good example of prison life but failing to involve the viewer in any way. Take Visnjic's plight, which is predictable and extremely uninteresting. The supporting players are more interesting than the lead, including D.B. Sweeney's slimy prison officer, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as the resident rapist, and Jason Mewes as, unsurprisingly, a drug dealer. The usual sex and violence fills the screen, giving this a hard grindhouse edge.

Such an odd film. Man wakes up in jail, and finds himself in a strange prison cell; it appears to be a ward for gay and transgendered people. Goran Visnjic is "Saxx", and he tries to navigate survival; everyone he meets is either a friend or foe. From the start, we're shown one main corrupt officer that we can tell is going to be trouble. And we're also shown "Mousey" (Kate del Castillo), who runs the joint. The main plot here is that Saxx says he doesn't belong here, and he keeps making phone calls for help. About halfway through, we find out what he's at least accused of, but we have yet to find out if he actually did it or not. Of course, the most famous face here is "Jay" from Clerks... Jason Mewes. (yes, they are making Clerks III, so we'll see Jay and silent Bob again). We almost don't recognize him with short hair. In K-11, he's part of the drug dealing crew. Gets pretty rough, so definitely NOT for the kiddies. It's a prison, so expect anything to happen. And the ending is a little cheesy, but not bad for a first film. The sound and photography were actually very well done for a first-timer, but as she has been in the business for a while, Stewart certainly had the connections to hire professionals. ( Stewart is also Twilight star Kristen Stewart's mom!) Will definitely look for more projects from Stewart. Written and directed by Jules Stewart, based on an original story by Jared Kurt. K-11 seems to be the first project for her. Also son Cameron makes his first acting appearance. A whole lot of violence, cussing, and nudity. It is prison, after all. Not for the faint of heart.

First and foremost, when will the film industry learn that trans women are WOMEN and not men playing dress-up. This film is not overtly mean to trans-women, but completely goes on to reinforce all stereotypes of trans women. It does nothing except make a joke of the matter. Matters of transgender women and men should never be a joke, but this film uses them to try and get cheap laughs.I did like there wasn't a truly good protagonist. This is the part I like. A bunch of darkness in a world of darkness.Overall, barely watchable even with a hot main character. Was OK to waste 90 minutes on a sick day with. It isn't that I wish I could have my 90 minutes back, but this film was solely a time-waster to distract me from my illness, and nothing more.

Goran Visnjic gives a sincere performance in the lead role, but really that is all that is halfway decent about K-11. And this was from actually seeing the movie and giving it a fair chance, so there goes that rather ignorant assumption. Some people probably didn't even see the trailer and saw it only for Visnjic, myself belonging in this camp. The script is confused, it is not sure whether it wants to have exploitation laughs or sombre tragedy. Instead it tries to incorporate both and neither work, the comedy being forced and can fall into the distasteful category for some and the tragedy being mawkish and you never care enough for the characters to genuinely feel it. Okay some of the grind-house punchlines are not so bad, but they are too far and between. The dialogue at best is tepid also. Another major failing is the story, it is slow and almost non-existent and you don't feel any of the tensions and fears of prison life. Part of the reason why you are not engaged with anything here is because the movie in an attempt to trying not to offend plays it too safe. There are also campy elements that are too artificially done and while the comic exaggerations are played for shocks, there was little that came across as genuinely shocking and instead it was too exaggerated and too overdone. There are cheaper-looking movies out there, however K-11 does nothing interesting with the photography or the single-room cell-block, they are just there with no signs of life. The music is pulpy and loud, but often overbears everything. I couldn't care less about who Jules Stewart's family is- that's never been an overriding factor in my judgement of movies, never has been, never will be and also it shouldn't be- what really matters is whether her involvement in K-11 worked in its favour. It didn't, it had intent sure but turned out to be every bit as confused as the script. Visnjic gives the only good performance, the rest struggle with the cardboard characters and give cartoonish caricatures in the process. All in all, apart from Visnjic- who deserved better than this- a messy movie that played it too safe and didn't know what to do with itself. 2/10 Bethany Cox