Excellent but underrated film

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Leroy Lowe, grand dragon of the Texas Ku Klux Klan confronts everything he's been taught to hate when he's sentenced to three years of hard labor on a prison work farm, where Warden Merville, dead set on rehabilitating Leroy, chooses Emilio, a Hispanic field worker imprisoned for fighting for labor rights, to be his cell-mate.The plot of this one is very forced -- there is no way a man is going to enter into prison as a head of a white supremacist group and start warming up to the idea of migrant worker's labor rights or even think about starting a relationship with a Mexican woman. So if we were to judge this film on realism, it fails miserably.Luckily, as a comedy, it need not be judged on realism. It only has to be funny. And it is. Tom Sizemore and Stacy Keach are both humorous, and it was nice to see Keach put a new spin on a role he already covered nicely in "Prison Break".

I believe character actors can give you surprises anytime... when it comes to Tom Sizemore, I only remembered him in Heart and Souls although I had seen him quite often in several other movies... but boy how good he did it in Cellmates, it made me check out his resume here and got me remember more than a dozen of his performances in the movies I had already seen...The plot is very straight and obvious... a mean racist guy learns to love people... but the process which he goes through is what you have to enjoy in the movie... I personally think this movie is as surprising as Bad-Ass starring Danny Trejo.. Do watch it... you won't regret...

Browsing through Amazon's new VOD section I found this little hidden gem. What first caught my eye was a goofy-looking Tom Sizemore on the cover. When did he get out of jail/rehab? Anyway, I also recognized the guy that played opposite of Jack Black in Nacho Libre, Hector Jimenez.Not expecting much but an hour or two of distraction from this likely mediocre movie I was delighted to have found a well-made and very funny film!Cellmates stars Tom Sizemore who plays Leroy Lowe, a KKK leader sent to prison for tax evasion. He is first put into a cell with a fellow KKK member played by Kevin Farley, who is hilarious as the simpleton, Bubba. They get along "like two peas in a pod," but a sudden change of events pairs Leroy in a cell with immigrant farm laborer Emilio (a lovable and funny Hector Jimenez) who instantly riles Leroy's racial prejudices.Leroy complains to the Warden (an impeccable Stacey Keach) but the Warden won't listen to Leroy's complaints. All he cares about are his prize-winning potatoes that are cultivated by his inmates.After much (hilarious) conflict and fighting, Leroy and Emilio learn to get along and eventually become friends as Emilio helps Leroy win the love of the Warden's maid and Leroy helps Emilio write to the U.S. Justice Department for his wrongful imprisonment.Everything from the acting to the directing and writing to the cinematography were excellent and were beyond what I was expecting from just seeing the cover. This is a genuinely funny and heartwarming movie that has intelligence, and bravely takes the taboo issues of race and immigration in the U.S. and makes them okay to acknowledge and even laugh at!

I saw this at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. It was my favorite film there. The audience was laughing so much that at times, it was hard to hear the film. Who would have thought Tom Sizemore playing a racist KKK member would be so hilarious. Hector Jimenez is also wonderfully funny as a farm labor worker who must share a cell with Sizemore's character. Stacy Keach also lights up the screen with his portrayal of the prison warden who is obsessed with potatoes. I don't want to ruin where the story goes but the film transcends being just a comedy and makes a statement on race relations in this country. Well written and directed, I recommend it to all!