Cellular (New Line Platinum Series)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chris Evans, Jason Statham, Jessica Biel, Kim Basinger, William H. MacyBrand: NLV
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-18
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: N7631
Studio: New Line Home Video
Product features:
- SUSPENSE IS ON THE LINE! After getting a frantic call on his cell phone from a kidnapped woman, a young man must battle his way through a ruthless world of lies and murder to rescue her. A fast-paced thriller in the vein of Phone Booth and Speed that will keep you riveted with edge-of-your-seat car chase scenes.Running Time: 95 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating:&nbs
Movie Reviews of Cellular (New Line Platinum Series)
Movie Review: I do not have a cell phone, but I see they could be useful
Summary: 5 Stars
"Cellular" is one of the rare films of the action-thriller genre that I have seen in recent years where I am not wringing my hands and rolling my eyes because the characters are being stupid. If I yell at a character in a movie to do something and they do it, then I have to take that as being a good sign. This is important, because with a film like "Cellular," which is trying to milk a gimmick for everything it is worth, you need to have something else going for you and I think this 2004 film certainly does. This might not be a great action-thriller, but it is a whole lot better than most of the competition I have seen in recent months.
Jessica Martin (Kim Basinger) is a high school biology teacher who sends her son, Ricky (Adam Taylor Gordon) off to school on the bus and walks back into her house in Brentwood. Suddenly these men break into her home and drag her away to an attic. Their leader (Jason Statham) uses a sledgehammer to smash the phone in the attic and then demands to know where her husband has hidden "it." Of course, Jessica knows nothing about what he is talking about, but she does know enough about science to get the broken phone to work, although she has to touch wires to come up with numbers at random.
When somebody finally answers the phone, it is Ryan (Chris Evans), a young man with girl friend problems who think the call is a joke. Then some things happen to change his mind and she convinces him to go to a police station and give the phone to a copy, in this case one named Mooney (William H. Macy). But Fate is going to make this difficult and it is Ryan who is caught up in trying to help Jessica, especially since there are other things that need to be done besides simply finding out where she is and rescuing here. Whereas Jessica knows her biology (giving her a free shot with a short knife is not a good idea), Ryan is more of a quick-thinking opportunist. When he has to act, he makes his decisions on the fly. They might not always be right, but he is always in motion. He also gets credit for determination, because overall his success rate is pretty low if you keep a running score.
Meanwhile, Mooney has not forgotten about the kid who ran into the police station talking about a woman named Jessica Martin being kidnapped. Maybe he is distracted because he is preoccupied with thoughts about the Day Spa he wants to open, or maybe things just need to percolate in his mind for a while. But both Jessica and Ryan are dealing with an endless stream of split-second decisions, so Mooney provides "Cellular" with some necessary breathing space and some moderate comic relief. So both Ryan and Mooney are trying to come to Jessica's aid, and we know that it is not until they are all in the same area that we will be getting to the climax of this one. Until then, we get to enjoy the ride.
If it seems like "Cellular" is the flip side of "Phone Booth," there are certainly plenty of reasons to think so. Larry Cohen, who came up with the story for "Cellular" did the screenplay for "Phone Booth" (which also had some smart characters in terms of Forest Whitaker's cop). Chris Morgan did the screenplay and clearly at some point in the process of producing this movie people sat around and came up with a comprehensive list of everything that can be done with a cell phone. You name it, it pops up at some point in this movie, and if you are going to do a gimmick then going all the way with it is a pretty good idea (even if the last exchange of the movie is pretty lame).
Yes, this movie has moments where things get a bit outrageous, but they usually involve Ryan driving his car in the wrong direction despite the presence of lots of other cars, and are just minor complications given the big picture. "Cellular" also has yet another one of those scenes that I am really tired of seeing, to wit: a trained police officer gets the drop on a bad guy and is pointing his gun at the bad guy, whose gun is by his side. The bad guy gets away, although I insist that a trained police officer would be able to drop the suspect in his tracks (but it never happens in the movies). So on the basis of that I was going to round down on the rating for this film, but then Ryan does exactly what you should go with a door to take out a bad guy, and I end up rounding up.
In terms of the performances the one that stands out from the crowd is Statham as the leader of the bad guys. He has a great scowl for most of the film and in his final scene he gives a nice look that indicates he fully appreciates the irony of what has happened to him. Basinger is forced to play between controlled hysteria and uncontrolled hysteria by the script and Macy finds a way to fill every one of his silences with nicely nuanced actions. Evans makes a nice transition from the hormonal case he plays at the beginning to the frantic but determined hero he has to be for most of the film, which becomes the key performance in director David R. Ellis' film because Ryan's character provides the requisite believability in the exaggerated storyline. You either buy into this one and enjoy it, or just write it off as absurdity from start to finish. Fortunately, I grant the absurdity of such far as a starting point.
Summary of Cellular (New Line Platinum Series)
SUSPENSE IS ON THE LINE! After getting a frantic call on his cell phone from a kidnapped woman, a young man must battle his way through a ruthless world of lies and murder to rescue her. A fast-paced thriller in the vein of Phone Booth and Speed that will keep you riveted with edge-of-your-seat car chase scenes.DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:with Director David Ellis, writers Larry Cohen and Chris Morgan
DVD ROM Features:Script-to-Screen
Deleted Scenes:w/optional Director commentary
Featurette:3 Exciting Featurettes! "Celling Out"A look at cellphones in today's culture "Dialing Up Cellular"Making of The Film "Code of Silence: Inside the Rampart Scandal"
Theatrical Trailer
Just when you think it's getting silly, Cellular serves up another tantalizing twist. In the time-honored tradition of Sorry, Wrong Number and Wait Until Dark, Kim Basinger is well-cast as a resourceful damsel-in-distress who thwarts her kidnappers by connecting with a n'er-do-well cell-phone user (Chris Evans, later seen in The Fantastic Four) who races against time to rescue her from afar. One good cop (William H. Macy) assembles clues to uncover conspiracy, while first-time writer Chris Morgan and pulp-movie master Larry Cohen (who conceived the plot, similar to his own Phone Booth screenplay) serve up a consistently satisfying string of high-tension surprises. Jason Statham continues to prove his rising-star status as the film's tenacious villain, and director David Ellis (Final Destination 2) takes advantage of his experience as a veteran stunt coordinator and second-unit director, making good use of locations in his native Santa Monica, and wringing credible suspense from a deliriously far-fetched premise. --Jeff Shannon
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