Cellular (2004)

The movie centers the abduction of Kim Basinger and her son carried out by Jason Statham and others . She speaks by telephone with Chris Evans' cellular and he tries to free her. Chris is helped by a good police, played by William H. Macy , and his girlfriend , Jessica Biel.

In the movie there are car pursuits , thriller , surprises , emotions and it is enough amusing . From start to finish the noisy action pace is unstopped. The confrontation between the starring and the nasties is stimulating and stunning . The races of cars in the motorway are breathtaking and overwhelming and there are a little bit of humor concerning to a cocky driver. The picture obtained a great success at the box office all around the world , it's a real blockbuster. Kim Basinger interpretation is top-notch , she is beautiful in spite of being fifty years old . Chris Evans is nice , he has a good future . Chris Evans did his own car stunts. Before production began, he was trained for five weeks at a Los Angeles stunt school. Most of the stunts are done by the actors themselves, too . The support cast is riveting : Jason Statham makes an fascinating villain and William H. Macy interprets magnificently an agreeable pólice .

The motion picture was well directed by David R. Ellis, a good craftsman who started as stuntsman and director assistant . He has made nice and suspenseful thrillers such as Final destination , Asylum , Snakes on the plane and Jaws 3D . The yarn will appeal action-packed and suspense fans. Rating : 7/10 .Well catching.

Fmovies: Myselve and a friend sat down on a Friday night to watch this movie... We wasted like 10 dollars on renting it.. The whole movie is about some "jung" prankster who gets a phone call from a mid age women who says she has been kidnapped. "Buhum I'm kidnapped... Plz help me...". Actually the phone she is calling from has been recked by a guy with a sledgehammer... Pretty nice detail if I may say so... Not to dishonor this movie much, but in one of the 2 action scenes you can actually see through the gun of the bad guy.. SEE THROUGH IT! That's just pathetic... Just one more comment : The main dude actually winds up robing a cellular store with a gun he just randomly found in a "School patrol car" to get himself a stupid phone charger... So PLZ Don't WASTE YOUR TIME WATCHING THIS MOVIE.

Director David Ellis' "Cellular" 2004, is rather entertaining in spite of the predictable storyline. Chris Morgan's debut screenplay is based on a story by Larry Cohen, who wrote "Phone Booth" 2002 (directed by Joel Schumacher with the literally outstanding performance by Colin Farrell).

Perhaps I went to see the movie without much expectation, hence being able to enjoy it fine as it is. If you expect substance, this movie is not it -- director Michael Mann's recent film "Collateral" 2004, with Tom Cruise, Jaimie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith, did optimize the cellular phone as part of a substantial plot progression. To be more esoteric, try the Iranian film by w-d Abbas Kiarostami (of "A Taste of Cherry" fame), "The Wind Will Carry Us" 2000, which also featured the cellular phone in a down to earth way. Also brings to mind is the Danish film by Dogma w-d Thomas Vintenberg "The Celebration" aka Festen 1998 (an emotional powerhouse surrounding the reunion of a dysfunctional family), and the PBS TV series "Reckless" 1997-98 with the irresistible ménage a trois of Robson Green, Francesca Annis and Michael Kitchen, the cellular phone was well featured as a plot 'crutch' in both.

It's a timely reflection, or reminder, of how cellular technology is consumingly inhabiting our lives, and here in this breeze of a movie, we have a life saver adventure -- a day in the life of Ryan (Chris Evans), to the rescue of a civilian family from the claws of relentless bad cops (well, nothing so complicated or devastatingly psycho-play as "Training Day," of course). This is a lightweight fare. Just enjoy it as it is. Kim Basinger and William H. Macy didn't have to exert much acting chops per se. Evans, and the video cellphones (yes, not just one, there's two needed to complete the plot turns), sure carried the movie, alright. One would forgive or welcome the convenient plot points that Basinger happens to be a teacher of science/biology handy with wires (harkens the beginning credit of production company name -- "Electric Entertainment," hm), and Macy's soon to retire good cop happens to follow his curiosity instinct, and thank goodness Evan's character turned out to be not so goofy but smarter and thinking by the minute.

It's relaxing entertainment, with no need of foul language involved -- straightforward ride, with adequate supporting roles including Jason Statham ("The Transporter" 2002 and "The Italian Job" 2003), and a seemingly unsuspecting role as the cop boss by Noah Emmerich (last seen in "Beyond Borders" 2003 opposite Clive Owen and Angelina Jolie).

Cellular fmovies. "Cellular" has the setup for a solid straight-ahead thriller: A kidnap victim who does not know where she is being held phones a total stranger who must then stay connected on his cell phone to find her before she is killed. Joel Schumacher scored earlier with a similarly phone-themed Larry Cohen story, "Phone Booth." As executed by tone-deaf director David R. Ellis, however, "Cellular" becomes an unintentionally hilarious cousin to Brian de Palma's "Raising Cain" and "Snake Eyes."

Ellis seems to have unwittingly spliced together two different films with mismatched tones: Kim Basinger as the kidnapee and Jason Statham as the kidnapper occupy the deadly-serious, straight-to-video thriller half, while Chris Evans as the rescuer and William H. Macy as a police officer seem to be in a "Saturday Night Live"-alum action comedy. Nowhere else is the disjointedness in tone more apparent than when Basinger and Evans's performances are placed side-by-side during their conversations: The scenes keep cutting between an overwrought Basinger wringing out every drop of melodrama, while a blissfully inept Evans seems to be channeling a cross between Chris Kattan/Jimmy Fallon and Ben Affleck/Keanu Reeves.

Meanwhile, Ellis pulls out tricks intended to generate thrills and surprises. He throws in out-of-nowhere "shocks," a la "Final Destination"; he throws in flashbacks; he throws in a gun-blazing Macy in Jerry Bruckheimer action-hero slo-mo; and yet, Ellis has no handle on staging any of them competently. Case in point: "Cellular" is the proud owner of one of the most ineptly scored chase sequences ever, as if Ellis simply heard a snippet of the song's lyrics ("...where you gonna run to?") literally and paid no attention to the inappropriateness of the accompanying music (which just bop, bop, bops along). (The song is even reprised during the closing credits, which itself is misbegotten in conception.)

And yet, for all of its failures as art, "Cellular" is always entertaining for those very same faults.

I like a movie that takes an idea or a theme or just an amusing gimmick and then runs with it. There is something exhilarating about being able to exhaust the possibilities of an idea without beating the whole thing to death. A great example is GROUNDHOG DAY; just when you think the filmmakers have milked the idea for all it's worth, they take off on a totally new tangent and the film ends up getting better and better. It is a sign that the writer and/or the director are thrilled with the sheer joy of creative exploration. They aren't just playing by the numbers, but are eager to go beyond expectations. This is film-making as a challenging game.

CELLULAR, while not in the same league as GROUNDHOG DAY, is nonetheless a good example of this type of storytelling. This time the linchpin of the story is the cell phone. The filmmakers seem to have made a list of everything that makes cell phones great (emergency use, portability, digital photography, etc.) as well as what makes them a nuisance (ringing at inappropriate times, crossed connections, lost signals, dying batteries, etc.) and incorporated both lists into a story. The trick isn't just to gerryrig the list into a story, but to do so in a coherent and plausible fashion. CELLULAR is a crackerjack piece of storytelling. The storyline is unlikely, but not impossible and it all unfolds at a steady clip that makes any loophole or implausibility fly by so fast that the viewer has little time to raise a question.

Beyond the gimmickry of the storytelling, the film also benefits from being a solid, efficient, no-nonsense piece of film-making. Directed by actor-turned-stuntman-turned-director David R. Ellis, this is an action-packed thriller that knows the value of blending action with humor and character. Without loosing its manic pace, the film nevertheless takes time for puckish humor and character development. As the damsel in distress, the Hitchcockian innocent man sucked into a web of intrigue and the retiring cop facing his one last case, the actors could have been saddled with one-note, cliché characters. But Kim Basinger, Chris Evans and William H. Macy are given ample room to not only act, but to create characters who are, more importantly, smart. They aren't at the mercy of the complicated plot, they are what moves it along.

My one genuine reservation with CELLULAR is that it is destined to become dated so very fast. Technology, the film's driving force, will quickly be its undoing. It brings to mind old episodes of the "Columbo" TV series, where Peter Falk's Lt. Columbo is seen to be in awe of computers and answering machines and video cameras and VCRs, and he has to go into great detail explaining how such gadgets and gizmos work and how they can be used as part of a murder plot. The cutting edge technology of the time now seems so elementary that Columbo's naivete seems rather silly. Yet, the Columbo stories still hold up thanks to clever storytelling and strong characters played by good actors. And from that perspective, CELLULAR just might hold up to be a minor classic, albeit as a period piece.

Rating: *** out of ****

Gimmicky thriller premises are a dime a dozen. Fox's 24 essentially expounds on that idea every episode without any rhythm or consistency. The real trick is executing the idea with the right panache and skill to weave it all into a fun thriller. So is David R. Ellis' Cellular worthy of Phone Booth acclaim, or is it just another Nick of Time? You just might be surprised to see it's every bit as enjoyable as the former, with only occasional hints at the pure cheese of the latter.

Young beach bum Ryan (Chris Evans) is having just another typical day of sun and fun at the beach, but his girlfriend (Jessica Biel) sees his behavior as lazy and irresponsible. To try and patch things up, he promises to run a few errands for her, but on the way, he receives a call on his cell phone from a stranger named Jessica Martin (Kim Basinger), a woman who claims she's been kidnapped and is being held in the attic of an unfamiliar house. Her call to Ryan was completely random, but the catch is, she has to stay on the line or the signal may be lost for good.

Though initially dubious of her outrageous claims, Ryan quickly comes to believe her after he overhears one of the kidnappers on the phone. Deciding to help out in any possible way he can, Ryan tries to locate her family before the kidnappers do. Unfortunately, obstacles to keeping the phone signal going present themselves at every turn, and Ryan finds he must go through some extreme measures to keep Jessica on the line.

It's these obstacles that make up at least half the fun of watching Cellular. Whether it's a dying battery, "typical" close call encounters with the villains, car chases that require driving backwards or on the wrong side of the road, director Ellis keeps the pace lightning fast by presenting every plausible hindrance there is to keeping a cell phone signal alive. That might not be as immediately catchy a premise as keeping a bus above 50 mph, but it's hard to care when the gimmick is delivered with this much fresh skill and energy. Ellis also directed the enjoyable Final Destination 2, proving he has what it takes to deliver straight-faced thrillers in spite of their naturally ridiculous premises.

But as terrific a job as Ellis does, it's the cast that keeps the momentum going even when the story starts to sag. As the everyman caught in this horrifying situation, Chris Evans is wholly convincing and immensely appealing as Ryan, playing out an otherwise simple role for all its worth. Most of the movie rests on his shoulders, so it's to no small amount of praise when I say that we eagerly want to follow him through every move of his day-long adventure. Kim Basinger is surprisingly just as good as the kidnapped woman, proving that much like her physical features, her acting skills are improving with age. The other major standout is Jason Statham as the head kidnapper; he's obviously affecting an American accent that's not all that believable, but he brings an intensity to the role that makes him fiercely menacing.

The plot boasts the expected coincidences and contrivances that are needed to fuel the story, and most of these are easy enough to accept, but there are admittedly a few nagging problems. While I could reasonably believe that the kidnappers wouldn't tie up Jessica and could also accept that she knows just enough about phones to fix one up well enough to make one call, I found it less easy to swallow that the kidnappers wouldn't at least k