The Cell





Interesting film, visually, but otherwise just bad.

C-

Creepy mind trip. Dynamic visuals, interesting elements, solid film overall. B+

The most "artsy" mainstream thriller I think we're going to see for a long time.

Great film. A real mind bender and unconventional.

Best JLO film around.

B+/A-

Visually brilliant, but lackluster screenplay and bad acting ruin it.

C

had some decent parts, but it was ultimately pretty dull

C

VERY interesting and weird movie with great visuals!......i liked it a lot. I Need to see it again

A-

Loved it. Top film of the year it came out.

6 out of 5.

(Underappreciated.)

That scene where a horse gets sliced into several pieces by mirror glasses. Eep.

Intense yet strangely beautiful visuals enhance this very taut mystery. It deserved more than a Makeup nomination at the Oscars (Come on!!! Costumes, Art Direction, and Cinematography! But it's first and foremost a thriller, and they're supposedly drab, not pretty-looking).

B+

Kind of a guilty pleasure for me. It's just so great to look at. B+

Kind of like The Fifth Element. A feast for the eyes.

Plot? Erhm, let's not go there.

I agree with most everybody else... the Cell has some very interesting visuals that reminded me of a video that Nine Inch Nails would produce. However, that can't overcome the completely crappy plot and some tremendously bad acting from J-Lo. It's too bad, because somewhere in there is a good film dying to get out.

C

I think that many people here are over analysing the plot - I found it to have a perfect dream logic to it, that increased the nightmare experience of the whole film. A more straightforward plot would have sunk the whole thing...

I don't think the plot is as mediocre as people are saying.. Is it the lesser part of the movie? Yes. Does it really matter? No.

and yes, considering that a huge part takes place inside of a serial killer's mind, it works perfectly with the dream logic, like bradley said..

and Jennifer Lopez seems also underapreciated here.. it was her last good performance imo (haven't seen An Unfinished Life, but I've seen pratically everything since then, unfortunately)


agree with the rest.. visually stunning, etc.

B+

Let's not poo poo the golden of Age of J.LO

This was one of her better projects that she's done. I thought the film was ditto visually stunning artistically. I think the plot was satisfying enough for the film and the acting was well done.

b+

A-


The Cell is by far and away the best movie Jennifer Lopez has ever starred in and in this film she also delivers one of her career-best performances (which is, well, not too hard I'd say). I don't think I can say anything about the visuals that hasn't been said already. I certainly think it deserved Oscar nominations not only for make-up, but just as well for costumes, art direction and cinematography. The movie is a great eye candy. It is beautifully shot and wonderfully concepted.

But it's not where it all ends. The film also carries an interesting storyline. It is an original concept. I agree, it is a bit "out there", but the whole idea of diving into a serial killer's mind and thoughts and the way it was all executed is great. The film lacks some suspense, but it makes up for that with all the otherworldly Dali-like dreamscapes in the mind of the killer. The movie intends to awe and to shock and it achieves both very well. The bit with the horse, the scene towards the end with Vince Vaughn's guts being rolled up...very impressive.

Sure, it has the pedestrian real world serial killer plot (convenient comas! Precisely 40 hours to live!), but how many horror movies are this visually compelling? Those dreamscapes are far more scary and fascinating than another slow march towards each character getting axed.

J-Lo is J-Lo, and Vince Vaughn isn't much better here. Luckily, the real star is Vincent D'Nofrio. Incredible make-up + frightening performance = One twisted fucking king!

How many serial killer plots are remotely believable? Especially when said films are horror movies and not procedurals of the Zodiac sort? I don't think that plot should matter as much as creepy imagery, and The Cell's brilliant story is superior to pretty much any serial killer movie of the past fifteen years. Instead of only being able to see the killing and the gorey aftermath, the filmmakers try to actually imagine the mind of a killer. It doesn't always work, but it's very ambitious and absolutely worth a watch for those who like the whole death-porn genre (which is honestly 75% of Hollywood movies.)

I've seen this before but I just watched it again. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I didn't remember much about it either. The film is strong on the visuals and I think all the mind episodes are pretty cool and worth seeing it for. The introduction to D'Onofrio as the killer is interesting too, but then things get muddled from there without regard for character development and the entering mind ability has almost no connect or results in any practical with the real events. D'Onofrio is great in this, but Lopez doesn't suit the role I feel, Vaughn is OK. It's a good film through some of it's creative imagery, but it just fails in making me care for the characters and provide purpose for the ability of the mind tech and make it feel meaningful all together.

C+