Review: The Cell (2000)
Brian Matherly
The Cell (2000)
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.0 stars
See this review as it was intended at: http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Marianne
Jean-Baptiste, Jake Weber, Dylan Baker, Patrick Bauchau, Gerry Becker,
James Gammon, Catherine Sutherland, Jake Thomas, Pruitt Taylor Vince
Written by: Mark Protosevich
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is a psychologist who has been hired to
participate in a project where she can enter the minds of comatose
victims and try to interact with their subconscious in an attempt to
wake them up. She has been experiencing moderate success with a young
boy in a coma, but the boy's parents aren't happy with the apparent lack
of progress and the toll of her job is having adverse affects on her
regular life. As if trying to assure the boy's parents wasn't hard
enough on her, a new development arises that furthers the strain on
Deane's mental faculties.
A vicious serial killer named Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) has been
kidnapping women, locking them in an automated cell that drowns them
slowly in a matter of days, then soaking the corpses in bleach to turn
them into life-sized dolls. Just after kidnapping his latest victim and
locking her in the cell, Stargher has a traumatic experience that
triggers a schizophrenic virus in his brain and causes him to sink in an
eternal catatonia. The police, led by FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince
Vaughn) are able to locate Stargher by some clues he left while dumping
his previous victim's body, but they feel all hope is lost for his
current victim due to his vegetative state. In a last ditch attempt,
they ask Deane and the scientists that created the project to undergo
the frightening task of entering Stargher's mind to try and find the
location of the victim locked in the deadly cell... a cell which will
completely fill with water in the next 40 hours!
Initial reports about this film described it as a cross between The
Silence of the Lambs and The Matrix. While it does share some
characteristics with both films (particularly the first forty minutes,
which seem almost like a condensed version of Lambs), The Cell also
seems to contain elements of Dreamscape and Brainstorm. The buzz around
this project is that first-time feature film director Tarsem Singh (who
won many awards for his video of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion") wanted a
script that he could fashion images out of instead of a cohesive story,
and a good portion of this film supports that theory.
Despite the borrowed elements from the aforementioned films and a script
that contains several logically questionable moments, The Cell does
feature some remarkable imagery. All of the sequences where we delve
into someone's mind are incredibly beautiful (including the dank mind of
Stargher, whose thoughts are reminiscent of an H.R. Giger painting come
to life mixed with a Tool music video), proving that Singh is as adept
at filming strange and wonderful images as his acclaim would lead us to
believe. The first sequence that takes place in Stargher's mind is by
far the best, featuring one of the most ingenious traps I've ever seen
in a film (involving a horse, which no one seeing this film will
probably forget), a zoo-like display of Stargher's victims which are
animated like marionettes, and Stargher himself in a giant purple cape
that spans the walls of his mental throne room. If the film had
continued within this dirty monstrous world I would have deemed the film
brilliant, but alas, the sequences only become more silly as they go
along (despite a painful nipple ring removal later in the film).
The cast is basically just an excuse for there to be some moderate plot
semblance during the parade of images, but at least Vincent D'Onofrio
turns in his usual bizarre and psychotic performance (magnified by ten,
thanks to the environment in which the film has been placed). In my
opinion, D'Onofrio was one of the best creepy actors I have ever seen in
a film, but his film choices as of late have been so completely awful
(i.e.- The Newton Boys, Feeling Minnesota, The Thirteenth Floor, and The
Velocity of Gary) that I have begun to rethink my initial assessment of
him. The character of Stargher is an excellent role for him though, and
will probably lead to a bit of typecasting for him.
Detractors of violence and disturbing images will want to stay far away
from this film, as it contains heavy doses of both. Besides the nipple
ring removal I mention above, there is also Stargher's penchant for
hanging suspended off of the floor by the rings that pierce his back and
legs (prior to his catatonia and capture) which will have audiences
recoiling. A sequence where Catherine enters Stargher's mind and finds
him recreating the disemboweling of his first victim is also pretty
disquieting. One moment also features a character having his intestines
slowly removed from his body by an old fashioned hand cranked spit-like
device.
As a narrative film, The Cell is sorely lacking. As a collection of
images though, The Cell is extremely well done. Although the latter
sequences in the film contain fewer disturbing imagery than the first
half, Singh has done what he supposedly set out to do: make a film
solely for the purpose of stringing some remarkable images together.
Unfortunately, a well-written script should have been considered too,
because without it The Cell just seems like any other music video we
could see on MTV (provided, of course, that MTV allowed for the use of
graphic violence and language in music videos).
Reviewed by Brian Matherly - bmat...@hotmail.com
AOL Instant Messenger: Widescreen25
The Jacksonville Film Journal - http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
--
Chuck Dowling
Editor - The Jacksonville Film Journal
http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
Mark R Leeper
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Yet another serial killer plot,
but one with some difference. This one becomes
a sort of FANTASTIC VOYAGE of the mind crossed
with NATURAL BORN KILLERS. A psychologist
travels within the mind and visions of the
serial killer (and vice versa) in a race to save
a victim from a deathtrap. The film has some
remarkable visions in an otherwise pedestrian
plot. There are lots of intriguing ideas
floating in this film of psychology made visual.
Be warned that the visuals and even the dialog
are a harrowing experience. Rating: 7 (0 to
10), +2 (-4 to +4)
THE CELL is one more story of the FBI trying to catch a serial
killer and free his captives. But when it seemed that there was not
much more that could be done with that tired plot, this film has
some refreshing new ideas. It is the premise that some unspecified
technological advance allows psychotic and psychologist to enter the
other's dreams and walk around in that surreal landscape. Similar
ideas have been tried before in films. In SPELLBOUND, Alfred
Hitchcock took us through the mind of a neurotic's nightmare in a
symbolic surreal world designed by Salvador Dali. The concepts of
actually visiting inside another person's mind or dreams were
explored in DREAMSCAPE and BRAINSTORM. The latter film even
suggested that there was a particular danger being inside a
psychotic's mind. NATURAL BORN KILLERS suggests a natural disorder
to a psychotic's mind, though it explores that disorder without use
of science fictional devices. All these ideas come together in an
otherwise simplistic violent serial killer plot.
Catherine Deane (played by Jennifer Lopez) is a psychologist
trying to get into the mind of her young patient, Edward. A new
device allows her to do it in a much more direct fashion than what
we see used today. The invention lets her visualize his mind and
dreams and actually become a character inside of them. It is a
tremendous leap toward understanding her patient. And the vistas
within his mind are strange even if the boy has a rather standard
normal mind. Then Deane is given an opportunity to enter a most
unusual mind. The FBI has captured a serial killer, Carl Stargher
(Vincent D'Onofrio), and has him under sedation. But his most
recent target is still alive in a death trap somewhere.
FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) would like Deane to go
into Stargher's twisted, violent mind and retrieve a clue as to
where he is hiding and torturing his current victim. That said,
there is not much more plot to the film. The serial killer plot is
abbreviated and for the most part predictable. The real story goes
on inside the heads of Deane and Stargher and we see it as fantasy
worlds.
The success of THE CELL becomes very much the property of
production designer Tom Foden (of cable TV's "The Hunger") and art
directors Guy Dyas and Michael Manson. Dyas is debuting as an art
director, but he has been a production illustrator on several major
films including MEN IN BLACK, MIMIC, ARMAGEDDON, and GALAXY QUEST.
The worlds this team created in Stargher's mind are dank and
forbidding, twisted, dark and bloody. Religion is an important
aspect of both Deane's and Stargher's mindscapes but it has very
different roles in each of those worlds. Each uses religion in a
different way. There are many other tantalizing ideas floating
around. There is a strong hint that two different people seeing the
same subconscious world will see it quite differently yet each will
find the others actions consistent with the world they see.
First-time film director Tarsem Singh directs a script by
first-time writer Mark Protosevich. Singh intentionally mutes the
colors of the film to heighten the oppressive effect. So much of
the film is taken up with the fantasy world action, the real world
story is somewhat shorted. How Stargher was able to build his
ornate torture device leaves many unanswered questions. Other
writing problems are obvious. The film had a nearly perfect ending
very shortly after the action ends. Unfortunately the film keeps
going to tie things up more pleasantly and warmly and out of keeping
with the cold style of the best of what had preceded it.
The viewing public hardly needed another serial killer film.
But if another must be made, at least this is the way to do it.
Combine it with something fresh and creative with ideas. I rate THE
CELL a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper
JONATHAN RICHARDS
THE CELL
Directed by Tarsem Singh
Screenplay by Mark Protosevich
With Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn
UA South R 110 min
Tarsem is a successful director of music videos who has added the
gravitas of a last name, Singh, for his first foray into feature films.
You'd think "Singh" would work for the musical stuff, and could be
dropped when he went tuneless (unless you count Howard Shore's
cacophonous score.) But I digress...
His attitude toward movies seems to be that it doesn't matter what
you say or do as long as it looks good. And at times it looks very
good. The opening, with Jennifer Lopez swathed in brilliant white
pacing the knife-edged tops of dramatically shadowed desert dunes, is
the pure distilled essence of an expensive commercial. She is at the
time prowling the subconscious of a small boy (more on this later), and
we can only assume that this is a small boy who will grow up to be a
fashion photographer - these are not images that dominate the
subconscious of your typical prepubescent male.
All right, here's the deal - she's a psychologist working in an
experimental scientific program that allows her, suspended in midair in
a form-fitting corrugated body suit alongside her patient, to enter the
kid's subconscious and find out what's gone wrong in there. The science
is reminiscent of '50s sci-fi potboilers. Things aren't so bad in the
little boy's brain, but they take a turn for the worse when FBI agent
Novak (Vince Vaughn) finds out about this program and recruits her to
take a side trip into the brain of a comatose serial killer (Vincent
D'Onofrio), who has a victim stashed somewhere and there's no time to
lose!
Singh cares little enough about dialogue that he allows
screenwriter Mark Protosevich lines like "If we can't stop him, he ain't
gonna stop himself," and to be on the safe side he imports plot and
style elements from movies as diverse as "Silence of the Lambs",
"Altered States", and the animated "Fantastic Planet". He has stocked
his cast with middle-echelon stars, and seems not to have wasted much
time directing them, with the result that Lopez spends most of her time
trying to look sympathetic and concerned, Vaughn looks worried and a
little lost, and D'Onofrio just looks crazy. Ultimately, Singh is
banking everything on his slick visuals, and while sometimes he nails
it, as often as not it gets away from him. A recurring image of
Jennifer Lopez as the Virgin Mary is one that could be charitably
forgotten.
If you like shots of kidnapped young women being systematically
drowned in a plexiglass cell, screaming "Daddy! Mommy! Help!" as the
water level rises, you'll be treated to them randomly throughout the
movie. If you're fond of disemboweling and vivisection, look no
further. If you're a fan of crisp story, character, and credibility,
hang in there. Something's bound to turn up soon.
Shannon Patrick Sullivan
Directed by Tarsem. Screenplay by Mark Protosevich. Starring Jennifer
Lopez, Vincent D'Onofrio, Vince Vaughn. Running time: 107 minutes. Rated
AA by the MFCB. Reviewed on August 22nd, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Whatever the medium, surrealism is a difficult technique to pull off.
Often, it comes across either as overly complicated, an indulgment in
weirdness at the expense of a logical storyline, or as too mundane, taking
perfectly evident plot points and tarting them up needlessly. The first
type usually leaves its audience hopelessly confused (or, at best,
requiring multiple screenings) while the second frequently just makes one
wonder what all the fuss was about.
Although it makes a valiant effort, "The Cell" falls into this latter
category. The film, by first-time director Tarsem Singh (pretentiously
going only by his given name), tries to put a novel spin on the "bizarre
serial killer" concept popularised by films like "Silence Of The Lambs"
and "Se7en". Whereas those movies merely speculated about how the minds of
their antagonists worked, "The Cell" literally takes us inside its
villain's head. But while the visuals accompanying these scenes are
stunning, the sequences are too elementary in their conception, lacking
the shrewd symbolism which is the hallmark of great surrealism.
"The Cell" opens on a vast desert landscape, through which a woman in a
feathery white dress, Catharine Deane (Jennifer Lopez), is riding on a
black horse. We soon learn that all this is taking place inside the mind
of a young coma patient. Catharine, a child psychologist, has had her
consciousness inserted into the boy's mind using revolutionary new
technology, and is trying, so far without success, to coax him into
awakening.
Meanwhile, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) tracks down a serial
killer named Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio). Stargher has murdered
several women by trapping them in a sealed container which automatically
fills with water after forty hours. He then bleaches their flesh to make
them look like dolls before dumping their bodies. Just before his arrest,
Stargher experiences a massive seizure, plunging him into a coma from
which he will likely never emerge. Unfortunately, he has recently
kidnapped a woman, and has left no clues as to where she is being kept.
With less than two days to rescue her before she drowns in Stargher's
contraption, Novak turns to Catharine Deane, who reluctantly agrees to go
inside Carl's subconscious.
It is these scenes, set inside the mind of the killer, that form "The
Cell"'s centerpiece, giving Tarsem a tremendous opportunity to strut his
stuff. Having cut his teeth on such visually memorable music videos as
REM's "Losing My Religion", Tarsem brings a number of striking touches to
"The Cell". Consider, for example, a disturbing scene in which Catharine
walks through a gallery of Stargher's previous victims, all in various
stages of becoming doll-like and mechanically acting out vaguely obscene
movements. Also very impressive is Stargher's representation of his evil
side, a demonic-looking figure brilliantly realised by costume designers
Eiko Ishioka and April Napier. Tarsem does a fine job of filming
D'Onofrio in these scenes in a manner that gives him a sensation of
absolute enormity.
But one of the joys of surrealistic works is in deducing the meaning
behind the symbols. But Tarsem does not make much use of symbolism in "The
Cell". Though he does paint an eccentric and original mental terrain,
Tarsem mainly depicts Stargher's mindscape as simply a collage of moments
from his past. This makes the whole thing at times feel like nothing more
than a heavy-handed way to insert flashbacks into the narrative. Most
things in Carl's subconscious are exactly what they seem to be, and while
there is enough of the bizarre and the fantastic to impress the eye, I
found myself left with a slight feeling of hollowness.
Indeed, I was sometimes more intrigued by the boy Catharine is treating
than I was by the Stargher storyline itself. Here we do get flashes of the
sort of clever associations I was anticipating (inside his mind, the boy
lives in fear of a creature Catharine later reveals is derived from Mother
Goose), and it is unfortunate that these sequences were used only as
bookends for the main action. They had the potential to form the
cornerstone of a very intriguing movie in their own right.
The two main protagonists, Lopez and Vaughn, give passable performances.
Lopez's Catharine seems rather weak and half-formed throughout. This may
have been intentional, to contrast the character with the way she behaves
after falling under Stargher's thrall, but these sequences are too brief
to support the decision. Vaughn, meanwhile, plays Peter with little
variation on the standard FBI stereotype. Intriguing hints that he may
have gone through much the same childhood experiences as Stargher are
left disappointingly underdeveloped.
D'Onofrio, on the other hand, ably handles the variety of material he is
given, playing everything from a simpering child-man to an imposing beast.
The biggest problem is that Stargher just is not a particularly memorable
villain. Although scriptwriter Mark Protosevich gives him some interesting
characteristics (he has hooks embedded in his back so that he can hover
from ropes over his victims, for example), these just seem like so much
window dressing. Stargher's own personality is pushed to the background
for much of the film.
"The Cell" also goes a little overboard in trying to make Stargher seem
like less of a monster, passing the blame on to his abusive father.
Although this does provide some insight into Carl's motivations, it also
feels like something of a cop-out. And surely, if we are expected to
excuse (or, at least, understand) Stargher's behaviour on this basis, then
mightn't his father be worthy of the same consideration? Isn't it a little
too pat to just set him up as the ultimate villain?
It is unfortunate that "The Cell" does not tackle such issues, nor take
better advantage of its great premise. Instead, it ends up as essentially
just another serial killer movie. It can be recommended on the basis of
its visuals and sheer entertainment value, but it falls short of being a
great movie, unfortunately settling for just being pretty good.
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
Archived at The Popcorn Gallery,
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/TheCell.html
_______________________________________________________________________
/ Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \
| sha...@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde |
\___________________________|__________________________________________/
| Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html |
| Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
David N. Butterworth
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2000 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
A triumph of style over substance, "The Cell" looks like the
product of a meeting between that darling of the British Film Institute
Peter Greenaway ("Prospero's Books," "The Pillow Book") and the costume
designer for "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace." It's as if they
got together one day and decided to make a horror film.
There are more elaborate gowns, sets, and funny goings on in "The
Cell" than in all of the "Star Wars" pictures combined, and if Greenaway
thinks he holds a monopoly on outrageous headgear and collars that stick
way out to here, he's got another thing coming.
"The Cell," unfortunately, remains a mixed bag because for all of
its strikingly creative visuals (think a high art version of "The Silence
of the Lambs"), it's a bit of a non-starter in the storytelling department.
Jennifer Lopez plays a pretty psychologist who's recruited to
"enter the mind" of a serial killer so that she can discover where he's
stashed his latest potential victim. The psychopath is boldly played by
Vincent D'Onofrio, looking remarkably like rocker Neil Young. The film's
title refers to a nasty little chamber in which Carl Stargher (D'Onofrio)
likes to hole up his victims (all women), eventually drowning them and
turning them into dolls with some industrial-strength bleach. This sicko
is also into body piercing and likes to suspend himself from chains with
metal rings cutting into his flesh, just for grins you understand. He also
has an albino German Shepherd and drives a Ford pickup which provides the
FBI (in the form of a scruffy-looking Vince Vaughn) with a rather easy way
of tracing him.
About that mind-entering stuff. Catherine Deane (Lopez) is
employed by a bunch of company crackpots (among them "Secrets & Lies"'
Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who have developed this dubious scientific method
for allowing one person to engage with another, cerebrally. The technique
is used for helping schizophrenic adolescents recognize and face their
fears, such as in the film's opening sequence set in a desert. What the
process amounts to is having the two willing (or not so willing in the case
of the comatose Stargher) participants outfitted in blood-red Twizzler
suits, suspended above the floor while cloths with chic microchip designs
are laid over their faces, and cranking the knob until it hits eleven!
This process allows the filmmakers, former music video director
Tarsem Singh among them, to spend most of the film buried inside Vincent
D'Onofrio's head. Think about that for a minute. If the bulk of the film
is all dream material, then they can go hog wild on the visuals, right?
And hog wild they pretty much go. It's amazing stuff indeed, and if you've
seen the prevalent trailer you'll get a good sense of what you can expect.
(I liked the visual of the three women cloaked in monochromatic Medieval
garb sitting in a plowed field, their heads held high to the sky with their
mouths wide open like baby birds. They turn to talk to Vaughn's character
but only for a moment, snapping their heads and mouths immediately back
into an upright, open position. Now *that's* the stuff of dreams!)
But where's the story? There really isn't one. But for most of
"The Cell" it won't matter; just sit back and enjoy the creepy, dazzling
ride.
--
David N. Butterworth
d...@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
Edward Johnson-Ott
Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Weber, Dylan
Baker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James Gammon, Tara Subkoff, Colton James,
Patrick Bauchau, Gareth Williams. Screenplay by Mark Protosevich.
Directed by Tarsem Singh. 107 minutes.
Rated R, 2 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly
www.nuvo.com
Archive reviews at
http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Edward+Johnson-Ott
To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to
ejohn...@prodigy.net or e-mail ejohnsonot...@onelist.com with
the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
Initially, my expectations for "The Cell" were low, primarily because of
its mid-August release date. August is the month studios traditionally
use to burn off those movies they consider too anemic to compete against
the big summer flicks and too insubstantial to face off against headier
autumn fare.
Then Roger Ebert got me all stirred up. On his weekly TV show (which the
local affiliate thoughtfully airs on Saturday nights at 3:30 a.m.),
Ebert and his new partner raved about the production, calling it one of
the best movies of the year. After gushing over the eye-popping visuals,
they went on to praise the story, claiming that it worked on multiple
levels.
I'm glad Roger and his comrade in arms had such a fine time. As for me,
"The Cell" turned out to be just another late summer disappointment,
filled with flashy images and little substance.
Created by award-winning commercial and music video maker Tarsem Singh
(he now bills himself simply as Tarsem, you know, like Charo), the film
comes off like a grisly, feature-length perfume commercial with
delusions of grandeur. What a drag.
Jennifer Lopez plays Catherine Deane, a psychologist involved in an
ultra high tech form of therapy. Using a whiz bang machine, she can
enter the subconscious of her patients. Decked out in a body suit that
appears to be made of red Twizzlers, Catherine closes her eyes and
awakens in the dreamscapes of her clients, where she wanders through
trippy MTV style video sets, dispensing psychological bromides while
wearing the kind of outfits that Cher and Madonna trot out for award
shows.
The story begins within the mind of Edward Baines (Colton James), a
comatose little boy. Set against blue skies and majestic desert sand
dunes, we watch as Catherine tries to win the trust of the child, hoping
to eventually draw him back to the real world. The segment is
impressively shot and, unfortunately, the high point of the film.
While Catherine strolls through the psychic Sahara, whacked out serial
killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) wages a terror campaign outside
the lab, torturing women to death and then turning their corpses into
animated dolls.
After the lunatic is captured and falls into a coma (how convenient),
straight arrow FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) turns to Catherine
and her comrades for help. Somewhere, Carl's latest victim, Julia
Hickson (Tara Subkoff) is trapped in a huge torture tank that fills with
water every few hours. The young woman is destined for a horrible death,
unless Catherine can enter his mind and discover the location of the
lethal aquarium. The bulk of the movie hops between Catherine's forays
into the killer's cranium and disturbing shots of a frantic Julia trying
not to drown.
The makings of a solid film are present, but Tarsem is so fixated on
creating groovy tripscapes that he neglects everything else. While
Julia's situation remains dire, there is no sense of danger with any of
the principal players. Character development is virtually nonexistent,
leaving Lopez and Vaughn stuck in one-dimensional roles.
Despite setting much of the film in Carl's deranged brain, the story
stays at a Psych 101 level. Catherine attempts to build a rapport with
Carl's inner child, learning that the killer was abused as a boy.
Meanwhile, the adult Carl skulks about, sporting a series of
over-the-top costumes that Elton John would surely die to own.
When Spike Jonze ventured into the mind of another person in the
wonderful "Being John Malkovich," he was smart enough to realize that
outrageous ideas are best presented in a low key, matter-of-fact
fashion. Tarsem seems incapable of turning off the flash. Even in the
real world scenes, he uses swooping camera shots, jump cuts to extreme
close-ups and other visual stunts. As a result, nothing in the film
feels genuine.
To make matters worse, the subconscious segments suffer from overkill.
Too often, Carl's costumes, created by April Napier and Japanese
designer Eiko Ishioka, appear more silly than imposing. As for the
general look, imagine REM's "Losing My Religion" video (also directed by
Tarsem), magnify the excesses by 10, toss in some gross out footage and
you'll know what to expect.
Ultimately, "The Cell" is little more than creepy, vapid eye candy, with
a story barely grafted on. Ads for the movie use a quote describing the
production as "'The Matrix' meets 'Silence of the Lambs.'" What a load
of crap. "The Cell" lacks the imagination, excitement and thrust of the
former film, and the character development and storytelling expertise of
the latter, leaving viewers staring at an overlong, inert music video
peopled with lavishly costumed characters all dressed up with nowhere to
go.
© 2000 Ed Johnson-Ott