Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Cellular Blu-ray Movie Review

"EVERYBODY'S on a Cell Phone!"

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 16, 2012

Cellular has been called "the same film" as Phone Booth, since both involve a telephone call that has to be kept going or someone will die. Both scripts sprang from the inventively twisted brain of Larry Cohen, who first conceived the notion as a plot for Alfred Hitchcock's TV show, but that was long before pocketsized phones transformed life as we know it. By the time Phone Booth appeared in 2003, a special prologue had to be included explaining why the titular payphone was still standing in Times Square for Colin Farrell to answer.

Cellular needed no such explanation. The idea that a random individual could get stuck on a call that would send him careening across a city in a whirlwind of kidnapping, intrigue and murder of which he knows nothing is easily conceivable in today's world of 24/7 connectivity. (Indeed, you have to wonder whether Cohen is working on a third installment called Texting for Your Life.) The point gets a comic underline late in the film, when one of the villain's henchmen is ordered to scan the crowd at the Santa Monica Pier looking for "the one on the cell phone", and you know what he'll see even before the editor cuts to the reverse shot of the crowd: a mob of people in beach attire, every one of them with hand held firmly to ear.

Cohen's original script for Cellular was set in Boston, but it was rewritten by Chris Morgan when the producers decided to relocate the story to Los Angeles. (Morgan now writes the Fast and Furious franchise and was one of the screenwriters of Wanted.) For directing duties, New Line hired David R. Ellis, the veteran stunt coordinator and second unit director who had just performed so proficiently on Final Destination 2 . Here working with a vastly superior script and a strong cast including Oscar winner Kim Basinger and the always reliable William H. Macy, Ellis drew on his connections in the stunt community to fill the frame with bigger and more elaborate stunts than one normally sees in a modestly budgeted film. The result is an efficient little thriller that has held up well and plays even better on Blu-ray.

Jessica Martin (Basinger), a tenth grade science teacher, has just put her son, Ricky (Adam Taylor Gordon), on the bus to grade school. (Yes, Ricky Martin. It's a deliberate joke.) Suddenly a group of armed men burst into her Brentwood home and abduct Jessica at gun point. They want to know where "it" is, referring to something belonging to Jessica's husband, a real estate agent named Craig (Richard Burgi), but Jessica has no idea what they're talking about. The men, whose leader is an intense brute the others call Ethan (Jason Statham), drive her to a remote house on a hilltop and lock her in a debris-strewn attic. Ethan smashes the only phone.

In the first of what will be many resourceful acts, Jessica tirelessly reconnects wires on the shattered phone until she makes something happen, which turns out to be a call to a random number. The number belongs to the cell phone of Ryan (Chris Evans), a frivolous beach bum, who at the moment is trying to win back his ex-girlfriend, Chloe (Jessica Biel), by picking up the tee shirts for her Heal the Bay function at the Santa Monica Pier. Since Ryan takes nothing seriously (other than Chloe), he thinks it's a prank call, until he hears Ethan enter the room and resume menacing Jessica. That's when he realizes he can't hang up.

Thus begins Ryan's wild ride as he zig-zags across L.A. trying to save Jessica Martin, changing vehicles several times in the process. His own Bronco isn't bad, but the Porsche he carjacks from an obnoxious lawyer (Rick Hoffman) is the coolest ride in the film. Ryan's course keeps changing with his immediate objective. He does first try to go to the police, where the desk officer, Sgt. Mooney (Macy), sends him upstairs to Robbery Homicide, but Ryan never makes it there, because the cell signal begins to fade in the stairwell. He shortly has other problems, as Jessica implores him to get Ricky out of school, because the bad guys are on their way to kidnap the boy to use as leverage against the mother. Then Ryan has to head off to a rendezvous with Jessica's husband, Carl, who thinks he's meeting Jessica, but the kidnappers have intercepted the message. And then there's the hiding place of the mysterious "it" that the kidnappers want so badly. By pure chance, Ryan manages to get there first, and that's when he finally realizes just how much trouble he's brought upon himself by answering the phone.

Cohen and Morgan have a lot of fun with quirks of cell phone technology like dying batteries, fading signals, crossed lines—all the malfunctions that never seem to afflict characters in other thrillers, but in Cellular become an integral part of the action. And Macy makes an original creation out of Sgt. Mooney, who, when he realizes that Ryan never made it upstairs to talk to Det. Tanner (Noah Emmerich) in Robbery Homicide, can't resist looking into the scrap of information he jotted down. For a methodical cop, the names "Jessica Martin" and "Brentwood" are just enough to start unraveling the whole story, and by the end the last guy you would have picked as a man of action (except maybe for Ryan) becomes the go-to cop on the scene.

Cellular Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Director Ellis worked with his usual cinematographer, Gary Capo, who shot Final Destination 2 for him and has done most of his second unit work. Capo provided a cheerful, sun-drenched Los Angeles that contrasted sharply with the dark deeds happening in Jessica Martin's attic prison and over Ryan's cell phone connection. The image on Warner/New Line's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray ably reproduces Capo's photography with plenty of fine detail (which will be much appreciated by fans of beach scenes crowded with scantily clad women), a bright, clear image, excellent contrast that is never overblown, black levels that look accurate in the few sequences shot in dark interiors, and a fine but natural grain pattern that appears undisturbed by digital tinkering or filtering. Colors are varied and bright, because nothing in Cellular's L.A. is ever dark or somber. There's a lot of quick action in Cellular, but the film only runs 94 minutes, and with most of the extras in standard definition, a BD-25 accommodates the film easily without compression-related issues.

Cellular Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cellular's DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix features an active but not bombastic mix, as cars whiz by on roads and freeways, crowds interact at the beach, in a bank and at the airport, and a few well-staged scenes of vehicular mayhem crunch metal and glass all around. There's also a collapsing shed that produces some effective sonics. A few effects demonstrate the depth of the bass extension, notably an impact that comes out of nowhere and is designed to catch everyone off-guard, viewers and characters alike. The dialogue is clear, except for instances where a fading signal threatens to cut off the call between Jessica and Ryan. The nicely crafted score by John Ottman, which has familiar ringtones subtly blended into the mix, is effectively reproduced.

Cellular Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Director David R. Ellis, Associate Producer Tawny Ellis, Assistant Stunt Coordinate Annie Ellis and others: Tawny Ellis is David's daughter, and Annie is his sister. During the commentary they call other participants on their cell phones for additional contributions; it's gimmicky, and each phone participant tends to gush and gossip for a minute or two without adding much insight, but it's mildly entertaining. The participants by phone are: (then) New Line President Bob Shaye, who has a cameo in the film; producer Lauren Lloyd; writer Chris Morgan, who also has a cameo; actor Chris Evans; stunt coordinator Freddie Hice; editor Eric Sears; and composer John Ottman. The gist of the commentary is what comes across in the featurette Dialing Up Cellular, namely that Ellis runs an organized but relaxed set, enjoys working with family and friends, and doesn't take himself too seriously (which is an admirable quality in a director).


• Deleted Scenes (with Optional Commentary) (HD, 1080p; 2.35:1; 5;55): There are five scenes, most of which were cut for pacing. One would have taken longer to get the film started, and another would have extended the ending. Two others involved a concert on the Santa Monica Pier that would have figured in the film's third act. The fifth is an extended scene of Ryan's friend Chad in his whale costume.


• Celling Out (SD; 1.78:1; 19:38): Documentaries about technology date quickly, and this 2004 feature about cell phones is a good example. With the exception of a few interesting tidbits of tech history, the items have all become standard talking points (they're addictive! they've altered the fabric of social interaction! they've endangered privacy!). The commentators, none of whom are clearly identified (though Cellular writer Larry Cohen can be recognized from the other features), probably sounded like fuddy-duddies at the time. In an era of texting, Facebook and Twitter, they're hopelessly antiquated.


• Dialing Up Cellular (SD; 1.78:1; 25:38): This is a good "making of" documentary that includes interviews with Cohen, Morgan, Ellis, Basinger, Evans, Macy, Statham and producers Dean Devlin and Lauren Lloyd, as well as substantial behind-the-scenes footage.


• Code of Silence (SD; 1.78:1; 27:01): This documentary opens with a spoiler warning, and indeed the full title alone might be considered a spoiler, which is why I've omitted it. It details the history of the real-life events that provide the backstory for Cellular's thriller plot.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1080i; 2.35:1; 2:26): "How did you get involved?" "I just answered my phone."

Cellular Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Although Cellular wasn't a big success, it is rightly considered the breakout film for Chris Evans, who had until then been limited to dumb teen roles in disposable fare like Not Another Teen Movie. Cellular let Evans play an (almost) adult, and it thereby paved the way for roles in the comic franchises that have since made him famous, i.e., the Fantastic Four films and the Captain America/Avengers series. The film itself deserves a second look. It's well-constructed, professionally made and a refreshing change from thrillers that depend on arbitrary "twists". Instead, Cellular works by creating a genuine sense of jeopardy and putting credible obstacles in the paths of those trying to help. That kind of simple pleasure is fast becoming an endangered species. Highly recommended.