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
(5 votes)
2.
Jessica Martin (Kim Basinger) is a high school science teacher and mother whose peaceful life is turned upside down when she is kidnapped from her home by five unknown assailants and taken to a mysterious location. Fearful for her life and completely in the dark as to her abductors’ motives, Jessica manages to patch together a shattered telephone and secretly place a call to an unknown number in a last-ditch attempt to save herself. Ryan (Chris Evans), the carefree young man who answers the panicked call, suddenly finds himself Jessica’s last hope.
With no knowledge of Jessica other than her hushed, fearful voice on the other end of the tenuous cell phone connection, Ryan is quickly thrown into a world of deception and murder in a frantic search to find and save her. The lives of Jessica and her family are in his hands, but what is waiting for him on the other side of the line and what will it cost him to find out?
(4 votes)
3.
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.
(3 votes)
4.
The very definition of a "taut" thriller, this suspense yarn scripted by Larry Cohen (PHONE BOOTH) aims straight for the adrenaline glands and never lets go. A lazy beach bum named Ryan (Chris Evans) finds himself getting focused in a real hurry when he receives a random cell phone call from kidnapped biology teacher (Kim Basinger). She's locked in an attic with a room full of killers below, and has only managed to contact him via crossing loose wires on a smashed phone; if they lose the connection, she may never get another one, and the kidnappers are going after her child next. What follows is a nonstop race all over Los Angeles as Ryan deals with connection-threatening problems like tunnels, low batteries, and crossed signals. William H. Macy is great as the weary cop who doggedly senses something's amiss, and British actor Jason Statham (SNATCH) is a really scary kidnapper with a convincing American accent. Hitchcock would likely smile in approval of director David R. Ellis borrowing many of his suspense building tricks, as it's all in the service of keeping the anxiety jacked up to maximum. This is fine b-movie entertainment, with believable, intelligent characters, no GGI effects, and everything happening in (almost) real time. Highlights include a cell phone store visit and Eddie Driscoll as an obnoxious lawyer. Basinger is amazing, as usual, in a difficult role.
(2 votes)
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