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Cellular

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 30 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Chris Morgan
Larry Cohen (story)
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 10, 2004
DVD: January 18, 2005
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for violence, terror situations, language and some sexual references
Starring Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham, William H. Macy, Noah Emmerich, and Jessica Biel
A random wrong number on his cell phone sends a young man into a high-stakes race against time to save a woman's life. (New Line Cinema)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Final Destination 2 Snakes on a Plane
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
By occupying their roles believably, by acting as we think their characters probably would, they save the movie from feeling like basic Hollywood action (even when it probably is). This is one of the year's best thrillers.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
This unpretentious little bit of superior craftsmanship will be utterly mesmerizing to two kinds of people in particular: those who love cell phones and those who hate them.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
A thriller that isn't kinky isn't much of a thriller. And Cellular has the best kinky phone gimmick since "Sorry, Wrong Number" (1948).
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The 23-year-old Evans has been acting just four years, and his near-anonymity makes him well-cast: He's an Everyslacker breezing through life in Santa Monica, the kind of guy who could turn into a hero under the right circumstances or remain a zero the rest of his life.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Very slick, very compelling and not nearly as predictable as it sounds.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Basinger's debasement in the early part of the film is unpleasant to watch, and it's an unsettling bump in the context of the entertaining sheen of the rest of the picture. So much of Cellular is right on the button. If only it hadn't gotten its wires crossed.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Its adroit use of suspense makes you overlook the silliness.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
It's an honest, unpretentious, well-made B picture with a clever, silly premise, a handful of sly, unassuming performances and enough car chases, decent jokes and swervy plot complications to make the price of the ticket seem like a decent bargain.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
The film works by putting the accelerator to the floor and never looking in the rear-view mirror.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Chris Evans is blithely likable despite a few faux-Cruise mannerisms, Basinger makes a vividly frightened yet resourceful woman in peril, and William H. Macy scores as a mild L.A. cop who lets out his inner macho.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's mad, bad nonsense of the summer, popcorn variety, disposable but oh-so-much fun to endure, a roller coaster on a wobbly cinematic track.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A ludicrous little abduction thriller that boasts an entertaining cocktail of gunpowder, suspense, adrenaline, and cheese. I just couldn't hate this movie, and I really, really tried. It's tightly made and well written in deceptive ways that don't reveal themselves until past the halfway point.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Basinger takes her shuddery Stanwyckness very seriously, but everyone else has a ball.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
If you can cast all semblance of logic aside, it's sort of fun.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Because plot is the sum total here, the alarming holes, inconsistencies and impossibilities in Chris Morgan's script corrode this drama of distress.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Macy once again brightens an otherwise mundane character.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Slickly produced, well cast and very excitingly made, it's based on plot hooks so silly, most of them blow up in your face.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
Cohen and a crew of script doctors have thrown in some of the oldest cliches in the book.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
Basinger appears to be literally phoning in from another movie in the highly improbable, maniacally action-packed thriller-cum-comedy Cellular.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
That's not to say it isn't entertaining, only that the scenes which rely entirely on the fragile interplay between Jessica and Ryan suggest a more compelling movie that got lost in the welter of high-speed highway recklessness.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Illustrates what happens when a viable premise is spoiled by sheer preposterousness.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo
What's truly disheartening about Cellular is that just as logic has become a luxury in a thriller, so has anything resembling tension.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
As Ryan, Evans attempts to graduate from "Not Another Teen Movie"-type fare to more adult stuff. He holds his own, but he has no edge.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Distressingly predictable and not a tad scary. But as a parody of the genre, it's a scream, like the "Scream'' franchise, only funnier. It's as if all the ingredients for a thriller coagulated into Silly Putty.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
The movie crosses the line between offering mindless entertainment and insulting our intelligence.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Using a kidnapping plot to call up some old-fashioned suspense, it doesn't even get a dial tone.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Michael D. gave it an8:
Good suspense, overall it was an alright movie.
G.M. D.K. gave it a7:
Forget logic in this film,you dont need it. Just sit back and enjoy the dumb story with an edge of your seat film.
Ryan M. gave it a9:
Action was well done, and the whole feel of the movie felt slick and well done. There was not a time where you felt uncaring for the characters, and did not worry about what would happen next. The attachment to the actors would keep you watch the rest of the way through.
tug gave it a7:
Pretty entertaining - every minute without Kim Bassinger gets an 8, every minute with Kim Bassinger gets a 3 - that averages to 7.
Bit Burn gave it a7:
Efficient action-thriller. Well acted. I liked that movie...It doesn't have the "Kill Bill" originality and raw humour I like but it's aiight.
Lillian M. gave it a10:
All i can say is.."are you ricky martin?!"
Lee F gave it a1:
The tension was annoying, and the action was laughable. Seeing the old retiring policeman diving about shooting baddies was hilarious. As a parody of the standard Hollywood action film it works quite well.
