Review of Cell (2016) by Andy W — 02 Nov 2016

Review:

When I saw that this was a Samuel L. Jackson movie, which didn't even make a million dollars at the box office, I knew that it must have been terrible, and now that I've watched it, I can totally understand why. As soon as the zombie activity started at the beginning of the film, I fell asleep and I lost complete interest in the plot. I struggled to keep my eyes open through the rest of the movie, and I personally think that it was a terrible and cheaply made. John Cusack plays a graphic novel creator, Clay Riddell, who is on his way home from selling some of his work. At the airport, he calls his family on his cell phone but his battery runs out, so he heads to the phone box and witnesses people becoming extremely violent whilst foaming at the mouth and killing each other. After escaping the strange goings on in the airport, he realises that there strange behaviour is something to do with there cell phones, hence the title of the film, and he eventually hooks up with a train driver, Tom McCourt (Samuel L. Jackson), who helps Clay to get home to his loved ones. On there journey, Clays neighbour, Alice Maxwell (Isabelle Fuhrman) joins them to get to safety but as the Pulse starts to take over humanity, nowhere is safe. I'm not one for zombie movies, so I really wasn't interested in that aspect of the movie but I thought there would be other elements which could have been entertaining. How wrong was I! The acting was pretty poor from these top actors, because I didn't get a sense of intensity or shock throughout the movie. It also seemed like the zombies were just a bunch of extras with make-up on there face, so there wasn't a sense of reality or horror. Some of the graphic scenes at the airport were pretty shocking but apart from that, it really wasn't anything amazing. The whole concept about people catching a bug from using the phone, was great, which is why my expectations were quite high but the director really didn't take full advantage of the cast and Stephen Kings original story. Disappointing!

Round-Up:

With such a massive career, which has earned him millions of dollars, Samuel L. Jackson is allowed to make some poor movies from time to time. The sad thing is Cusack and Jackson did try and make the crazy Pulse situation seem realistic, which must have been hard because it did seem quite ridiculous most of the time. Anyway, the film was directed by Tod Williams, 48, who also brought you the Adventures of Sebastian Cole, The Door In The Floor and Paranormal Activity 2. Taking on a Stephen King novel, must have been a big task for this director, who really done a terrible job adapting the book for the big screen. Movies like I Am Legend, proves that it is possible to pull off a zombie movie without constantly running around with guns trying to fight them off, so maybe they should redo this film with a director who could bring depth and reality to the project.

Budget: N/A.

Worldwide Gross: $735,000.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their horror/sci-fi/thrillers, starring John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Stacy Keach, Isabelle Fuhrman, Joshua Mikel and Clark Sarullo. 2/10.