a5c7b9f00b A woman is kidnapped out of her house and brought somewhere and locked in a room. Now there's a phone in the room but before she could use it, her captor smashes it. She then tinkers with it and manages to get a dial tone but is unable to dial. She then crosses wires and contacts a young surfer. When she tells him that she has been kidnapped; he doesn't believe her and/or care but he goes to the police to report the crime. When he gets to the station he gets the run around. While waiting he hears the woman's conversation with her captor and learns that her family's in danger so he tries to help them but in the process of doing that he commits some acts that make the police think he's a criminal or crazy; like stealing a car and brandishing a gun in public. Though she's held captive, Jessica Martin manages to contact an unsuspecting young man via his cell phone. As he becomes her only lifeline to thwarting the abduction of her young son, the good Samaratin soon gets way more than he bargained for. It's difficult to have a real, stone wall opinion on a film like Cellular. Yes, it's fast and fun but yes; it suffers from its own downfall in the form of plot holes and rather obvious little problems that arise to thwart the protagonist at various intervals. Although these things happen, I managed to enjoy Cellular in a way I didn't think I would be able to.<br/><br/>When the first few scenes of a kidnapping occur during which guns are drawn, windows are broken and big, bald Russian men tank in to snatch their victim; you have to maybe roll your eyes a little. You have to roll them some more when in the next scene, the young, cocky character of Ryan (Chris Evans) is seen with his buddy in a beach-lands area ogling girls in bikinis; all the time struggling to keep his relationship with a former girlfriend on some sort of sober level. However, this is probably the only time I actually found myself disappointed with the film as it gains respect through a number of different ways.<br/><br/>First of all; counter-acted with these silly, teen stereotypes; you have a strong cast. Jason Statham, Noah Emmerich, William H. Macy and Kim Basinger are all names and faces you'll recognise and each of them pull their weight in the film; Statham maybe being the most impressive as it's such a jump from his previous film's characters: Snatch (2000), The Transporter (2002) and The Italian Job (2003). Chris Evans plays the character of Ryan like he should: the everyday person caught out and put in a situation he doesn't want to be in. Hitchcock made this role rather famous and a more classic example can be found in Rear Window (1954) where the character of Jeff has to make it his mission to get to the bottom of what's going on in the apartment opposite his.<br/><br/>Another thing Cellular borrows and does well is the whole 'cause and effect' plot device. This is where one thing happens, which spawns a problem which spawns another way of doing something that only minutely achieves what you originally set out to do. Writer Larry Cohen did this, albeit to lesser effect, in his other film Phone Booth (2002) and there are countless other examples from down the years that have used this tactic although Psycho (1960) is maybe the most famous as it's told from the killers point of view amongst other things. Not only this but each situation or problem is done in a very entertaining way and it sometimes focuses around the character of Sgt. Mooney (Macy) as he tries to piece together the crime he was briefly told about at the beginning. Ryan will often find himself switching cars, phones and getting out of near death situations which all happen in a realistic and pleasing manner.<br/><br/>Anyone who has heard of or played a game from the popular 'Grand Theft Auto' series from the last few years will probably get the same feeling I got when I thought half way through Cellular that it was playing out like some sort of 'Grand Theft Auto: The Movie' with carjackings, phone conversations, gunshots, chase and the constant threat of murder. The climax of the film works in more ways than one as Ryan has grown out of the bikini ogling guy he was at the start and runs around frantically trying to achieve his goal nearer the end; ignoring everything in his way. This is showing protagonist development as he nears his journey's goal. The film also resists the temptation of ending with an explosive finale and instead opts for a good, honest shoot out which was pleasing.<br/><br/>Cellular will not be for everyone and there will certainly be some haters but I'm hoping this film will age in the same vein as a film-noir B-movie by the name of Detour (1945) did. The one man, cause and effect, crime driven narrative still holds up today and hopefully, will well into the future. Kim Basinger gives a great performance as a completely nerve-wracked, overwrought kidnapped biology teacher Chris Evans' character is too goofy and slapstick in comparison with Basinger's character. While she's begging for him to help her, his delivery of one liners just doesn't match with the atmosphere she delivers.<br/><br/>Another oversight lies in Evans' character which does not add up. In several acts of desperation, he first steals a car, drives it through a construction yard, holds up a phone company at gunpoint yet manages to park the car somewhere and listen in on what is happening at the other end of the line. There needs to be some modicum of reality - most likely one where the police are out looking for him.<br/><br/>Secondly, if he were to have brought a phone to the police, any kidnapping would have been treated as a #1 priority and not merely scribbled down on some notepad to be looked upon later as the police officer signs off for the day.<br/><br/>The director needs to decide what he wants to stick with. IF it's a tense thriller then casting Evans was a mistake because his character simply does not gel with Basinger's more serious one.<br/><br/>Had there been more of a synthesis between reality and characters, less comic crap from Evans and more reality involving police work, then this could have been more of a thriller. Cohen and a crew of script doctors have thrown in some of the oldest cliches in the book.
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