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Alive 5
THE CELL

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Published by New Line Cinema
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio
Running Time : 105 minutes
Official webiste : www.cellmovie.com
Recommended Price : 15.24 Euros (22 euros for the Special Edition)
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PLOT :

    The movie starts with running  two parallel stories : on the one hand there
is Catherine, a  child  psychologist and  on the  other hand  an mysterious and
pervert serial killer. Catherine works on serious cases of coma and experiences
a new technique : thru a highly advanced  technology, she is  able to enter her
patient mind. Once on the 'other' side she has  to play it by the child's rules
and communicate with him. Our  serial killer has something else on his schedule
today as he kidnaps  another young woman in a dark  parking lot. The new victim
will go thru the same sadistic process  as her  predecessors : first she'll  be
trapped into a glass cage that  will  gradually  fill  with  water... in  which
she will slowly  get  drowned. Then  her mutilated body will be found somewhere
along the road...

    As you can see there is absolutely no  common point  between the  two main
characters  and yet... The  police  unsuccessful  investigation  seems to jump
forward as new clues  are found  on  the  last  victim. It  leads them  to the
killer's house and they manage to capture him. Unfortunately the guy has blown
a fuse, due to some brain disease and is now fallen sleep, into deep coma. How
will they get to the last victim whose cage will be  utterly filled with water
within the next 24 hours ? Ah maybe now you see the point !

    Indeed the detective in charge of the  case is taken to Catherine who could
be the only solution to his  problem. Tho it goes much  further than  her usual
virtual journeys, Catherine shortly accepts to give it a chance. But entering a
killer's mind is no journey in Wonderland babe !

    Our killer has some odd manners : every time he kills  a girl, he dives her
body into a bath of bleach. Then he gets naked and you can see 2 lines of rings
pierced into his back. He links them to chains, gets  lifted by some device and
goes masturbating. Now can you  imagine what  his mind is like ? Huge vaults, a
really maze in which you  find victims  turned into exhibit  toys and above all
you find him... or better said THEM !

    Them ? Yeah as our killer  appears to have double  personnalities, on one
side he's a tortured kid, beaten by his father, and on the other one he's the
ruler of a pervert world, some devilish king.

    It would take too long  to sum up  the whole movie and  would spoil fun for
sure but I can tell you  this : the  movie  is awesome  and looks  superb ! The
world ruled by the killer is twisted and corrupt, very  beautifully restored in
the movie with gorgeous computer animated pictures and backgrounds. This is the
most beautiful movie I  have seen for  ages and shows  how intricate human mind
can be. One of my favourite  scenes is the  trone room : Catherine was  slapped
down by some imaginary mutant woman and  taken to this  huge room. There is our
killer sitting on a  throne, dressed up  with  a  tremendous cloak  that covers
three walls. As he  stands up the whole cloak moves like a giant wave following
silent orders. Argh, really hard to describe but it looks really amazing, as if
the cloth was alive !

    The acting of Jennifer Lopez (the child psychologist) and Vincent D'Onofrio
(the killer) is impressive and  you  often tend to  forget you * ARE * actually
watching a movie. Many times I thought I was stuck into some day nightmare. The
overall design is the BEST I have ever seen in  a movie and many techniques are
used to render the killer's world. If you  liked movies  like  Cube, Dark City,
Ghost In the Shell, Akira or Welcome To Gattaca, then there is another  one you
should add to the list ! I remember how I came to watch that movie in a theater
more than a  year  ago : actually  there was  no other  movie that  looked nice
enough and I had seen some passages from THE CELL on TV. Once we went out after
the movie, we needed some time to get our breath back and make sure reality was
all around us.

    PS : sound is also great with a lot of  atmospheric tunes  featuring exotic
instruments or trumpets. Sounds like crazy music from Nepal or something but it
perfectly fits the insane mood of the movie.


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                               DVD EXTRAS
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 On the DVD you'll be offered some  usual sections such as 'play movie', 'scene
 selection', 'audio options' and 'also available' (other DVD titles). The movie
 offers a decent range or languages  and subtitles, tho I never  managed to get
 French subtitles in some bonuses :( I only  could have Dutch ! Hey Havoc gimme
 a hand here :) Actually  since  all commentaries are  in English you can still
 make it. Besides it's more about watching than listening.

 We are left with the 'Special Features'. Here you'll be offered the director's
 commentaries and isolated score (music only) both to be enjoyed when running
 the full movie once again.

 Then are the 'deleted scenes, 8 in all. Most of them are extended versions of
 some scenes. On the plus side, you  are  invited  to  switch  the  director's
 commentaries on these cut scenes.

 'Behind the Scene' gives way to two options, either  you'll  go for 'style and
 substance : reflections on Tarsem', a 10 minute long 'making of' or you'll opt
 for 'visual effects vignettes', my favourite part ! It focuses on 6 scenes and
 not only gives some commentaries and  info about  the creation of FX, it  also
 allows you to swap angles  and view each scene as an 'interview', 'on the set'
 or view some 'artwork'. Really cool stuff !

 Back to the 'Special Features' menu you can still  feast on the  theatrical
 trailers (two of them), or the filmography page that will give you info not
 only about the main actors but also director, fx supervisor and so on.

 The last part is called 'Interactivity' and is  composed of the 'empathy test'
 and 'brain map'. The latter gives  you info  about what part of our brain does
 what while the former is some sort of quizz. Several  series of questions will
 let you know if you're a psycho or not :) Not a bad idea  but reading these on
 TV really sucks (too small letters !!) and the few questions I answered were a
 bit weird and I couldn't always find a satisfying answer  among the 4 offered.
 Anyway it's worth giving it a try.

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In my humble opinion, this movie never met the success it deserves : the plot 
is nicely put together and  the  movie * looks * incredible, it's dark, gloomy, 
crazy, pervert, hey I love that :) I guess  most people  refused  to  pay for a 
movie featuring Jennifer Lopez, maybe thinking it  would be some  funk crap but 
they were SO wrong ! Give it a second chance and you won't reget it !
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Alive 5