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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