IMDb RATING
6.5/10
106K
YOUR RATING
A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped, and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child... Read allA young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped, and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped, and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Chase Ellis Bloch
- Timid Boy
- (as Chase Bloch)
Chelsea Ellis Bloch
- Surf Girl's Friend
- (as Chelsea Bloch)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaChris Evans did his own car stunts. Before production began, he was trained for five weeks at a Los Angeles stunt school. Most of the stunts are done by the actors themselves.
- GoofsWhen Jessica Martin clicks the wires together to make a phone call, she first has wires apart and then tapped them together to make contact for very brief seconds. This is contrary to how pulse dialing telephone systems work. In real life, she'd have to do the opposite. The wires should make contact, and then break contact very rapidly for the number the caller wants to dial.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Jessica Martin: I don't know if there's anything I could ever do to thank you
Ryan: I do. Don't ever call me again.
- Crazy creditsThe first part of the closing credits show cast and crew names on cellular telephone screens, in scenes from the film.
- ConnectionsEdited into Cellular: Deleted/Alternate Scenes (2005)
- SoundtracksLike You Like an Arsonist
Written by Nicholas Zinkgraf, Scott Sherpe, Matthew Tennessen, Samuel Vinz and Nolan Treolo
Performed by Paris Texas
Courtesy of New Line Records, a division of New Line Productions, Inc.
Featured review
"Cellular" Division
"Cellular" has the setup for a solid straight-ahead thriller: A kidnap victim who does not know where she is being held phones a total stranger who must then stay connected on his cell phone to find her before she is killed. Joel Schumacher scored earlier with a similarly phone-themed Larry Cohen story, "Phone Booth." As executed by tone-deaf director David R. Ellis, however, "Cellular" becomes an unintentionally hilarious cousin to Brian de Palma's "Raising Cain" and "Snake Eyes."
Ellis seems to have unwittingly spliced together two different films with mismatched tones: Kim Basinger as the kidnapee and Jason Statham as the kidnapper occupy the deadly-serious, straight-to-video thriller half, while Chris Evans as the rescuer and William H. Macy as a police officer seem to be in a "Saturday Night Live"-alum action comedy. Nowhere else is the disjointedness in tone more apparent than when Basinger and Evans's performances are placed side-by-side during their conversations: The scenes keep cutting between an overwrought Basinger wringing out every drop of melodrama, while a blissfully inept Evans seems to be channeling a cross between Chris Kattan/Jimmy Fallon and Ben Affleck/Keanu Reeves.
Meanwhile, Ellis pulls out tricks intended to generate thrills and surprises. He throws in out-of-nowhere "shocks," a la "Final Destination"; he throws in flashbacks; he throws in a gun-blazing Macy in Jerry Bruckheimer action-hero slo-mo; and yet, Ellis has no handle on staging any of them competently. Case in point: "Cellular" is the proud owner of one of the most ineptly scored chase sequences ever, as if Ellis simply heard a snippet of the song's lyrics ("...where you gonna run to?") literally and paid no attention to the inappropriateness of the accompanying music (which just bop, bop, bops along). (The song is even reprised during the closing credits, which itself is misbegotten in conception.)
And yet, for all of its failures as art, "Cellular" is always entertaining for those very same faults.
Ellis seems to have unwittingly spliced together two different films with mismatched tones: Kim Basinger as the kidnapee and Jason Statham as the kidnapper occupy the deadly-serious, straight-to-video thriller half, while Chris Evans as the rescuer and William H. Macy as a police officer seem to be in a "Saturday Night Live"-alum action comedy. Nowhere else is the disjointedness in tone more apparent than when Basinger and Evans's performances are placed side-by-side during their conversations: The scenes keep cutting between an overwrought Basinger wringing out every drop of melodrama, while a blissfully inept Evans seems to be channeling a cross between Chris Kattan/Jimmy Fallon and Ben Affleck/Keanu Reeves.
Meanwhile, Ellis pulls out tricks intended to generate thrills and surprises. He throws in out-of-nowhere "shocks," a la "Final Destination"; he throws in flashbacks; he throws in a gun-blazing Macy in Jerry Bruckheimer action-hero slo-mo; and yet, Ellis has no handle on staging any of them competently. Case in point: "Cellular" is the proud owner of one of the most ineptly scored chase sequences ever, as if Ellis simply heard a snippet of the song's lyrics ("...where you gonna run to?") literally and paid no attention to the inappropriateness of the accompanying music (which just bop, bop, bops along). (The song is even reprised during the closing credits, which itself is misbegotten in conception.)
And yet, for all of its failures as art, "Cellular" is always entertaining for those very same faults.
helpful•4936
- Placemat
- Jan 19, 2005
- How long is Cellular?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Tín Hiệu Sống
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $32,003,620
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,600,000
- Sep 12, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $57,678,321
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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