Title – Cell (2016)
Director – Tod Williams (The Door in the Floor)
Cast – John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Owen Teague, Stacy Keach
Plot – After a rage inducing virus is spread through cell phones, graphic novelist Clay Riddell (Cusack) teams up with train driver Tom McCourt (Jackson) to find Clay’s family amidst the chaos and carnage that surrounds them.
“Don’t be sorry because there is nothing to be sorry about”
Review by Eddie on 18/07/2016
Over the many year’s movies have existed there’s been a large number of questions raised by movies with answers non-forthcoming. These are questions that have been at the forefront of many a coffee date discussion, movie club forum or family dinner. Questions like who exactly is/was the “thing” (The Thing), is it a dream or reality (Inception), what was in the briefcase (Pulp Fiction) and now with this long completed and finally just released Stephen King adaptation we can add why exactly was John Cusack’s in danger graphic novelist Clay Riddell so keen to pop on his beanie in the midst of a do or die cell phone lead apocalypse?
It’s a question we may sadly never have answered and probably the only thing that will stick with you once Tod William’s (where has the director who made The Door in the Floor gone?) film reaches its credit sequence, as this adaptation of one of King’s least regarded books is one of those films just waiting to join the likes of The Wicker Man remake as a film that’s just so bizarre and random it’s hard to know who did and why they decided this was a film the public wanted.
In all its random glory however, if I was being totally honest, after all the negative press and jokes being made at its expense, Cell is not nearly as bad as it could’ve been when watched with the right mindset.
A seriously daft idea that induces a large amount of unintended laughter, Cell has its fair share of “what the” moments and it’s a little sad seeing the likes of John Cusack (although he seems to have sold his movie soul some time ago now) and Samuel L. Jackson act through some insanely bizarre situations; I truly can’t even begin to explain a scene involving a field of sleeping cell phone zombies, the film actually has some decent scenes and ideas that make this a B grade experience you can sit back and laugh at or with and an experience best watched with a room full of friends all up to witness a film that should never have made it to the cold light of day.
Through the history of movies we’ve been treated to King adaptation gold, from experiences like The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Shining and The Mist, Cell is certainly not one of those and is certainly not a film of cinematic virtue but it’s an experience that deserves to be seen as even if you hate every minute of this oddball ride its likely you’ve never seen anything like it before and if you solve the beanie mystery, please let me know.
2 troll lol lol’s out of 5
Bummer. Enjoyed a good portion of the book some years back. Not ‘A’ grade King, but I was hoping for a decent ‘B’ movie from this. Oh well.
ML
I’d be keen to hear what you think mate, it’s a very odd film! I just don’t know about Cusack anymore either.
E
Gah, was hoping this would be good as I was one of the few that enjoyed the novel. As an aside, what has happened to John Cusack’s career?! Is it just me, or does he just seem to be in one turkey after another?
His given up i think mate hate. He even produced this one .
E
The book was actually decent (if I remember it correctly). I had the same thoughts when hearing about this films release. Why exactly does almost every King novel NEED to be an adaptation? The world may never know. Good review. Keep it up!
Cheers Silver Screen! this film certainly took its time to be realised, hope its not like that for The Dark Tower.
E
Fingers crossed! We can only hope for the best!
You’d think a Stephen King adaptation with John Cusack and Samuel L. Motherflippin’ Jackson would be at least pretty good! Oh well…
Milo
Nah mate this ones pretty darn average but has some goid dumb fun bits.
E
I read the book and the film as pretty faithful though it cut out quite a lot. With the cool set up they could really have done better.
Yeh mate the set up was a heck of a lot better than what ended up getting done ha.
E
C’est la vie mon frere. Let’s hope they do a better job with It.
The book was mostly fun, until a bizarre ending. The movie is awful.
Hugely disappointing this one. I just read King’s Dark Tower series and hoping that the film can do that some form of justice!
E