Rating: 
Summary: If it weren't for all that darn "plot"...
Review: It's too bad the filmakers felt that they had to muddle up all the great looking visuals that are the center of this movie with a half-assed story line and mediocre acting, but if you can look past that this is a pretty great way to spend a couple hours. 'The Cell' has some of the most creative camera work, special effects and and overall creepiness that i've seen in a mainstream movie in quite a long time. Of course, ideally we would have gotten a creative, great-looking movie with a really strong story and terrific acting all at once but...nobody's perfect.If you can handle watching movies like 'Lost Highway' and 'Begotten', where conventional film cornerstones like 'storylines' and coherent 'plot' take backseat in favor of the overall art of the movie, i'd guess you'll really enjoy 'The Cell'. Otherwise, my mom told me that she really liked 'Space Cowboys'.
Rating: 
Summary: The Cell will be unmatched....
Review: The Cell, probably dared to go into cinema realms that have not yet been tapped. The movie viewer experiences a surrealistic experience, that will probably not be matched by another film. As you watch Jennifer Lopez, it is very easy to forget that she is a POP Culture icon. She does a fantastic performance, and comes off as sincere (regarding her character) Although there is not that much dialogue between ANY of the characters, the movie still holds the audience captive. The movie IS not that sexually charged, compared to others. It is graphic, but it is understandable, considering who's mind you are venturing into. The special effects are incredible, and the costumes add to the macabre texture of the film. I truly enjoyed this film, as I hope others will. NOTE: There is a strong rumor that the collector's DVD edition will include deleted scenes that were too GRAPHIC for the theatrical release. Or that they will be added in an UN-CUT, or Director's edition. I definitely can't wait.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely not for all tastes!
Review: In the tradition of Silence of the Lambs and Seven, The Cell is another movie that people will either love or hate. While I personally enjoyed the movie, I did think that it had it's faults. At times, it was far too gruesome for it's own good, and the characters were poorly developed before being thrust into the mind of a serial killer who dresses his victims up as dolls after drowning them in an automated chamber (the cell). But, on the plus side, once they were inside the mind of this killer, the special effects and makeup were truly amazing. Jennifer Lopez plays a child psychologist who is prat of a research team that has found a way to put one person into another person's mind. She is supposed to be the expert in the field, but it seemed that Vince Vaugn, who plays an FBI agent investigating the killings,knew how to manuver in the killer's mind much better than she did. If you're looking for a film that is different from all others, then definitely give The Cell a look, but if you're into sugar-sweet romantic comedys, I would storngly suggest that you pass up The Cell.
Rating: 
Summary: Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!
Review: This is little more than a special effects movie, that managed to land a few of good actors, and Jennifer Lopez. Vincent D'Onofrio plays the serial killer. He captures his victims, perky young things, and imprisons them in a waterproof tank rigged with a timer to fill up with water, while video equipment films it. When the women are dead, he brings their corpses to his house, where he bleaches them, lays them out on a table, and suspends himself by hooks through his flesh over the corpses, writhing in pain an ecstasy. Alas, poor Vincent succumbs to rare form of virus-induced schizophrenia while bathing, and when the feds show up, he is already in a coma...Can they find his latest victim, already imprisoned in The Cell, before she drowns? They sure try. They call on Jennifer Lopez, inexplicable wunderkind of some sort of pediatric psychobabble, who has been working with a new procedure that will allow therapists to enter the minds of the comatose and wheedle them back to what is arguably a better world. So guess whose mind she goes into... This movie has some genuinely beautiful special effects, and photography, and make-up...but it also has a wholly predictable and idiotic script. For instance, in trying to convince the parents of a comatose boy to continue with the therapy, the Lopez's character--the wunderkind, remember--defiantly declares, "He's living a very unhealthy life!" This has to be one of the stupidest lines every to make it to the big screen in a major Hollywood release, and when I saw this in the theater, I laughed out loud at what was meant to be a dramatic moment. (The people sitting next to me moved down a couple of seats. I guess they didn't get it.) The rest of the narrative and dialogue isn't much better. This is a really dumb one, folks. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: A Chilling & Bizarre Masterpiece...
Review: By far the best thriller of 2000 (as of yet), "The Cell" is not only extremely entertaining, but also sets new ground for all thrillers to come! Jennifer Lopez's character is a child therapist who (with the help of modern technology) journeys into the mind of a serial killer in a coma who drowns his victims in his "cell". His latest victim was kidnapped before he fell into his coma, and no one knows where she is. They do know, however, that she has 40 hours to live before the water fills up the cell and drowns her. Jennifer agrees to go inside his mind, where we find some of the most unique and chilling moments in movie history (not to mention outstanding cinematography, direction, and special effects). I won't tell you what she finds inside because it will spoil all of the shock value of the film, but lets just say is very very creepy...Although I wish there were more scenes inside the killer's mind than shown, I still think this film is excellent in every way. SEE IT!
Rating:
Summary: The best film of 2000 and the future of movies
Review: "The Cell" is a breathtaking film of visions so original that they will surely haunt and arouse audiences for years to come. Directed with a sure hand by Tarsem (a former director of music videos like REM's Losing My Religion) with a masterful eye for the surreal, this film works on multiple levels. On one level it captures the serial killer plot (catch the killer and save the victim) impeccably, not pretending or even trying to add anything fresh, but leaves the audacious filmmaking to the subconscious world of the serial killer's mind. The world Tarsem creates is unlike anything ever put to celluloid and his profound analysis of a monster by using audacious imagery is ingenious. The director does not ask us to sympathise with this monster but merely understand why he is what he is. The director is a native of India and the music and imagery are ostensibly a product of his homeland. These idiosyncrasies help to create an atmosphere that is even more foreign to American audiences and add to the already outre visceral images that will surely shock most casual or close minded viewers. The film does not try to explain everything but works on a visual level and allows for intrepretation if the viewer is so inclined. A masterpiece of moviemaking and maybe the most original and profound horror/fantasy film along side with "The Exorcist" and "The Bride of Frankenstein". However, it does not deserve to be classified with any horror film because in a way it is beyond all others. It is its own genre of filmmaking, and that genre is the future!
Rating:
Summary: A Visual feast
Review: In The Cell Jennifer Lopez who enters the mind of a serial killer has to find where he keeps his victoms. Helping her is FBI agent Played by Vince Vaughn. Both they try to figure where the killer keeps his victoms and before time runs out. Director Tarsem who only goes by his first name makes an astonishing debut with a tired plot. But makes a visual feast and never lets go of your attention
Rating:
Summary: Note to self: 'Don't ever watch this one on acid.'
Review: The Profiler/Empath vs The Twisted Genius Serial Killer sweepstakes continues (Jonathan Demme, what hath thou wrought?!). Due to its stunning visual style, "The Cell" does manage to slightly edge out the other clone films that have spewed forth in Hannibal Lechter's wake. Jennifer Lopez (about as convincing as a psychologist/researcher as Raquel Welch was as a "scientist" in "Fantastic Voyage") helps the FBI race the clock and find a captured serial killer's imprisioned victim by means of an experimental device that puts her in the virtual reality of the comatose killer's psyche. As you can imagine, this is not exactly dinner with the Cleavers, and it is here that the movie's impressive, surrealistic visual imagination comes into play. Unfortunately,the script proceeds to trot out every predictable psycho-killer movie cliche,ruining any chance of true suspense or surprise. In the hands of a screenwriter like Michael Crichton, who virtually invented the "Medical Sci-Fi" genre ("Andromeda Strain", "Coma", "The Terminal Man"), this COULD have been a near classic. Instead, it's just a near-miss.
Rating:
Summary: I don't think any movie viewing audience is ready for this.
Review: For Lynch & Cronenberg fans. Everyone else stay the hell away. There's no describing a film of this type. Some may touch on "Silence of the Lambs" sprinkled with "Sixth Sense". I just want to comment on concept, not plot or storyline. I've never taken an LSD trip but from what I've heard, this film comes close to one. Forget J. Lopez's performance. Even the love goddess/comedienne Judy Tenuta could have played her role. Vince Vaughn is good, but prepare yourself for Vincent D'Onofrio. The guy becomes hell incarnate, in a frighteningly sinister performance. But what eclipises most of the cast in this film are the inevitable mind trips that director Tarsem Singh takes the audience into. As a graphic designer, I feel these spaces of suspended time are, amazing digital effects of unequalled proportions. Haunting, disturbing and mesmerizing scenes that'll stay behind your eyelids for days. Dark rooms and strange shadows with perversely writhing bodies that would make any carnival freakshow look like a kiddy ride at the county fair. This ain't no afternoon soda & popocorn matinee.
Rating:
Summary: A Better Ending Is Needed
Review: Even though movies are stories told with pictures, there are few movies that I can excuse having a bad story for having good visuals. "The Cell" is one of those movies. "The Cell" stars Jennifer Lopez as a child psychologist named Catherine Deane who, when the movie begins, is attempting to communicate with the coma-stricken boy of a wealthy man. That's no so unusual. The unusual part is that she is trying to contact the boy by a direct mind link. Catherine works in a research institute that has developed a way to transfer someone's mind into another person's mind. They hope to use this technology as a way to heal mentally ill patients. As the story opens we also see Vincent D'Onofrio as a schizophrenic killer named Carl Stargher, who has some rather anti-social habits. How many people out there play the deranged pycho better than D'Onofrio? Not many. Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) is the FBI agent tasked with catching Stargher. Peter manages to discover who the killer is and surrounds him in his house. Carl undergoes a seriously traumatic episode and slips into a catatonic state. Peter knows a doctor who knows of a research project going on that, well you now the rest. This is how Catherine gets involved. She's tasked with entering Carl's mind to find the location of his latest victim before she's drowned in Carl's torture chamber. After this the story gets a little confusing; but, this is when the real visuals come out to play. As Catherine winds her way through the mind of a madman, we see what can only be described as disturbingly authentic recreations of somebody's version of a twisted mind. This is one of the few times when pictures do tell a thousand words. The story does breakdown into a typical Hollywood action flick with a ho-hum last minute rescue that is supposed to be the movie's climax. It is far from suspenseful as you know what's going to happen. Just once I'd like to see the rescuer get there too late. "The Cell" also wraps up a little too neatly on the Catherine-Carl side too. This movie would have been a little more fulfilling had they left some open ends to it. Give "The Cell" five stars for being willing to shock and unsettle the audience; but, subtract one for not being willing to leave them without a happy ending.
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