John Cusack in Cell John Cusack in Cell
CELL
DIRECTOR: Todd Williams
CAST: John Cusack, Samuel L Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Clark Sarullo, Ethan Andrew Casto, Owen Teague, Stacy Keach
CLASSIFICATION: 16 HV
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes
RATING: 2 stars (out of 5)
When Stephen King released Cell in 2006, the premise probably seemed a fitting parable for our dependence on unceasing connection via personal tech: one day, a mysterious signal causes everyone in the world who’s talking on a cellphone to turn into a zombie-like killer.
A decade later, though, real life has made the metaphor redundant: try to navigate a sidewalk full of walk-and-type texters and you’ll know who the real zombies are. But if Todd Williams’s adaptation of Cell is dated on arrival, the last 10 years have presented it with a bigger hurdle: a deluge of zombie fiction that makes anything less than excellent action look dreary. Though it’s better than its “dump this thing” theatrical release would suggest. And Cell is far from excellent.
Cusack is graphic novelist Clay Riddell, who’s just landed at the airport when the mysterious cell broadcast occurs. Before the film has had time to wipe its shoes on the welcome matSoon, TSA agents are eating their dogs and rabid mayhem has claimed almost everyone onscreen. (As they don’t die before turning, these mouth-foamers aren’t technically zombies. But they’re fast and mean, and haven’t forgotten how to wield the occasional weapon.)
Escaping into the city with train conductor Tom McCourt (Jackson), Clay teams with upstairs neighbour Alice (Fuhrman) before fleeing town, hoping to reunite with his son Johnny (Casto). They embark on a pilgrimage to a place rumoured to be zombie-free, with the usual stops along the way: finding an arsenal at a gun nut’s house; taking refuge (and learning things about the enemy) at an abandoned private school and getting help from ?other survivors of dubious sanity.
Comic relief is rare (“Think it’s safe to text?” a character asks hopefully at one point), but there’s not a lot to be relieved from: the scariest thing on offer is the way the enslaved humans (dubbed “phoners”) emit electronic noises and other broadcasts from their open-hanging, expressionless mouths. What works less well is the confused nature of the affliction controlling those zombies.
Still, the picture makes more sense than 1408, the incoherent haunted-hotel King adaptation Cusack and Jackson teamed up for in 2007. Where that film went off the rails, this one plays it safe, albeit with a bait-and-switch ending likely to annoy fans of the book. –TheHollywood Reporter
If you liked Eagle Eye or Scream 4, you will like this.
