Cellular has the flimsiest of stories. Jessica Martin (Kim Basinger) is held hostage by a bunch of ruffians who are trying to capture her whole family. She’s able to get a smashed telephone to dial out randomly, and she gets the irresponsible Ryan (Chris Evans) on his mobile. Ryan ends up believing her and running around trying to prevent her son and husband from being captured. Ryan ends up figuring out the whole plot and spends most of the film running from place to place with a cellphone at his ear.
You’ll get every possible cell cliché here, from the drained battery to the weak signal to dropping your phone from a great height to forgetting it in the seat of your car. Cellular comes across as a tongue-in-cheek piece. It tries to be menacing (Jason Statham, wasted in this film) so that you fear for Jessica and her family, but defeats that tense atmosphere by injecting a silly lawyer and other attempts at levity. The pace is rather uneven at points, as William H. Macy (collecting a paycheck) plays the usual good cop who’s never fired a gun but helps the young hero out investigates and tries to catch up with Ryan.
Chris Evans is generic Keanu Clone #231. He can look good driving a car or running around, but please don’t ask him to emote. New young actor, let’s see another couple films out of him. After all Chris Bale seems to be taking a huge leap after Equilibrium. Director David Ellis doesn't deviate from formula, and crafts a rather forgettable action flick. As for the writing... it's a generic action flick. The screenplay is forgettable.
Bottom line: Cellular is a decent popcorn movie, but it’s nothing that you absolutely need to see. Rent it when you don’t want to think.
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