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Cell
Cell Phone / Puls
USA 2016
produced by Michael Benaroya, Shara Kay, Richard Saperstein, Brian Witten, John Cusack (executive), Armen Aghaeian (executive), Paddy Cullen (executive), Laurence Freed (executive), Xavier Gens (executive), Peter Graham (executive), Marina Grasic (executive), Tyler A. Hawes (executive), Stephen Hays (executive), Jan Korbelin (executive), Edward Mokhtarian (executive), Brian Pope (executive), Ben Sachs (executive), Geno Tazioli (executive) for Benaroya Pictures, The Genre Co., 120dB Films, Cargo Entertainment
directed by Tod Williams
starring John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Clark Sarullo, Ethan Andrew Casto, Owen Teague, Stacy Keach, Joshua Mikel, Anthony Reynolds, Erin Elizabeth Burns, Jeff Hallman, Mark Ashworth, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Catherine Dyer, E. Roger Mitchell, Alex ter Avest, Gaby Leyner, Rey Hernandez, Frederick C. Johnson jr, Michael Beasley, Tom Key, Angela Davis, Griffin Freeman, Lloyd Kaufman, Brian Boland, Mandi Christine Kerr
screenplay by Stephen King, Adam Alleca, based on the novel by Stephen King, music by Marcelo Zarvos
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When at the airport wanting waiting for his flight back to his family
(Clark Sarullo, Ethan Andrew Casto), Clay witnesses the the zombie
outbreak firsthand, which apparently affects only those presently on their
cellphones - so over half of everybody at the place. Somehow he manages to
team up with train engineer Tom (Samuel L. Jackson), who knows a backway
out of the airport and into the city - which inexplicably looks like a
well-seasoned warzone, not a town that has just been hit by the zombie
apocalypse. Clay and Tom make it to Clay's home where they're soon joined
by neighbour girl Alice (Isabelle Fuhrman), who has just killed her mother
when she turned into a zombie. Not wanting to abandon his family in times
of need, Clay decides to try and make it on foot (a rather odd idea
considering he previously figured them far enough away to take an
airplane. And Tom and Alice agree to join him, even though that would take
them through the zombie infested outside with hardly any protection. Of
course, that the zombies sleep at night works in their favour, and then
they stumble upon a house filled to the brim with fire arms - so now
they're well equipped, and they make it to a boarding school run by
Charles Ardai (Stacy Keach) whose student population has shrunk down to
one, Jordan (Owen Teague), where they learn a little more about the
zombies. Obviously they're not zombies in the traditional sense but have
somehow fused with their cellphones and are slowly taking over cellphone
characteristics while giving up individuality in favour of a hive mind -
the next step in evolution maybe. But of course, our heroes want none of
it, and help Ardai burn his zombiefied students that have chosen the
soccer pitch as their sleeping quarters - something that doesn't go 100%
to plan and costs Ardai his life. Our gang plus Jordan move on, and
eventually make it to a diner with some guests who are still human, but
eventually, that place too comes under zombie attack, who now no longer
want to annihilate but assimilate humankind. Next stop is Ray (Anthony
Reynolds) and Denise's (Erin Elizabeth Burns) ice cream truck, where they
get their final answers about all things cellphone zombies as Ray's a
class A conspiracy theorist who has been right about everything after all
- but he's also a crazyman who eventually blows himself up. Clay makes
it to his family home, only to be attacked by his zombified wife, and to
learn that his son is trying to make it to a zombie-free zone - which has
long been turned into a death trap, but Clay knows he must go after the
boy anyhow ... The concept of this film - cellphones enslaving
people's minds - is fascinating and could have been turned into a warped
piece of body horror à la Videodrome (from which Cell does
borrow at times) - but unfortunately the writers have opted against it,
instead delivering a disappointingly stale zombie tale that tries hard to
bury its good ideas under overused genre mainstays and clichés that have
always marred Stephen King's work. And unfortunately, the direction does
little to add excitement to the proceedings, instead shows a relative lack
of inspiration, really more tagging along the dull proceedings rather than
taking the lead. On an acting level, John Cusack just repeats the same
role one has long come to identify him with without adding any new highs,
while the usually dependable Samuel L. Jackson seems to just phone in his
performance. Only Anthony Reynolds as the super-caffeinated Ray really
adds colour to the procedings, but he appears too late in the film and is
offed too early. In all, not so much a bad movie but a boring one that
leaves much of its potential at the door - which is a shame, really.
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