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Talk About It

1. How would you define "a hero"? Do you think Ryan was a hero? Why or why not?
   
   
2. What would you do if you got an emergency phone call for help?
   
   
3. The scenario in the movie may be far-fetched, but have you ever been in the position to save someone's life? Has anyone ever utterly depended on you?

The Family Corner

The film's abandon of logic is more of a concern than any unclean parts. The objectification of female bodies in scenes on the pier and the violence of the abductors may be inappropriate for younger teenagers.

Photos © Copyright New Line Cinema

Last year,Colin Farrell played a man stuck in a Phone Booth desperately trying to save innocent people from a sniper. Now, Chris Evans, William H. Macy, and Kim Basinger star in a variation on the same idea. In Cellular, Evans plays Ryan, a young man who receives a random distress call from a kidnapped woman (Basinger), who begs him to help her. Ryan proceeds to use his versatile little phone for clever endeavors to try and save her and her family. It sounds like little more than a clever, feature-length marketing ploy. But critics seem to be enjoying the film, even if they admit that it's rather shallow fun.

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) calls it "an entertaining though largely implausible action/adventure film. Though flawed in its logic and plausibility, it is nonetheless clever in how it incorporates all the features and frustrations that cell phone users know all too well: Loss of signal strength, dying batteries, call waiting, and crossed lines all become inconveniences that take on life or death meaning as Ryan frantically tries to keep Jessica on the line."

Agnieszka Tennant (Christianity Today Movies) writes, "Neither Macy nor Basinger nor the intriguing setup nor the bursts of situational wit can rescue David R. Ellis's action thriller from joining the category of movies that are so bad they're good. I guess one can put it in more encouraging terms: it's a good bad movie."

"Cellular is a smart, funny, fast-paced thriller," says Tom Neven (Plugged In). "It contains positive messages about the strength of family, a mother's love and courageously helping total strangers, even at great personal risk. Unfortunately, a little sexual humor, a gusher of foul language and some explicit violence will probably cause many to hang up on this effort."

Mainstream critics aren't terribly impressed, but they're giving the film good marks compared to several other new releases.

Andrew Coffin (World) finds that, despite the film's wild implausibility, there are still things to like. He writes, "The only question, with a film like this, is whether or not it will move fast enough, and include enough clever twists, to keep audiences distracted from the story's inherent implausibilities. Surprisingly, for most part, Cellular does just that."

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