"THE CELL 2"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Tessie Santiago as MAYA Chris Bruno as HARRIS Frank Whaley as DUNCAN Bart Johnson as SKYLAR Michael Flynn as KASSEL Amee Walden as PENELOPE Charles Halford as DEPUTY FINCH Rated R Available on Blu-ray, DVD and On-Demand June 16 Official The Cell 2 Movie Site Studio: New Line Cinema Directed by: Tim Iacofano Back to DVD Review Home |  |
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WHAT IT’S ABOUT
After being kidnapped, tortured and left for dead by a psychopath known as The Cusp, Maya Casteneda (Tessie Santiago) discovers that she has a psychic link with him. She joins the FBI to track down the Cusp before he claims his next victim. However, when her mind gets too close to his, he is able to escape. Years later, he emerges again with a new victim, and Maya returns to help the FBI hunt him down. However, by following his mind, she puts herself in danger of being captured again.
WHAT I LIKED
Unlike some films, the original “The Cell” was not sequel-proof. It didn’t necessarily set itself up for one, but the story was open-ended enough to allow for another movie without trampling on the memory of the first. The concept behind “The Cell 2” works, offering us a cat-and-mouse game between detectives and killer.
To a certain degree, I can appreciate that “The Cell 2” was produced on a miniscule budget compared to the original film. When it comes to crime thrillers, they can be made on the cheap, as this one was.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Unfortunately, for “The Cell 2,” it’s biggest problem wasn’t its low budget. The core of the problem lay in its vision. Where the first film was provocative and terrifying, this sequel just falls flat. And this doesn’t just come from budgetary restrictions. Sure, the first movie has plenty of cash for slick visual effects, but a similar hyper-real world could have been created more effectively in the hands of better filmmakers.
“The Cell 2” looks like all of its psychic and dream imagery was shot in a dirty warehouse from various angles. Smoke and blurry visual effects are used more to obscure the dingy production design rather than enhance the movie with relatively low-rent costuming and make-up effects. The digital trickery looks terribly amateurish, considering I’ve seen better virtual worlds in crappy films on SciFi Channel.
To make things worse, the acting is a huge step down, and that’s a lot to say about a movie that follows up a Jennifer Lopez big-screen performance. Lines are delivered with over-acting ferocity that you might see in a bad community theater production. Even respectable actors like Frank Whaley, who has given us some pretty solid performances in films like “Swimming with Sharks” and even a memorable bit part in “Hoffa,” comes off as stilted and desperate.
Knowing a little bit about the tricks of low-budget filmmaking, I was kinda excited to see “The Cell 2.” After all, the trailers made it look like they had a good thing going, and in the right hands, this could have been a terrifying vision of a killer’s mind. Sadly, it just didn’t end up in the right hands.
DVD FEATURES
The DVD comes with a behind-the-scenes featurette that is relatively comprehensive and gives a nice look at how the production came into being. It also includes interviews with the visual effects supervisors, which probably is more impressive if you haven’t watched the movie yet.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
People who like low-budget mid-quality thrillers.
