Cell (2016)

I have not read the book, so I am not comparing this film to the book. It was just garbage, there were 3 endings, what was that all about. What triggered this event, why was every dreaming the same dream. Maybe I just did not get it, or perhaps I was distracted by the bloody pigeon that has fallen down the chimney. Damn racket!

This review contains spoilers.Cell is directed by Tod Williams from the Paranormal Activity movie series. It stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Isabelle Fuhrman as apocalypse survivors. A mysterious signal hits every cellular device causing its victims to devolve to their base instincts. This causes modern society to crumble as much of the population is connected at the time of the event known as The Pulse. Clay Riddell, played by John Cusack, is one of the survivors of the event and he embarks on a journey to find his loved ones. Alice, an upstairs neighbor, and Tom, a subway driver join him in his trek.Cell has numerous problems as a movie. The immediate problem with the movie is its technical incompetence. The movie has poor CGI effects and some of the most jarring editing. The scene transitions are accompanied by the strange music choices. One of these bizarre technical choice s is at the introduction of the movie with large black bars with text that block up most of the screen to introduce credits. The movie cuts in ways that do not make sense. After The Pulse is triggered, Clay is chased by phoners. One of them tackles Clay and then the movie transitions to Clay getting up easily with the phoner nowhere to be found. The effects in general are also fake looking and whenever gore is shown, it is incredibly obvious that it is an effect. The violence in the movie is also tame. Another strange moment is when Clay is driving into Kashak and the movie plays intense music and cuts to ducks in a pond.The antagonistic phoners in this movie are a source of unintentional comedy. From the beginning with the airport sequence, the strange behavior of the phoners can be seen. The audience can see some of them dangcing while others attack the normies. The movie cuts to a clip of a phoner foaming on a toilet. When the phoners chase Alice, Clay, and Tom through a forest one of them only has a tennis racquet and underwear. One of the phoners even runs into a tree despite the movie establishing that they have created a hive mind. Another scene has a large group of phoners pack themselves into a football field to switch off. The group then plays the viral video song, Trololo, as they sleep. In many moments, the phoners have a white noise effect in their speech which adds to the unintentional hilarity. These are noth the only scenes that rae strange and to see more, one can watch the movie.The plot of the movie is inconsistent. The movie hints at the Raggedy Man's influence on the group and remaining humans. At the end, it appears it was all a construct of Clay Riddell's mind. The movie constantly pulls the audience in these circles, but ultimately comes back to Clay's story. The Raggedy man and his flock of phoners are some of the best unintentional comedy I have seen. The phoners typically run around in circle when they are idling. They also communicate through digital warble that simply has to be experienced.The main cast is horribly misused. John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson are great in 1408 but in this movie they are ineffective. Likewise Isabelle Fuhrman is not used well here. The actors do not have any stand out moments. All of their dialogue is generally bland. None of this is the cast's fault as I believe they had executed the script to the best of their ability. The main faults that caused the disaster are the poor writing, directing, and editing. The choices in this movie are baffling.Cell is a terrible movie. Unless you are interested in an unintentionally funny movie, I do not recommend viewing it.

In this film, the zombie apocalypse is initiated by a cell phone, turning people in cell phone zombies a slightly worse condition than their present state. Clay (John Cusack) is the victim of a dead cell phone battery and manages to survive. He is a graphic novelist, a skill set needed to rebuild the world. Traveling along with him is Tom, a Vietnam vet and Subway conductor.Since they are on the East Coast, Catalina Island is not an option. They plan on going to check on Clay's family, picking up and losing people along the way. From there they plan on going to Kashwak, Maine, because Stephen King is familiar with it.There is an ending, but you don't get the closure you are seeking.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

When I read this book I constantly thought to myself, "This would make a very cool movie." But, before I saw the movie, I knew that for every Shining there is a Children of the Corn, and for every Misery there is a Cujo, or for every Shawshank there's a Lawnmower Man. So I had to approach the this film, of a King book I loved, with extreme caution. Why? Because I am not sure if it was even released theatrically and of course the reviews were almost ALL negative. But still, I thought maybe there would be something good about it, something redeeming that would make me enjoy it regardless of the bad reviews. After all, Stephen King wrote the screenplay and Cusack was an Executive Producer, so surely they aren't going to attach their names and hard work to something downright HORRIBLE. Well....THEY DID!!! This movie was bad on every conceivable level; writing, acting, special effects, editing and ESPECIALLY directing. It just SUCKED. There's no need to get into plot details or anything of that nature. The main point of this review is to warn you that if you watch this you will truly waste your precious time. Life isn't long enough to waste an hour an a half on this type of movie. Shame on all involved with this film for producing it. You all did a disservice, especially Mr. King, to the book by making it into THIS movie. As is so often listed in reviews, I only gave it a rating of 1 because they don't offer 0. This movie defines what a bad Stephen King film adaptation is. I would STRONGLY advise any and all against watching this movie.