Cell

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Cell is a movie that I personally had both highs hopes for and deep reservations about. It’s based on the book by Stephen King and stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Isabelle Fuhrman. It’s essentially about what happens when cell phones bring about the end of the world, and turn people into raging, droning zombie-type creatures (You know, King may have been on to something there). Cell was the first book of Stephen King’s I ever read front-to-back, so it holds a special place in my heart. Now, the best thing I can say about this movie is that it does seem to follow the original book fairly well. However, the direction feels absolutely nonexistent, and the editing feels as though it was done by monkeys half the time. In fact, the whole movie has an incredibly cheap look and feel to it, which honestly just makes it even worse. The movie slows to a grinding, plodding pace at points, made all the more obvious by the look on John Cusack’s face that seems to say “I don’t want to be here.” Because of this, Cusack, in my opinion, gives a truly awful performance. The funny thing about this is that Jackson and Fuhrman actually seem to be trying, and putting actual emotion into their performances. As someone who honestly loved the book, I wanted to like this movie. I really did, but the end result just didn’t amount to anything or even really work that well for me, despite being a somewhat faithful adaptation with a couple of committed-enough performances. 

3 / 10