20141005: Thriller Review--The Cell 2

The Cell 2

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action straight-to-video film, 2009, rated R, 94 minutes.
2. IMDB: 2.9/10.0 from 1,987 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No consensus yet,' 8% liked it from 16,642 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on HBO.
5. Directed by: Tim Iacofano.
6. Starring: Tessie Santiago as Maya Casteneda, Chris Bruno as Harris, Frank Whaley as Duncan, Amee Walden as Penelope, Michael Flynn as Kassel, Bart Johnson as Skylar.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film shares some of the set up as The Cell from 2000, which starred Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, and Vincent D'Onofrio.  Maya was taken by a serial criminal 'The Cusp' who kidnaps women, then brings them to the edge of death, only revive them.  He does this again and again, until the victim begs for final death.  Maya escaped somehow.  Afterwards she can touch objects and connect with the perpetrator.  In the original film, the connection was much harder to achieve, but also tremendously more convincing.


2. The story of Cell 2 is not as good, the writing not as good, the acting not as good, and the cinematography nowhere near as good as the original.  The Cell 2 has a decidedly low budget look-and-feel to it and went straight to video.


3. Most of the story concerns Maya's working with Harris to find his niece Penelope, whom The Cusp has kidnapped.  Doing this weakens her connection with the FBI, and given Harris' actions, the pair are basically on the run.


4. Will Tessie figure out who The Cusp is?  Will Harris clear his name?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: More torture porn than anything else.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Fairly good.  The SFX were not all that interesting.


2. Sound: 5/10 Not much of an issue, but not much of an asset.


3. Acting: 1/10 Frank Whaley had a couple of good moments, but much of the film looked amateurish.


4. Screenplay: 1/10 The actors were not that convincing, but the screenplay gave them little to work with.