Cellular

2004 Directed by David R. Ellis

If the signal dies so does she

A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. She claims to have been kidnapped – and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.

Chris Evans Kim Basinger Jason Statham Jessica Biel William H. Macy Valerie Cruz Noah Emmerich Will Beinbrink Greg Collins Eric Christian Olsen Brenda Ballard Caroline Aaron Rick Hoffman Chase Ellis Bloch Chantille Boudousque Robin Brenner Richard Burgi Paige Cannon Nikki Christian John Churchill Esther Mercado Chelsea Ellis Bloch Marco DiMaio Eddie Driscoll Tagert Ellis John Ennis Eric Etebari Erin Foster Willie Gault Show All…

94 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Nazeer Vawda ★★½

I can believe all the stupid things the film throws at you, but the I don't believe that Nokia breaking. I call bullshit on that
Review by Steve G 🐝 ★★★½ 12

There are two very clear and distinct ways you can approach a film like Cellular:-
1) You can sit back and count the million different ways it's completely stupid, pick it to pieces and damn humanity all to hell for creating it.
2) You can sit back and count the million different ways it's completely stupid and have the absolute best time.
It's a shame that David R. Ellis is no longer with us. The terrible Shark Night aside, he had shown plenty of signs as being a director with a real flair for tongue-in-cheek action thriller rubbish. It's still strange to me that he fucked up so badly with Shark Night because that should so easily have been another…
Review by Patton Reviews ★★

49
Jessica: I don't know if there's anything I could ever do to thank you.
Ryan: I do. Don't ever call me again.
The best part of the film was after it had finished, I said what I said. No seriously, having the cast and crew members digitally credited on mobile screens was pretty cool. A topless twenty-something Chris Evan's wasn't so bad either.
Cellular was, OKAY. The film didn't have much going for it beneath the surface, there just seemed to be a lot of crying, running and gun-pointing. Don't even get me started on the kidnappers, not even juggernaut Jason Statham could make them interesting. I also didn't realise a 2004 Nokia had such good camera quality, shame about the battery life, it was hardly a commercial for it.
For the record, I'll help save ANY kid who owns a Lord of the Rings back-pack.
Review by HorrorSage ★★★½

Good evening and welcome fellow Children of Chaos
The tech is a bit dated, but if we can forgive that this is a pretty good little thriller.
The big fault here is that many of the action set pieces are, well, just that. Big action set pieces. This movie could have used a little more tension and a little less action.
Still I love the scene where Kim Bassinger cuts the dude. One of the more realistic depiction of knife use on film.
The cast is phenomenal, Chris Evans plays a great Bro-Douche and has a nice redemption arc. I'm totally in love with Jason Statham. Kim Bassinger is beautiful and great in her role of a desperate mother.
Meticulously…
Review by Logan Van Winkle ★★½

What Chris Evans does in this movie is more impressive than anything he does as Captain America.
Review by Ayden The NinjaPirateBear ★★★½

2004 Ranked
Non-2020 First Time Watches Ranked
Directors Ranked: David R. Ellis
Film #29 of The Chain Reaction Challenge
Cellular is a dated (due to the concept) thriller that is actually surprisingly thrilling and well-made. It features a really solid cast with two "before they were big" guys in Chris Evans, as our hero, and Jason Statham as our villain. They're supported by Kim Basinger and William H. Macy well, and we even see Jessica Biel in here.
It's well-acted and it's easy to see why the two leads were destined for stardom. I also thought it was, mostly, well-written. I mean, it's pretty barebones in terms of the plot BUT I think that serves the film well as we get no filler and no real lulls.
Cellular didn't reinvent the wheel but it's an enjoyable, thrilling and surprisingly funny film that's worth a watch.
Review by Gazelle Garcia ★★★ 1

After enough time passed between rewatches it's still decently thrilling and usually amusing. Chris Evans does a fine job for what the script asks for. The humor is very stuck in the early 2000s, appropriately so. I still think the secondary plot line with William H Macy is clunky and I still appreciate how Kim Basinger's character gets to become more hands on later in the film. Jason Statham is pretty cut and paste but I think a film like this wanted the villain to be as dry and not distract from the heroes. It could have been a benefit for them to be scarier but the point of the story is the obstacles along the way and not really the big bads.
"It's a day spa, you fuck!"
Review by Sam Doucet ★★★ 1

For a plot where a cell phone is so integral to the story, it’s clear that the filmmakers had never even used a phone before.
Review by The Media Diorama ★★½ 1

Cellular calls for an enjoyably disposable thriller, featuring an abnormal amount of cardio exercise from Chris Evans, and a semi-violent yet strangely engrossing kidnapping answers the phone in spite of losing signal frequently with its noisy plot conveniences and underwhelming conclusion.
Review by Blaze the Action Junkie ★★★★

I've seen this film twice and I've loved it both times. It's from a time before Chris Evans was the First Avenger. From the same time when Jason Statham didn't know exactly what character he wanted to be typecast as (but he was still an incredibly entertaining villain here). A time when cell phone calls could get tangled with other peoples calls accidentally.. The fact that this film still entertains to the level that it does I think says a bit for it. This film is high-paced, has intense action, some good plot twists, jaw dropping scenes and some very entertaining acting, all while being very funny at times without the comedy genre label. If you're an Evans or Statham…
Review by Kaelahn Taylor ★★★

Damn it’s crazy how far Chris Evans and cellphones have come.
Review by Joe ★★★½ 3

No true blue Larries left to see I'm proud to say, so I'm gonna have to turn to all the King's story and screenplay credits in his honor. This one is the former only, and as such it only has a little bit of the Cohen charm, largely drowned out by good-naturedly stupid details like Chris Evans doing his entire first scene shirtless and a minor character dressing up as a whale for little to no reason. It actually builds up a decent head of steam in the last 40 minutes or so though, after, surprise surprise, the whole cell phone gimmick has been mostly abandoned -- with the caveat that the best cell gag in the whole movie comes…

Recent reviews

Review by David Koslowski ★★½

I'm writing this review on modern technology.
Review by j5ive ★★★★

Captain cellphone and the day spa soldier
Review by Matt Alexander ★★★½

This is a good time! And Chris Evans is pretty good in it!
Review by The Media Diorama ★★½ 1

Cellular calls for an enjoyably disposable thriller, featuring an abnormal amount of cardio exercise from Chris Evans, and a semi-violent yet strangely engrossing kidnapping answers the phone in spite of losing signal frequently with its noisy plot conveniences and underwhelming conclusion.
Review by kenzy :) ★★★

this was an absolute coincidence that this was on the tv ... but why is it so good?!
deffo chris evans in the pink shirt is the thing that’s making it good
Review by PlainJane ★★★★

Look, I'm no tech savvy but just imagine it being 2004 and something like this happens to you...?! lol
I found this like really entertaining. It had the action and the quirky quote moments. It's also refreshing to see Jason Statham as the bad guy for once.
P. S. I did mainly watch this for Chris Evans but i actually did enjoy the movie so yeah...
Review by LittleBumbleBee ★★★★

i have more memories of this movie than memories of actual cellular devices.

fuck chris evans though.
Review by Mr Sunshine ★½

This movie's is not good. It throws so much shit at you without giving you anything time to breathe and take in what just happened. Also the way the film is shoot is pretty ugly. Oh yeah and why are villains so dumb! When they kidnapped the lady (who I don't remember or care to look up) they just throw her in a attic, with a working phone, no guards and don't even bother tying her up, like are they trying to get caught?! Well at least it's entertaining.
Review by Bryce Receveur ★★★★

Now THIS is how you make a dumb action movie.
Perfect runtime, perfect casting, and some very funny bits thrown in for good measure.
I almost think I like finding dumb movies I enjoy more than I like finding a really good serious movie. It feels more special for some reason, can't explain.
Review by kenzy :) ★★★

we all know that the nokia wouldn’t have smashed
Review by Goremaster ★★½

Cellular bears some resemblance to "Phone Booth". I consider it a mobile version of "Phone Booth". The movie ends with a huge Nokia advertisement with the credits rolling on the company's cell phone.
My problem with Cellular is that the premise is so stupid and unlikely to happen that it's difficult to give a better grade to the film. The movie held my attention, but because of the absurd premise of a playboy receiving a phone call from a stranger, believing in it and even shooting and stealing cars because of a stranger's call, I can't give it more than 5 (two and a half stars), since I gave 6 to "Phone Booth' which is better.
Review by dancingfiend ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The protagonist has no depth to him whatsoever and he takes up most of the movie. He's just some dude whose ex-girlfriend said the reason she broke up with him was his selfishness. And so when he got a mysterious call from a woman who said she was kidnapped, he intends to prove to himself that he wasn't selfish by helping her by whatever means necessary. He's a reluctant hero, but he wasn't reluctant for long before he jumped with both feet into very dire situations with little help from others.
Who's this guy? Where did he learn the evasive driving techniques or how to escape from professional killing bastards? We don't know. From what we were told he's just…