Recensioni degli utenti

This movie is definitely a case of style over substance but the style is good and certainly more than unique on its own to make "The Cell" a memorable and above average movie.

"The Cell" is beautifully looking with impressive sets, costumes and make-up. Yes, it's real eye candy to watch all. The movie has some perfectly 'dreamy' sequences that are certainly odd but also very beautiful and imaginative to look at. This movie is a perfect mix of an art-house type of movie and a typical Hollywood-thriller, that is accessible to both fans of the genre.

The story itself is pretty far fetched and doesn't always make sense. Because of that the movie isn't always pleasant and likable to watch but like I mentioned before, the style compensates for this. The style makes you keep watching till the end and provides the best moments of the movie.

Vincent D'Onofrio is unforgettable as the serial-killer with a twisted mind. Vincent D'Onofrio is really underused as an actor and this movie shows his talent once more. I'm not particularly happy about the casting of Jennifer Lopez. I know that she can act in some of her movies but she really wasn't suitable to play the main character in this movie. Her character wasn't strong enough and she was overshadowed by Vincent D'Onofrio and Vince Vaughn. Still I felt that Vince Vaughn was also miscast in this movie. He didn't fit the role well enough and no, I'm not saying that because I'm used of seeing him only in comedies now days. The rest of the supporting cast is good and still give the movie a certain degree of credibility.

The musical score by Howard Shore was also surprising good and was sort of "Se7en" like at times. It suited the movie well and gave some of the scene's some extra mood and atmosphere.

It's a far from perfect movie and the concept is far fetched and not always handled in the right way. Still "The Cell" is a perfectly watchable movie and perhaps even a bit of a must see, due to its style, originality and creativity.

7/10

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We've seen this type of story before, but not like this! Wow, bloody, wow, the film's visuals are unusual and incredible! Almost every scene is masterfully done. To add to the visual experience, the photography and cinematography are equally impressive. The editing is also fantastic. The costumes and make-up are also absolutely stunning.

This is the story of a sick madman - abused as a child - who abducts women and transforms them into dolls. There are a few very disturbing images, so be warned. The dream world is very realistically created to look and feel like a dream. This is one incredible movie! You can't help but marvel at this cinematic achievement!

The last time I reviewed a film helmed by a music video director, I was very angry at what I'd seen (`Mystery Men'), but Tarsem Singh spares us the fish-eye lenses and commercial overindulgences and decides to concentrate on presenting an astonishing visual and audible journey into the mind of a serial killer in `The Cell'.

Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) kills women by drowning them in glass cells, all the while videotaping the event. Afterwards, he disfigures the bodies to resemble dolls and then tosses the finished `products' off highways into ditches and streams. Nice guy. He also likes to suspend himself on chains attached to hooks inserted directly into his back. Lovely.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) is hot on the killer's trail, and although Carl's started to get sloppy, he's just kidnapped another girl and she has 40 hours before her cell fills with water. Carl is soon apprehended, but only because he enters into a schizophrenic seizure and falls into a coma on his kitchen floor. A coma? But how are they going to find out where the last victim is? Oh, if only they could TRAVEL INSIDE HIS MIND. Hey, what a coincidence! Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is a child psychologist involved in an experimental project that allows her to TRAVEL INSIDE THE MIND of coma victims.

And so begins a strange array of visuals and sounds, blended together so unusually that you honestly feel like you're experiencing a dream… a not so pleasant dream. Not only is Carl's mind slightly twisted, it's violent, disturbingly sexual, and very graphic. But, it's also like a train wreck; you can't help but look. Oddly enough, Mr. Singh clearly had the resources to make his special effects scream out at you with bright color and absurd lavishness, but he chose instead to simplify, placing the terror in the scale and content of the visuals. I can't even use an example. All I can say is think about a dream you've had that you couldn't describe to someone, and that's what watching this movie is like. The photography is so stunning that it virtually eliminates the need for dialogue (only about half the film has discourse), and coupled with the horrifically spooky and scathing soundtrack, the film literally takes on a life of its own.

My only objection is that when all is said and done, the only character we really understand is the serial killer. Several clues about the other characters' pasts led me to believe that their lives would come into play and that their own memories would be tested and confronted. To me, this would have taken this story to yet another psychological level, but perhaps it would have been too much for viewers.

Despite this shortcoming, `The Cell' stills provides a myriad of images that will make you want to watch a lot of cute cartoons before turning in for the night. Still, I don't know what was more disturbing: the movie, or the parents in the next row over who brought their two small kids to watch it.

Style over substance. But what a style it is. "The Cell" is the internal version of most serial killer movies. Unfortunately, the story hardly supports the visuals.

Psychotherapist Catherine Deane (J-Lo) goes into her patients' dreams via artificial means to discover and help them over come their phobias and obsessions. A new patient whose fallen into a coma, is brought to her attention by the FBI. He's a serial killer who drowns his female victims then poses their bodies in grotesque scenarios like mannequins. Deane must enter the killer's mind and navigate through his sick fantasies in order to find and save his latest victim.

Director Tarsem Singh has incredible visions and set pieces for this production. Each dream sequence is like a nightmare-ish painting in motion, from the landscapes to the costumes.

But the plot suffers from lack of history of its characters. Stargher is the only person with a thorough background and he's the last person you want to care about. Without him, you basically have a movie that moves in the present tense only, which is a shame since the movie is so visually stunning and genuinely scary. Lopez is wasted but she's not that amazing an actress anyway, though she's as gorgeous as ever. And Vince Vaughn? I don't even know why he was chosen. This is not his forte and he overacts to boot. He tried too hard to become his character and it showed. Stick to comedy, Vince! Even so, this movie is so visually frightening, I still watch this movie with the lights on and can never fall asleep right away afterward.

Forget about the plot of this movie. Forget about the fact that it is wonderfully acted by Vince Vaughn and Vincend D'Onofrio. Forget about the fact that it is one of the few movies starring Jennifer Lopez that I can stomach. Although the story may be impossible to believe and much of the dialogue seems contrived, the one and only important thing to remember when contemplating watching this movie is that it contains some of the most amazing and disturbing imagery ever put on film. It is as if Salvador Dali decided to make a crime drama. A must see for anyone seriously interested in cinematography and the use of the film cell as a canvas on which to display true works of visual art. I would have to give this movie a 9/10 for it's amazing visual display.

I remember seeing the trailer for this movie when it was first released and it looked pretty cool. I never got the chance to see it though. When I went to Blockbuster to rent some videos, I figured I should watch it. After all I did love "Silence of the Lambs" and "Se7en", and if you enjoyed those movies, you might get a kick out of "The Cell". The whole story concept is very interesting. Going physically into the mind of a killer, I can't imagine the world they live in. The acting is actually pretty decent. Jennifer Lopez is the only one I have to say that wasn't that great, but she does a believable job. I would recommend for a scary thriller.

7/10

Tarsem Singh's "The Cell" (2000) delivers a visually breathtaking and uniquely unsettling psychological thriller, immersing viewers in the disturbed mind of a serial killer. The film masterfully blends its dark narrative with surreal, dreamlike imagery, creating a truly unforgettable cinematic experience that is as much an art piece as it is a horror film. Jennifer Lopez delivers a compelling performance as the child psychologist venturing into the killer's psyche, and Vincent D'Onofrio is chillingly effective as the tormented antagonist. Its strength lies in its audacious visual style, which transforms the mundane into nightmarish landscapes, and its willingness to explore the depths of human depravity and the fragility of the mind. It's a bold, artistic, and often disturbing film that pushes the boundaries of the genre.

Is it worth watching? Absolutely. "The Cell" is a must-watch for those who appreciate visually inventive cinema and psychological thrillers that delve into dark themes, offering a unique and haunting journey.

This film has some of the wildest visuals I'd seen up to the time of my first viewing of this in April of 2001. The visuals were easily the highlight of the film. It isn't the story because that's too much on the sordid side. Sometimes, it's just plain too uncomfortable.

It's another demented serial killer story, this one as sick an individual as I've seen, although, thankfully, there are not a lot of scenes with him. The switch is that he is captured early on but is in a catatonic-like state and unable to talk. His latest victim must be found quickly or she will die as the others did. The only way to find where this woman is stashed is by going inside his brain and try to solve the puzzle. That's Jennifer Lopez's role here as "Catherine Deane." When she enters, the visuals are perhaps like someone on LSD, and they are very interesting, along with good sound effects. It's a bizarre story that keeps your attention, although gruesome at times. I haven't seen this film since 2002 and since then became a fan of Vincent D'Onofrio's detective character in Law and Order: Criminal Intent. I'm not sure I want to go back and see him as this sick killer now that I am used to seeing him as a "good guy." However, I am curious about that.

The bad points of the film, to me, were (1) a definite anti-Christian cheap shot in which it is shown that the killer was first "tortured" when he was baptized through immersion and held too long under water by his sadistic father. In addition to the obvious bias, it also shows you how theologically ignorant Hollywood is, thinking the parent does the baptizing. Wrong. Anway, in conjunction with that, the killer is shown ore as a young boy than any other period and then is seen to be a sympathetic figure! Only with Liberals, is there sympathy for the sadistic killer more than his victims!! At least there is one cop in here who states that a horrible childhood doesn't have to turn someone into a sick killer.

So th question for me wound up being: are the visuals worth putting up with the unpleasant story. The answer wound up being "no."

I've said before that some films are like `nothing you have ever seen before'. Well, The Cell takes that saying and burns it down, blows it up and drowns it. This movie is something you could and can be only imagined. And if you then told someone about it they'd have you locked up for a very long time. It could be categorized as a Sci-fi thriller and then as a serial killer film. Like Seven and Silence of the Lambs this is not the ordinary serial killer film. It stands on it's own as a new kind of thriller.

Jennifer Lopez stars as Catherine Deane, the best psychotherapist in the business. She works for a company who has developed the latest technology in therapy. She has the ability to go inside the mind of anyone and find out the reasoning to his or her distress. Enter Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn), a FBI agent tracking down a very sick serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio), who drowns his victims then dresses them up like dolls. On a FBI raid of his home Stargher goes into a coma and the whereabouts of his next victim are unknown. So Deane takes the job of going into his mind to find out where the victim is being held. And that's when this film gets intense, seriously intense.

The director Tarsem Singh, known for the award winning R.E.M. video `Losing my Religion', blows away everything you could have imagined. The dream sequences are beautifully shot with many camera tricks, creepy color distribution, graphic images, and a tense score. They are extremely trippy and surreal. They actually have a dream feel because anything goes and there are no rules. Lopez performance is as good as she looks. She nails the psychotherapist dead on and does a great job in showing the different aspects of her character. Vince is Vince, very cool, very low key, and very real. D'Onofrio will scare you. His Carl Stargher would make even Hannibal Lecter scream for mommy. This guy is more disturbed than ever imagined. He has to be seen to believe it.

Tarsem, with this film, has become one of my favorite directors and I will go see any film with his name on it. The Cell can only be described as a Sci-fi serial killer thriller that's visually disturbing, creepy, and one of the wildest films ever. It runs along the line with Seven for a good serial killer film and Event Horizon for a graphically sick and twisted film. This is best summer movie and the best film I've seen all year.

I don't know what it was about this movie that failed to thoroughly captivate me. It was good enough to hold my attention and get me to wince a little, but that was only due to the special effects. The story was O.K., it reminded me a lot of Dreamscape. Catherine Dean (Jennifer Lopez) is the main character. She plays a psychiatrist that is able to enter the mind of her patients via some secret drug and electronics. Things start getting hectic when she enters the mind of a psychotic killer named Carl Stargher (Vincent D'onofrio) in order to find out where he has hidden his latest victim.

There were plenty of interesting scenes from a cinematic perspective, but the dialogue and story itself did little to make this movie very good. The idea of going into another realm to accomplish something in reality is nothing new even if it is going into someone's mind. When you strip back all of the visual stimuli, you are left with sophomoric psychology and a weaker version of Silence of the Lambs.

Silence Of The Lambs meets Dreamscape in this slick, sick sci-fi/horror which stars J-Lo as Catherine Deane, a psychologist who enters the mind of comatose serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of his latest victim, Anne Marie Vicksey, who is trapped in a glass room that is slowly filling with water.

When Catherine runs into trouble whilst inside Stargher's twisted subconscious world, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) plunges himself into the nightmare in an attempt to save her.

As far as dazzling eye candy is concerned, The Cell is a real winner: packed with arresting cinematography, surrealist effects, striking set design, and incredibly creative costumes, the film is simply stunning to look at and, for this reason alone, is well worth checking out. It's a shame, however, that The Cell's intriguing storyline isn't quite as polished as the visuals.

Certain aspects of the story are handled extremely well, such as the abduction and plight of Anne Marie and Stargher's perverted treatment of his victims' bodies, but other areas of the plot make little sense or feel under-developed: Catherine saving Stargher's inner child seems ultimately rather pointless (he's a serial killer; he dies; so who cares); Novak hints at a troubled childhood, but we never learn what it is that happened to him; and the FBI agent's realisation that he knows how to locate Ann-Marie is way too sudden.

As far as the performances go, Lopez and Vaughn are adequate, but it is D'Onofrio who steals the show, both as the 'real-life' lank-haired killer (who gets his kicks by suspending himself above his victims' bleached corpses and having a quick hand shandy whilst watching them die on video), and his wicked dream persona—a decadent, sniggering demi-god in a freaky world of his own making.

It was fantastic. the story was good , the acting was almost perfect . the beautiful Jennifer always made a great job I loved her acting , and fabulous Vince Vaughn was incredible too , this is the first time I saw him in a detective character, and he was perfect. unfortunately this movie is underrated and I don't know why I didn't heard about it in all these 19 years until this moment while I am writing this review, but it was very good.

7/10

I really enjoy this genre but The Cell was one of the worst movies I've ever been unfortunate enough to watch. While about 25 percent of my audience wandered in and out of the theater during the viewing (or left entirely) I was dumb enough to stick it out. The main problems with this story (there were too many to list all) is that with this type of film you have to do two things... one, provide fear of the killer (being that they catch him twenty minutes into the film that's gone) and you must give the victim whose life is at stake (the girl in the tank) enough character development that you actually care whether they get to her in time or not. Not only did I lose track of the girl, I was given such little insight into her that she was only a blurry face and when I did remember she was part of the story I really didn't care what happened to her. While the visuals were interesting in an LSD flashback sort of way, they often times made no sense and this should be a lesson that visuals can't make up for lack of a good story (see Phantom Menace for another example) Finally, does anyone know or care what was up with the women kneeling in that field and staring at the sky? Ridiculous.

Probably the most underrated serial killer movie of all, past and to come, times. Never seen anything like that. Not only the visual, by the way astonishing, but also the concept. If you are a serious movie lover, specially this genra, it is a must to see.

Jennifer López plays the screen's most glamorous social worker enlisted to mind-meld with a straggle-haired serial killer who amuses himself by bleaching his victims prior to making them exhibits in his underground museum in this virtual reality thriller pumped up on steroids.

Right from the opening shots of undulating desert sands director Tarsem Singh employs various Eastern tropes - including sitars and Egyptian horns - as Ms López goes through a succession of costume and makeup changes, including the inevitable nun's habit - while Freudian images abound in the form of grasshoppers, horses, camels, broken plates and a white husky.

Confused? You will be.

Oh yes, it's all there: dog, horse, boy child (the son), the zone (the cell), all that water, weathered wall, battered machinery, miniature house (home), weightlessness/elevation, the tree (of life/hope, blossoming even if it was dead to begin with) and religious imagery galore.

After seeing Tarsem Singh's dreadful misunderstanding of Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Offret' in the musicvideo for REM's 'Losing my Religion' years ago, i just knew a full feature film would contain so much more utter nonsense. I was not mistaken ;-)

A lot of the imagery stems from Tarkovsky films directly; especially from 'Stalker', 'Nostalghia', 'The Mirror' and last but not least: 'The Sacrifice'('Offret')

So it's Tarkovsky badly misinterpreted with Singh delivering us such fine bonus, totally misplaced, christian moralities as 'salvation through cleansing of the soul' bla bla 'baptism', 'god-me-son triangularity', purgatory scenes, heaven and hell as ying and yang, 'Saint Catherine The Pure', bla bla, o lord.....

The Cell attempts to run deep, but it's just very very shallow.

Vision, dear Mr. Sing, not just images !

Catharine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is a psychologist who uses an experimental treatment that literally goes into the dreams of her patients. Captured serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) is in a coma and FBI Agent Novak (Vince Vaughn) convinces Deane to go into his mind to find his last victim before she's killed in an automatic water chamber.

Director Tarsem Singh uses the well worn serial killer movie to add an amazing visual depiction of the dreamworld. The serial killing is dark and creepy like 'Se7en'. It's been done before, but the dreamscape visuals are a completely different story. It is stunningly beautiful and disturbing, an artistic view on dreamscapes. The style is unlike anything I've seen before. For that, I must give it full marks.

Featuring lines such as "I'm gonna catch the see-ree-uhhl kill-ah",

spoken in some bizarre brooklynese, this big eye catching mess is a

great way to waste a few hours, if you're on drugs. Unfortunately I was

straight when I saw this, and wished I'd been anywhere else. But it's

certainly got color and zip, like one big long really long extra long

commercial. All style and no substance. Skip it.

I've read so many analytical essays amongst the reviews on here. You know what? Stop watching every film as if it's a challenge to something else. Just let the present experience envelope you. I saw this on TV and immediately went online to buy a copy. All the actors do a good job, the plot is not 100% new it's true - but hey, c'mon, go with the flow. Visually it is stunning, beautiful, terrifying, glorious. Too many people look at films to find the flaws - every film has flaws, but this one overcomes any you may pick on. Sit back, relax, then realise thet Vincent D'Onofrio give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money.