The Cell (Widescreen) [Import]

A social worker (Jennifer Lopez) enters the mind of a comatose serial killer (with the help of new experimental technology) to help FBI agents find his latest captive before time runs out.

The Cell was released in 2000 and marked the feature film debut of director Tarsem Singh (Immortals). Upon its initial release, many critics charged that the film was all style and no substance. I disagree with that. The film contains both, but the story/script/acting is a little underwhelming in the first half when compared with the bold and vividly nightmarish special FX and dreamlike atmosphere of the second half of the movie. Still if you don’t over think things and allow yourself to soak in the darkness and striking visuals, the film can make for a disturbing and thrilling experience. The films costume design, cinematography, soundtrack and make-up are all fantastically unique as well.

The DVD release of The Cell offered a nice collection of special features including an enthusiastic audio commentary by director Tarsem Singh. Since this Blu-ray release of the film is from Alliance, it doesn’t come as a surprise that no special features are included, not even a menu screen. The movie begins playing as soon as you pop the disc in.

While The Cell makes its Blu-ray debut with great video and audio, it’s a bare-bones release that offers no supplemental material. For the price, I recommend this one for diehard fans of the film, but if you already own the DVD, I would wait to upgrade until The Cell makes its way onto the Blu-ray format with a better overall package. For the record I would rate the film a 4/5 and rate this release from Alliance a 3/5.

I recently saw this rather disturbing film, and it is also very interesting, scary, and shocking. It is almost twisted and dark if you plan on going into the mind of a serial killer. And, it is most certainly like going into the world of surreal and twisted sense of reality to which you have to break through to find the answers. Personally, I think this movie is an interesting look at one's twisted mind to which there are two "selves:" a wounded child (inner self) and an evil predator (false self).

While I think the acting on Lopez's and Vaughn's parts were good considering, the story and the depiction of how the mind works when a inner self was suppressed and a false self took over was very interesting and it has some harsh truth to it: it can happen in real life where one do not have control over oneself.

"The Cell" is a great title for this movie as it shows a prison for that inner self (a wounded child) while the false self controls everything.

It is really good film to watch, in my personal opinion.

Roger Ebert called it one of the best films of 2000, and I'm more than inclined to agree with him. While the film is extremely disturbing at times, the depth it sinks to is commensurate with the heights to which it rises. A visually spectacular project tainted only by the typecasting and tabloid stardom Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn have been subjected to since its release. A film well worth seeing, albeit not for the faint at heart.