Movie Review - Cell

Cell (2016)

The Genre Company / 120dB Films / Benaroya Pictures : Signature Entertainment / Saban Films

3.5 / 10

"Cell" was not my favourite Stephen King book; It was one of my least favourite of his works and for some of the same reasons as this film.

The first thing that made me sigh with apprehension was a film company calling themselves "The Genre Company" - Nice of them to choose a story which doesn't sit well in a genre.  For me, this isn't a Horror film as a lot of the elements of horror are lacking, suspense and tension aren't even a part of this film.  That said, they're missing from the novel as well.  There is only rudimentary aspect of drama in the film as it's too short to build up any characters that you can relate to, and when one of the main characters are killed the viewer feels very little.  So I'm not inclined to call it a Drama.  This is a shame as Stephen King is the master of believable and relatable characters, even when they're placed in extraordinary situations; it's even more of a shame as Mr King also wrote the screenplay.  There's some action thrown in, but again, not too much.  The only genre that suits this film would be Science Fiction; but that would also be a loose fitting.

I liked the idea of a pulse being transmitted through the cell phones and turning the user into a raving maniacal killing machine, this is a fresh take on the Zombie, though King doesn't leave it there, he has them keep evolving into something completely different.

I can understand the people transmitting the pulse as their voiceboxes are manipulated to make the transforming sounds.  However, the scene with the changelings at the University is ludicrous, to say the least.

The main trouble with the story is the lack of reason.  You are never told why the cell phones started transforming people or what the changelings will finally transform into.  Handled correctly it could have given the movie a more ominous feel, but everything is shot in a nonchalant way that it's dull and boring.  If this was what the director Tod Williams had planned, then he was wrong.

I like John Cusack, though I didn't like his performance in the other King movie adaptation "1408" though that was better than this one.  However, I can probably put that down to the lacklustre direction of the movie.  There were only two actors who stood out in this film; Samuel L Jackson as Tom McCort, for once he doesn't give his usual tough guy performance, here he's a normal guy; the other is Stacy Keach who does a good job of portraying a stoic and phlegmatic headmaster of the University.

To make this film worth watching you would have to go back to the drawing board.  I think if you took the Peter Jackson approach to this story and turned it into a trilogy, it would allow you to build the characters and implement the "Road Trip" feel of the book into the film.

I am still waiting for a good Stephen King movie adaptation... will it be IT?  Could it be The Gunslinger?  Living in hope...

   

Movie Review - The Fly

The Fly (1958)

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

9 / 10

"As God is my witness I saw the thing!"

I had forgotten how good this film is.  The last time I saw this flick was so long ago it was on a black and white television.

What you have here is a solid science fiction film with elements of thriller and horror thrown in to keep you entertained.  Right from the start, the story of an experiment in teleportation gone horrifically wrong hooks you and pulls you in with a scene where our scientist has been squashed to less than a pulp by an industrial metal press, and it looks like his wife may be the killer.

The beauty of this movie is that it starts out as one thing, a thriller, and transforms gracefully into another, science fiction.  This transformation in done beautifully thanks to a great writer, George Langelaan who wrote the story and James Clavell who scripted the screenplay; combined by great direction from Kurt Neumann and the excellent acting of Vincent Price, Patricia Owens, and Herbert Marshall.

Patricia Owns as the wife of the scientist, Helene Delambre does a good portrayal of a woman on the verge of madness...  Did she kill her husband?  What was her reasoning?  Why is she so obsessed with flies?

Vincent Price is always so good and is no different in his role as the brother to the scientist, Francois Delambre, who has never married due to his love for his brother's wife; though he loves his brother more so keeps his distance.  Though all the evidence point to her being the murderer of his brother, Andre, he fights for her innocence as he cannot believe she is guilty of such a heinous crime.

Then there's Herbert Marshall who plays Inspector Charas, who sees things in black and white and doesn't deter from the line of the law.  Even after Helene tells her story, he cannot believe it and thinks that she is mad.

So now you have to watch the movie to see the outcome of this dilemma.

If you've already seen the David Cronenberg remake then I would still recommend this as even though the "main" premise is the same the rest of the story is completely different and I believe the original story is stronger.  There isn't a lot of horror in the original version, though the scene with the meowing cat, Dandilow, is truly haunting and sent a shiver or two up my spine.

You should watch this movie at least once in your lifetime.