ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
Philippa
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
gwnightscream
Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio star in this 2000 thriller. Lopez (Enough) plays Catherine Deane, a psychologist who helps FBI agent, Peter Novak find a kidnapped girl. Her process, is to get inside the mind of her abductor, a comatose, serial killer, Carl Stargher (D'Onofrio) who is the only one that knows. This is a bizarre film that reminds me a bit of "Manhunter" & "Red Dragon" with a decent cast and neat effects. I'd check it out at least once if you're into psychological thrillers.
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
I just saw this film on DVD on my laptop - how I wish I saw it on the big screen! - and it just blew me away. There was not a single second when I turned my eyes away from the screen. Right from the opening scene, with Jennifer Lopez - looking quite a vision in white! - riding a black horse in a desert, with a very catchy, Indian/Middle-Eastern music playing in the background, to the beginning of the end credits (with the same haunting Indian/Middle- Eastern music playing), this film is quite something!I wonder how did they ever think of such a plot? I mean, OK, they thought of going inside someone else's mind--but to actually show it with such visuals, that's what needs all the appreciation. The entire film is a vision, like a dream, like an exquisite artwork. And the best thing is that the director doesn't waste any time in establishing the plot and his surreal - and a bit disturbing - visions. It's like snap snap snap!--and a scene is done, and I was like: What did I just see now? The locations, the sets, the costumes, the looks of the three main characters when they enter their subconscious zones--the visuals will attract you like a magnet. Take my word for this.Beautiful, beautiful movie! This was released in 2000. Today, in 2016, this might have been made - I am sure - in 3D.
trinka-42782
the plot of this movie is, for the most part, just another crime drama about a serial killer. d'nofrio is excellent in submerging himself in his role. Vaughn is also great and should be in more dramatic roles. that being said, the best part of this film is that it is an assault on your senses. visually, it takes you on a journey to some of the places that you would rather not be without a return ticket. it is some of the best imagery ever set to such a disturbing topic, whether it be the transformation of the victims from human to doll to the self image of the killer himself. for those of you who may have a background in behavioral science/psychology such as myself, there are places in the film that you know are very possibly held within the deepest, darkest parts of the human heart and soul. in any case, watch the film for what it is and take a trip into a wonderfully terrifying world that is filled with suspense and mind blowing scenes. btw, lopez isn't too bad in it and I am not really a fan of hers in the first place.
NateWatchesCoolMovies
Tarsem Singh's The Cell is the kind of revelatory, mind blowing, breathtaking, once in a decade kind of fantasy film that is utterly unique, truly memorable and pure artistic creation. Singh utilizes so many visual elements and ideas that you get the notion that you are truly immersed in a human being's subconscious inner realm, and not merely watching a film. It's transcendent. Jennifer Lopez, in a performance of great empathy and serious emotional depth, plays a child psychologist who uses futuristic technology to literally enter the dreams of comatose patients and attempt to heal them. When a seriously disturbed killer (the monumentally talented Vincent D'Onofrio) enters a coma before the FBI can find his latest victim, she is hired to enter his mind to find out the location. A scary setup indeed. The first plunge into his mind is set up with a dread inducing soundtrack cue, and a sudden, Topsy turvy whirlwind of surreal images, sounds and stimuli which are truly eerie and intangible. The art direction, special effects and design of the spirit realm she ventures into are just something you don't see in many films, because most people are afraid to think about that kind of raw, uninhibited subconscious content. Not Singh. He willingly explores the dark, mysterious side of the human mind and soul, with a complexity and understanding that is all to rare. For folks who find that too much surreal imagery and soul disturbing content makes them uneasy (hell, I'M one of those folks) those aspects are balanced out by the clean cut, very grounded in earth time plot line of Vaughn's team helping him out from 'earthside', a standard cops vs. killer mentality to even out the strangeness. They even have a guy from CSI playing one of the cops. Vince Vaughn feels slightly miscast as the head fed, but James Gammon, Dean Norris, Dylan Baker, Marianne Jean Baptiste, Patrick Bachau and Musetta Vander all give stellar support. If you have a strong stomach (this film gets pretty brutal in ways you can't imagine), and a wandering, artistically abstract mind for all things surreal and dreamy, definitely check this out.