THE CELL - Andy's 4K UHD Review
Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2024 3:50 pm
8/10
(Available 1/21)
Despite having been released after a glut of serial killer thrillers – a genre that was exhausted in the ‘90s following the release of “Silence of the Lambs” – THE CELL (107/109 mins., 2000, R; Arrow) ranks as a powerful viewing experience. Despite its lurid and occasionally gratuitous elements, Tarsem Singh's feature directorial debut ultimately rises above its material thanks to its visual extravagance, one that invites rediscovery on 4K UHD thanks to Arrow’s new, definitive release that streets January 21st.
Like a cross between “Lambs,” “Fantastic Voyage,” “Dreamscape” and a demented “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Cell” finds Jennifer Lopez – then at the height of her efforts to be taken seriously as an actress – as a social worker whose participation in a breakthrough scientific project enables her to enter into the mind of catatonic patients and communicate with them. This proves useful when serial killer Vincent D'Onofrio falls into a coma, and the latest of his female victims is trapped in a cell that will, within 40 hours, be filled with water.
With FBI agents Vince Vaughn and Jake Weber looking on, Lopez enters D'Onofrio's brain, and encounters a fantasy world filled with demons, S&M devices, staircases that stretch to infinity, and a young boy that proves to be the innocent inner-child trapped within the killer's tortured, schizophrenic, and demented mind.
Mark Protosevich's screenplay works in some effective dramatic beats and allows Singh -- a long-time director of music videos -- the opportunity to craft some genuinely spellbinding, haunting images (as well as a few gruesome ones that I was surprised didn't earn a NC-17 rating). “The Cell” is a movie where the visuals overshadow the rest of the drama, but that seems to be the very point of the picture: we've been through the motions of this kind of plot many times before, but rarely has the overall effect of the drama and the manner in which it has been delivered been so enthralling.
The performances are generally solid, with D'Onofrio allowed to play a diabolical demonic king, crazed killer, and somewhat-sympathetic villain all at once. Lopez – who wears an array of eye-popping costumes by Eiko Ishioka – plays it straight, and it’s remarkable now watching her respectable turns in this, “Out of Sight” and the underrated “Angel Eyes,” seeing as she’d quickly lose interest in furthering her on-screen career, preferring instead a steady diet of rom-coms and “American Idol” hosting. Vaughn is stiff and miscast, as he was often in “straight” roles after first breaking onto the scene in “Swingers,” though at least he’s more believable here than he was (laughably) playing Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant’s disastrous “Psycho” remake.
All are relegated, at times, to standing around watching the images go by. Not that, in this picture, that's a criticism, since the cinematography, art direction and score (one of Howard Shore's most eclectic and striking works) combine to craft a memorable thriller that’s only bogged down in divulging too much of the killer’s fetishistic behavior and an effort, especially early on, to seemingly outdo other films in its genre. The explicitness of the picture and its obsession with the killer’s turn-ons are far less interesting than its fantasy components, elements which result in images that are at times disturbing, evocative, or in the case of its ending, spellbinding and beautiful.
Arrow’s 4K UHD of “The Cell” is out January 21st and features several viewing options: the 4K UHD sports either the theatrical version or a slightly extended Director’s Cut, with Dolby Vision HDR (2.39), derived from a new scan of the OCN. The transfer is sound if a little drab, which is rectified by the inclusion of an alternate cut on the set’s included Blu-Ray platter. This presentation is a 2K restoration graded and provided by cinematographer Paul Laufer, framed in the open 1.78 aspect ratio and offering much more vivid colors and contrasts than the UHD. Laufer was concerned with the different processes they had used to shoot the movie and its special effects “mind” sequences in particular, noting the finished film, as it was released to theaters, included sequences many generations separated from its original source. Laufer produced his own HD master of the film at the time of the movie’s home video release yet that master has never been seen until now – and the results resemble what an IMAX presentation of this movie might’ve looked like at the time, with a color scheme that seems more aligned with the otherworldly components of the material. The finely engineered 5.1 DTS MA sound is carried over from previous releases, boasting Shore’s ominous score, a bombastic London Symphony recording laced with Middle Eastern components.
Supplements include new commentaries with Mark Protosevich as well as frequent commentary track participants Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson. Archival commentaries by Tarsem and a crew track including Paul Laufer are also on-hand while new conversations are also included with Tarsem and Paul Laufer, respectively (Laufer also provides an extensive discussion on the origins of his alternate HD master). Also on-hand is a visual essay from Heller-Nicholas; another visual essay by critic Abby Bender; plus an archival featurette, eight deleted/extended scenes, and six multi-angle visual FX vignettes, carried over from the original New Line DVD. It’s capped in a limited-edition slipcover and package with assorted critical essays reflecting on a movie that lingers long in the mind after its final frames conclude.
(Available 1/21)
Despite having been released after a glut of serial killer thrillers – a genre that was exhausted in the ‘90s following the release of “Silence of the Lambs” – THE CELL (107/109 mins., 2000, R; Arrow) ranks as a powerful viewing experience. Despite its lurid and occasionally gratuitous elements, Tarsem Singh's feature directorial debut ultimately rises above its material thanks to its visual extravagance, one that invites rediscovery on 4K UHD thanks to Arrow’s new, definitive release that streets January 21st.
Like a cross between “Lambs,” “Fantastic Voyage,” “Dreamscape” and a demented “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Cell” finds Jennifer Lopez – then at the height of her efforts to be taken seriously as an actress – as a social worker whose participation in a breakthrough scientific project enables her to enter into the mind of catatonic patients and communicate with them. This proves useful when serial killer Vincent D'Onofrio falls into a coma, and the latest of his female victims is trapped in a cell that will, within 40 hours, be filled with water.
With FBI agents Vince Vaughn and Jake Weber looking on, Lopez enters D'Onofrio's brain, and encounters a fantasy world filled with demons, S&M devices, staircases that stretch to infinity, and a young boy that proves to be the innocent inner-child trapped within the killer's tortured, schizophrenic, and demented mind.
Mark Protosevich's screenplay works in some effective dramatic beats and allows Singh -- a long-time director of music videos -- the opportunity to craft some genuinely spellbinding, haunting images (as well as a few gruesome ones that I was surprised didn't earn a NC-17 rating). “The Cell” is a movie where the visuals overshadow the rest of the drama, but that seems to be the very point of the picture: we've been through the motions of this kind of plot many times before, but rarely has the overall effect of the drama and the manner in which it has been delivered been so enthralling.
The performances are generally solid, with D'Onofrio allowed to play a diabolical demonic king, crazed killer, and somewhat-sympathetic villain all at once. Lopez – who wears an array of eye-popping costumes by Eiko Ishioka – plays it straight, and it’s remarkable now watching her respectable turns in this, “Out of Sight” and the underrated “Angel Eyes,” seeing as she’d quickly lose interest in furthering her on-screen career, preferring instead a steady diet of rom-coms and “American Idol” hosting. Vaughn is stiff and miscast, as he was often in “straight” roles after first breaking onto the scene in “Swingers,” though at least he’s more believable here than he was (laughably) playing Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant’s disastrous “Psycho” remake.
All are relegated, at times, to standing around watching the images go by. Not that, in this picture, that's a criticism, since the cinematography, art direction and score (one of Howard Shore's most eclectic and striking works) combine to craft a memorable thriller that’s only bogged down in divulging too much of the killer’s fetishistic behavior and an effort, especially early on, to seemingly outdo other films in its genre. The explicitness of the picture and its obsession with the killer’s turn-ons are far less interesting than its fantasy components, elements which result in images that are at times disturbing, evocative, or in the case of its ending, spellbinding and beautiful.
Arrow’s 4K UHD of “The Cell” is out January 21st and features several viewing options: the 4K UHD sports either the theatrical version or a slightly extended Director’s Cut, with Dolby Vision HDR (2.39), derived from a new scan of the OCN. The transfer is sound if a little drab, which is rectified by the inclusion of an alternate cut on the set’s included Blu-Ray platter. This presentation is a 2K restoration graded and provided by cinematographer Paul Laufer, framed in the open 1.78 aspect ratio and offering much more vivid colors and contrasts than the UHD. Laufer was concerned with the different processes they had used to shoot the movie and its special effects “mind” sequences in particular, noting the finished film, as it was released to theaters, included sequences many generations separated from its original source. Laufer produced his own HD master of the film at the time of the movie’s home video release yet that master has never been seen until now – and the results resemble what an IMAX presentation of this movie might’ve looked like at the time, with a color scheme that seems more aligned with the otherworldly components of the material. The finely engineered 5.1 DTS MA sound is carried over from previous releases, boasting Shore’s ominous score, a bombastic London Symphony recording laced with Middle Eastern components.
Supplements include new commentaries with Mark Protosevich as well as frequent commentary track participants Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson. Archival commentaries by Tarsem and a crew track including Paul Laufer are also on-hand while new conversations are also included with Tarsem and Paul Laufer, respectively (Laufer also provides an extensive discussion on the origins of his alternate HD master). Also on-hand is a visual essay from Heller-Nicholas; another visual essay by critic Abby Bender; plus an archival featurette, eight deleted/extended scenes, and six multi-angle visual FX vignettes, carried over from the original New Line DVD. It’s capped in a limited-edition slipcover and package with assorted critical essays reflecting on a movie that lingers long in the mind after its final frames conclude.