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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Catalan: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • 8 Deleted scenes
  • Teaser trailer
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - Tarsem Singh
  • Featurette
  • Isolated music score
  • Animated menus
  • Storyboards
  • Multiple angle
  • 14 Filmographies
  • Interactive game

The Cell

New Line/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 105 mins . R . PAL

  Feature
Contract

A lot has been written in recent years about the New Hollywood and its marketing-based attitude to filmmaking, but even so, it’s very telling that The Cell was marketed almost exclusively to those who like eye-popping visuals above all else. The trailers for The Cell uncharacteristically gave little away about the actual plot of the film, but instead presented a two-minute burst of visual splendour that combined influences ranging from classic horror films and rock video clips to surrealist painting and avant-garde theatre. What was promised looked likely to be more of a sensory experience than a dramatic journey.

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Vince Vaughn in the mind of a killer

As it turns out, there’s a plot lurking within The Cell, though it’s fundamentally a very basic, derivative one. FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn, the man brave enough to attempt the Norman Bates role in Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake) has been on the trail of serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D’Onofrio), a particularly nasty variation on the breed whose “thing” is to kidnap women and imprison them in a glass “cell” that, over the course of 40 hours, slowly fills with water. He videotapes those hours, keen to preserve his victims’ panic, false hope, anger and desperation - but the tapes are really intended as visual assistance for what he has in mind after they’re dead (it’s these scenes that have been extended from the theatrical version in the “Director’s Cut” on this DVD). Once Stargher is tracked down, Novak and the FBI quickly find him. But he has been suffering an irreversible brain condition, and has lapsed into a coma just before the agents arrive. The catch is that the last woman he has kidnapped is still a prisoner in Stargher’s cell, and will die unless she can be found. To do this, the help of a team of scientists is enlisted - a team that have developed a way of placing someone quite literally inside another person’s mind and the world that “exists” within. Their volunteer for this is psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez), who ventures into the dark confines of Stargher’s mind in the hope of finding out where his final victim is being held.

Basically the plot here is a standard serial-killer-thriller with an element of future science thrown in. But that’s all the excuse needed to create what is essentially a visual theme park with a few dramatic links thrown in to propel the story. At this point, you may be thinking of The Lawnmower Man’s video-game style and worrying. But New Line has a secret weapon to make sure that doesn’t happen, and his name is Tarsem Singh.

The acclaimed director of REM’s evocative, award-winning Losing My Religion music video, Singh virtually disappeared from view throughout much of the ‘90s; this, his first feature film, continues the rich visual style of that video clip as though only a year or two had passed. The visual flair of this film is undoubtedly the main reason for watching - and almost uniquely for a current film, very few of the visuals here were accomplished using computers, the director instead preferring old-fashioned in-camera effects. It’s the first major studio film since Coppola’s Dracula to rely so heavily on photographics for its visual effects, and the results more than bear out the risk. While some things here were computer-assisted, most of the eye-popping visuals are the result of the creative use of lighting, film stock, make-up and unconventional film speeds; ironically, to the viewer it’s like watching a 1920s German sci-fi film in crisp colour - in terms of modern cinema, The Cell looks visually unique.

The actual plot takes a back seat to much of this, though, and those hoping for a psychotropic Silence Of the Lambs will probably be disappointed by the simplicity of it all, though Singh does attempt to create tension through the use of extreme shock imagery. But with the incredible costumes (some by legendary designer Eiko Ishioka) and Oscar-nominated make-up work, what’s spun here is not so much a gripping story as a gripping world - and that, even for this story-obsesses reviewer, is more than enough to satisfy.

This “director’s cut” version (actually the European release version of the film) is slightly longer than the version seen in cinemas here, and with its added nastiness is rated R as a result (as opposed to the MA-rated cinema version). Roadshow deserve the highest praise for giving fans of the film in this country the most complete version of The Cell possible.

  Video
Contract

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Holy Capes batman
Shot in Super 35, The Cell is presented on DVD in its theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and is 16:9 enhanced. The first thing many will notice is the extreme use of contrast and colour throughout the film - while scenes set “inside the mind” are intensely saturated with near-artificial colour, the real-world scenes are almost clinically flat and subdued, very similarly to the approach taken in The Matrix - though thankfully without the ever-present green lens filter employed by that film.

The whole story is so surreal that the accuracy of the image on screen is never an issue - and indeed, during the “in-mind” sequences, this film proves perfectly suited to DVD, with extreme colour and contrast rendered faithfully. A lot of bleach-bypass processing was used in the production of The Cell, in many ways rendering arguments about “accurate” images moot.

The MPEG encoding is generally flawless throughout, with one or two moments of mild aliasing that won’t bother anyone but the pedantic. Those buying this for the visuals - and that’s most of the audience - will be perfectly delighted at how this film looks on DVD; for an example of just how good, check out the sequence towards the end of the film where Singh daringly employs bizarre “growing frames” around the actors. There’s a lot of unconventional editing and rapid camera movement during much of the film, and all of it is captured without problem. Fans of big-budget eye candy will be more than pleased.

  Audio
Contract

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The Rubik Adult Cube
As expected, The Cell offers a state-of-the-art soundtrack with plenty of fireworks, the surrounds constantly active as part of what can only be described as a “naturally unnatural” soundstage. While both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0 tracks are provided, the clear winner here is the 5.1 track, even when downmixed to Dolby Surround by the player. This is a surprisingly common observation for this reviewer, and may have something to do with the use of more restraint on the 2.0 mix, which gets used for lower-resolution media like cable and broadcast TV. In this case there’s slightly better high-frequency detail in the 5.1 mix as well, making it the audio track of choice here.

Howard Shore’s music score is quite unique and very enveloping, and as a result it’s no big surprise to find it offered by itself as a separate 5.1 audio track.

  Extras
Contract

A terrific set of extras come with this disc, with only one item missing from New Line’s US edition (a second commentary track by the production team). However, it’s worth noting that there’s very little space remaining on this disc, most probably because the main feature is encoded at a slightly higher average bitrate than its region 1 equivalent.

Director Commentary: Those who have become a tad jaded with director commentaries will get a real kick out of this one, as director Tarsem Singh attacks his first commentary with a level of enthusiasm usually reserved for couch-bound movie fans. Often speaking at double the speed of sound, Tarsem waxes lyrical on his film and its production process like a man possessed, covering everything from his intentions for the movie’s style (“big, loud… like an opera”) to the costumes (particularly lamenting the loss of one key item) and the cast. The film may be serious in tone, but Tarsem is often hilarious - and not always intentionally, coming up with lines like “what a bloody coinkydink” and, memorably, “my god, the Indian director’s nuts!” Indicative of his passion for the film he’s made is his frequent lament about the actress who plays Stargher’s final victim; when asked during auditions if she could swim, she claimed, says Tarsem, to be “a lifeguard”. But as it turned out, she wasn’t comfortable with the intense use of water in the film, and Tarsem doesn’t let up about his disappointment. “I was so hurt,” he keeps saying. “I was so broken.” Twenty minutes later, he’s still going on about it; it’s probably safe to say that the two won’t be working together again! There’s also a lot of revealing info to be found throughout the commentary about the many compromises this first-time director was forced to make at the behest of the studio.

Isolated Score: Howard Shore’s score, described as “confident” by the director, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 on its own audio track. Isolated score tracks are always one of the most welcome inclusions on a DVD, and with Shore’s out-there audio so key to the mood of the film but so different when heard on its own, this is a wonderful bonus.

Deleted Scenes (8): There are apparently nine deleted scenes on the region 1 version of the disc, but the inclusion of one of those in the body of the film itself in the longer cut of the film, it makes perfect sense that it’s not included here. The eight scenes that are included here are all presented in good condition and letterboxed appropriately, but purists will hate the huge amount of on-screen timecode and copyright info plastered across the screen; still, it’s better than not seeing them at all. Video is full-frame, and not 16:9 enhanced. A great feature here is the choice, once a scene is selected, of playing it with or without commentary from Singh; the non-commentary audio, by the way, is a very basic track comprising location audio and temp effects.

Behind The Scenes - Style As Substance: A 12 minute EPK-style featurette in which cast and crew alike wax lyrical about just how much of a genius Tarsem is. There’s some interesting stuff here, but none of it’s covered in much detail. Still, it’s a perfectly good - and brief - watch, though you can’t help but wish for a more substantial making-of feature. 16:9 enhanced.

Behind The Scenes - Visual Effects Vignettes (6): What could just have been half a dozen dry interviews with various members of the effects team is given added oomph thanks to the use of DVD’s multi-angle feature, which allows you to choose whether to see video of the interviewees (with small windows displaying the other one or two angles), on-set videotape illustrating what they’re talking about, or the corresponding storyboards (where they’re available). Angle of choice here is “on-set”, which lets you listen to the details and clearly see what’s being referred to. All video here is 16:9 enhanced.

Theatrical Trailers (2): Provided here is a choice of one of the US theatrical trailers or the International teaser trailer. Both are 16:9 enhanced. The difference is marketing strategy for this film between the US and Europe is illustrated well by comparing these two very different approaches. Interestingly, the US trailer credits the director simply as “Tarsem”.

Filmographies (14): Nothing especially startling, but a fairly comprehensive list of the feature film credits of the main cast and crew. Unlike many current DVDs, this includes the writer, composer and key design people, something that should be a part of all DVD filmographies.

Interactivities - Empathy Test: Odd. Tied into the psychoanalytical side of the film’s story, this comprises a multiple-choice quiz that results in an analysis of your emotional health, and won’t let you through to its next stage until you fix what ails you! This is not dissimilar from the larger-scale quizzing of the rather pointless interactive DVD Tender Loving Care; like that disc, the introductory text here points out that this should “only be used for fun.”

Interactivities - Brain Map: A series of text screens branched from a menu, offering information about various parts of the brain. Possibly interesting to those without an encyclopaedia handy, or those simply into unexpected trivia about grey matter. Thematically a suitable inclusion, though more could have been done with this section.

As well as all the above (phew!) there’s animated scene selection menu screens that are very nicely done, and all the menus across the disc are beautifully designed as well as mostly being animated and soundtracked, with the exception of the bottom-level menus in each category. All menus are 16:9 enhanced. The Dolby Digital “Canyon” trailer precedes the film, a most suitable choice to match the movie’s content (other distributors, take note!)

  Overall  
Contract

A visual feast - one of the most distinctively out-there visual feasts currently on offer - The Cell may have been intended as a crime thriller, but will particularly please fans of dark fantasy and sci-fi movies. And, of course, those of us who are keen on visually innovative cinema. Sure, it’s not high art and it certainly doesn’t stand up to intellectual scrutiny - but damn, it looks good. Billed on the DVD cover as “The Matrix meets Silence Of The Lambs” (translation: “it’s a serial killer film and it’s got all these freaky camera moves in it”), The Cell is really more a modern-day meeting of Fantastic Voyage and the aforementioned Lawnmower Man, visualised by a music video director with a taste for Fritz Lang and religious iconography.

Roadshow’s extras-loaded DVD includes all but one item from New Line’s US original, and with the feature’s picture quality so high and the disc so full, we can forgive that (and chances are, after hearing Tarsem Singh’s commentary you’ll never be able to look at commentary tracks in quite the same way again!) With the uncut European version of the film as a sweetener, this is a solidly-packed disc that fans of the film - and those who just like their images to be out-there - will want to own.


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      And I quote...
    "A visual feast - one of the most distinctively out-there visual feasts currently on offer..."
    - Anthony Horan
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Rom:
          Pioneer 103(s)
    • MPEG Card:
          Creative Encore DXR2
    • TV:
          Panasonic - The One
    • Receiver:
          Sony STR-AV1020
    • Speakers:
          Klipsch Tangent 500
    • Surrounds:
          Jamo
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Monster s-video
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