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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Cell (2000)

The Cell (2000)

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Released 28-Mar-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Thriller Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Dolby Digital Trailer-Canyon
Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Audio Commentary-Tarsem Singh (Director)
Isolated Musical Score
Deleted Scenes-8 +/- Director's Commentary
Featurette-Style As Substance: Reflections On Tarsem
Multiple Angles-Visual Effects Vignettes (6)
Theatrical Trailer-2
Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Quiz-Empathy Test
Notes-Brain Map
DVD Credits
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 104:49
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (91:23) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Tarsem Singh
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Jennifer Lopez
Vince Vaughn
Vincent D'Onofrio
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Jake Weber
Dylan Baker
Case C-Button-Version 2
RPI $34.95 Music Howard Shore


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Ever since I heard about The Cell, I have been eagerly waiting to see what it was like. I heard it had some pretty surreal scenes but not much of a plot. That turned out to be a pretty accurate summary of the film.

    There is really not much of a plot - this film is supported and survives mainly on the basis of the spectacular (and on occasion quite disturbing) visual effects, costumes and scenes depicting the imagery inside a schizophrenic human mind. Indeed, what little there is in the plot is highly derivative and reminiscent of other films. The quote on the front cover of the DVD package says "The Matrix meets Silence of The Lambs". Well, those are not the only two films that the plot has referenced or borrowed from - certain scenes reminded me strongly of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Twin Peaks, The Thirteenth Floor, Coma and a number of other films.

    Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is working in an institute (the "Campbell Center") which has pioneered a radical approach to psychotherapy. Researchers Dr. Miriam Kent (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Dr. Henry West (Dylan Baker) have developed a method of connecting two people such that one person can literally enter the mind of another and experience it as a self-contained world (kind of like a Vulcan mind meld I suppose but using fancy technology). Catherine has been chosen as a psychotherapist who is particularly gifted in using this technique to "reach" autistic / comatose / schizophrenic patients.

    In the meantime, FBI agents Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) and Gordon Ramsey (Jake Weber) are trying to discover the identity and whereabouts of serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio). He abducts young pretty women one at a time and keeps them in a room in a secret location. After about 40 hours the room slowly fills with water until they are slowly drowned. Unfortunately, by the time the FBI finds Carl, he has fallen into an irreversible coma so they don't know where the secret location is (containing his latest victim). Now, Catherine must race against time to explore the twisted mind of the killer to get the information she needs, but if she "forgets" that what she sees is not real she may get trapped in the prison of her mind and even be killed.

    The opening scene, featuring Catherine in the mind of a young child has some superb panoramic desert scenes reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia. The scenes featuring Carl and what he does to his victims are pretty gruesome - yuck yuck and yuck! The hunt and capture of Carl are fairly ho-hum and the film didn't really start capturing my interest until the infamous "mind of a killer" scenes starting at Chapter 12. Even then, the film seem to have some slow moments that do not "gel" with the rest of the film and the plot and storyline don't "hang together" perfectly.

    Overall I would say the film is watchable, even if only for the psychedelic scenes, but I am not sure it will be something I will watch over and over again. One piece of advice to director Tarsem Singh: it's all very well to have great visuals, but visuals should and MUST play second fiddle to the storyline. A film with a great storyline and poor visuals can still be a great film, but a film with great visuals but a poor storyline is just eye candy.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. In general, the transfer quality is good but falls one or two notches below reference quality in terms of sharpness and colour saturation. There is a lot to like about the transfer, but there's also a few minor problems. I guess I am mildly disappointed because I have very high expectations of New Line transfers. If this had not been a New Line film I probably would have been reasonably happy with the transfer.

    The opening sequence, featuring Catherine in Edward's desert world, seems to exhibit a moderate amount of chroma separation, particularly noticeable in Catherine's white outfit - the right edge is reddish and the left edge is bluish. I suspect this artefact is actually present in the film source and may be a result of special effects processing, since the opening titles (also white) do not exhibit any such chroma separation.

    The film source is relatively clean, but exhibits minor amounts of grain, particularly in the opening sequence showing the sand dune and the sky. The grain is also particularly noticeable (and objectionable) at around 73:12-73:14.

    The end titles exhibit minor jerkiness in the characters as they scroll upward. The video transfer also exhibits minor MPEG artefacts such as Gibb effects and posterization.

    The disc only has one subtitle track, English for the Hard of Hearing. I turned this track on for part of the film. It seemed reasonably accurate but is not very good at providing descriptions of non-verbal auditory cues in the soundtrack so if I was really hard of hearing I would definitely miss some of the subtler aspects of the soundtrack.

    This is a single sided dual layer disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 91:23 in between scenes but is still somewhat noticeable due to the split second freeze in the video and break in the audio.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are no less than four audio tracks on this disc, all in English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s), audio commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) and isolated music score Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s). I listened mainly to the English Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

    Although there are no fundamental issues with the audio track, it is mastered at a relatively low level (about 4 dB lower than "normal"). Dialogue quality was okay - there were a few lines which were harder to understand because they were spoken rather fast or too softly. I did not detect any audio synchronization issues.

    The music score is vaguely Middle Eastern/Indian influenced married to the standard "epic film" lushness.

    The audio track features quite aggressive usage of the surround speakers but interestingly is not really as bass-heavy as one might expect so the sub-woofer was only occasionally utilized. The surround speakers are used for ambience, sound effects and also music. Despite the hype, this is not really an "explosion and effects" kind of film from an audio perspective and is actually quite dialogue-focussed.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    This disc has an excellent collection of extras, although the video transfer for some of the items could be improved. There seems to be a concerted effort to present as much material in 16x9 enhancement mode as possible (which I think is a very worthy goal), even (I suspect) to the extent of cropping a 4:3 featurette into 16:9 (which is not so great).

Menu

    The menus feature rather extensive animation and sound, including an introduction, and animated scene selection. They are 16x9 enhanced.

Dolby Digital Trailer-Canyon

    Somehow, this trailer fits with the overall look and feel of the film. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 enhancement.

Audio Commentary-Tarsem Singh (Director)

    This is Tarsem Singh's first feature film (his previous experience has been in directing commercials and music videos). He is obviously super-enthusiastic and happily rattles on about various aspects of his experiences directing the film, the choices he had to make and various influences and constraints - the studios, test screenings, actors, and so forth. He speaks quite fast, so you need to pay attention to catch everything - particularly if you are not used to his accent.

Isolated Musical Score

    This track contains just the music portion of the soundtrack, encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kb/s. I listened to the first ten minutes of this track and it is basically as advertised. Not being terribly interested in the musical score, I did not listen further.

Deleted Scenes-8 +/- Director's Commentary

    The DVD release features 8 deleted scenes (7 with the option to turn director's commentary on or off). The deleted scenes are presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 without 16x9 enhancement but with frame counters/timers on the bottom, "Property of New Line Cinema" on top and "Jesse Flores" around centre left (who is Jesse Flores?). The quality of the video transfer for the scenes is rather poor, with lots of MPEG artefacts such as Gibb Effects marring the scenes. The audio transfer is likewise tinny-sounding in Dolby Digital 2.0. I would rate the quality of the transfers as not much better than VHS quality. Note: There are some spoilers in the deleted scene descriptions - proceed with caution.
  1. Trapped in the cell (1:00)

  2. This features the girl in the water tank: she tries to eat, she counts to thirty, and screams when the water doesn't shut off when she reaches thirty (this scene was, in part, in a version of the trailer)
  3. Despair in the cell (0:40)

  4. This features the girl in the water tank again, but she beats on the glass in the dark, screaming randomly.
  5. Extended raid (3:26)

  6. A modified version of the initial strike on Carl's house, involving a single FBI agent running across the street, over the fence, and onto Carl's lawn; he sees Carl, unconscious on the floor in his kitchen, via mirror (followed immediately by the initial infiltration)
  7. Early exit (1:52)

  8. A previously unseen session with the child in the desert; the session is interrupted by an outside influence, and we see a man place the fabric over Lopez's eyes as she passes out (immediately before the scene where the institute director says 'We have a situation'). This scene ties in with the ending, and I wished they had left it in.
  9. Novak and Ramsey (1:30)

  10. A scene where, shortly after arriving at the institute, Peter and his partner talk by a statue (completely improvised, according to the director's commentary)
  11. Stargher's room (3:24)

  12. This is an alternate ending, where the film ends without the final scene featuring Edward in Catherine's mind, and the camera does an incredibly long and slow pan across the ceiling of Carl's room after the long shot of the schoolyard. The end credits are then supposed to be superimposed on top of this.
  13. Extended confrontation with Carl (4:15)

  14. An extended and modified version of the conversation between Lopez and D'Onofrio at the bathtub (where Carl is taking apart his first victim)
  15. Extended police briefing (2:48)

  16. This scene is an extended version of the scene where Novak and Ramsey brief the policemen hunting for Carl. This deleted scene does not provide the option for director's commentary.

Featurette-Style As Substance: Reflections On Tarsem (11:50)

    This is a short documentary featuring interviews with various members of the cast and crew where they are all singing praises about the creative genius of the director (a bit indulgent, I thought). The interviews are intermingled with excerpts from the film. Interestingly enough, it is presented in 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement but I suspect the original source may have been in full frame as the tops and bottoms of some the faces during the interviews are cropped off.

    Cast and crew featured in this documentary include (in order of appearance):

Featurette-Visual Effects Vignettes

    This features six 'making-of' mini-featurettes (featurettas?) of various scenes in the film with multiple camera angles. This is a really cool and novel way of presenting the material and I hope other people will start copying the concept. Basically, each featurette has three camera angle.

    Angle 1 features an interview with Kevin Tod Haug and/or Richard Baily, plus we get "picture-in-picture" views of angles 2 and 3. Angle 2 features either excerpts from the film or shots describing how they constructed the scene. Angle 3 features the storyboards behind the scene.

    The idea is that you would normally watch Angle 1 unless you see something interesting in angles 2 and 3 and then you can switch to it if you want. Amazingly, all the mini-featurettes here are presented in 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The video quality for the interviews are a bit soft, though and angle 2 is about VHS quality. Angle 3 is not too bad, though.

Theatrical Trailer-2

    Both trailers are presented at 1.85:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The video and audio transfers are excellent (in fact, reference quality) and the audio track is Dolby Digital 5.1 (mastered at a much higher level than that for the film itself):

Filmographies-Cast & Crew

    This is a set of stills featuring the filmographies of various cast & crew:

Interactivities-Empathy Test, Brain Map

    The empathy test is pretty cute. It's a set of menu screens featuring multiple choice questions. Once you've finished answering all the questions, it gives you the test results. I managed to get an "ok but needs improvement" rating :-(

    The brain map is a set of stills providing information on the brain and various areas of the brain. For each area of the brain it provides information on location, function and dysfunction.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;     The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;     I am getting pretty sick and tired of the R4 versions of New Line films missing out on the second audio commentary present on the equivalent R1 New Line Platinum series discs. It seems to be a worrying trend - Pleasantville, Frequency and now The Cell. I know that the R1 discs are sardine-packed with extras so it's difficult to try and fit everything in as well as a PAL transfer, but given the recent trend of 2-disc sets why can't we get all the extras on a second disc plus a great transfer and commentaries on the first?

Summary

    The Cell is a superb (and somewhat disturbing) visual feast, but unfortunately is let down by a disappointing and insubstantial plot. It is presented on a fully featured DVD with excellent video and audio transfers.

    The extra collection is very generous and well put together (in particular the use of multiple camera angles for "making of" featurettes is a good innovation) but is missing the second audio commentary and DVD-ROM extras present on the R1 New Line Platinum Series edition.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Thursday, March 22, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-626D, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (203cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVR-3300
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

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