Click here to read my review of The Fall that I posted here in June.

The Cell is sci/fi fantasy.  It follows Catherine Deane (performed with amazing lackluster by Jennifer Lopez) as she uses a new method of therapy where she enters the mind of a child in a coma through neuro connections…yeah, it doesn’t make much sense.  Anyway, she enters the mind of this troubled child and tries to help him.  It’s during these sequences that Tarsem’s original vision comes out, featuring fantastic landscapes from the deserts in Namibia, and from sets (sets he insisted on building since he dislikes CGI) that will certainly impress.

Then we’re introduced to a serial killer who sets up an automatic killing machine and films his victims as they are slowly drowned (while at the same time providing them with food and a toilet so they survive as long as possible).  Well imagine this: the serial killer falls into a coma just seconds before he’s arrested!  Now it’s up to Jenny from the block to enter and navigate this horrifying human’s mind, and to convince him to confess where his last victim is being held.

The cast performs averagely.  But I’ve learned never to expect anything from JLo or Vince Vaughn (I wish he would just disappear).  The exception, however, is Vincent D’Onofrio who plays Carl, the serial killer.  His performance is so subtly disquieting.  The scene where he suspends himself above his dead victims by his own skin and pleasures himself is more perturbing than when Hannibal Lectur pulled the policeman’s face off his own in the ambulance and attacked the medics, and not just because of the subject matter, but because D’Onofrio has the ability to make you shudder with a mixture of fear and disgust.

The Cell isn’t as visually stunning as The Fall, and because of that, it’s much more difficult to forgive its shortcomings.  The extremely weak plot and poor scriptwriting never really allowed me to get into the story.  But it’s worth a rental just to see D’Onofrio.

1.5 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 43% – Cream of the Crop: 38%

‘The Fall’ was released May 9th, after 4 years of filming and 2 years of sitting on the shelf waiting for…I don’t what for. A distributor? The main complaint of critics of ‘The Fall’ (and of ‘The Cell’) is it’s fragmented and/or shallow plot. I’d have to agree slightly with this assessment, but also I think, who cares? This is one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen. And I think this was Tarsem’s point.

It was filmed over 4 years, spanning 18 countries. Tarsem wrote and directed the movie, as well as paid for it out-of-pocket. Filmed in such magnificent places as Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, the look is pure beauty. Tarsem insists there are no special effects in the film, that all the remarkable is scenery looks just as it’s shown. This is truly a feat of location scouting. Remember how visually stunning ’300′ was? Picture that, multiplied by 15, but without the special effects or depending on graphic violence and spattering blood to fill the voids. The acting left a little to be desired, but did I mention it was visually stunning? So much so, you can forgive all the other shortfalls. Catinca Untaru plays the cute, young, Romanian immigrant and steals the show with her acting abilities. More impressive still, is that she doesn’t speak English and memorized the way her lines sound, but didn’t understand what she was saying.

One critic said, sure it’s beautiful, but a coffee table picture book would have served the same purpose. This is simply not true. Yes, focus was centered around how the film looked, but Tarsem knows how to pull at emotional heart strings, couple dramatic scenes with dramatic music, as well as keep a little humor in the picture. Fortunately, some of the right people liked the movie. Included in these are David Fincher and Spike Jonze who use their names to endorse the film in the beginning. They might be the soul reason this movie is released in theaters at all. Fincher described his impression of the film as being, “what would’ve happened if Andrei Tarkovsky had made The Wizard of Oz.” I’m sure he meant that as a compliment, but if you’ve seen a Tarkovsky film…well, I promise this movie isn’t as boring as hell.

While it’s rated R, there’s no nudity at all (just a few men in loin cloths) and no profanity. With the exception of a moist bundle of flayed corpses, the film’s mild fantasy violence scarcely warrants so restrictive a rating.

Check out seven other clips of the film here.

4 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes score: 53%