The Cell 2

The FBI Agent Maya (Tessie Santiago) has developed the ability of psychically connect with other people after being murdered six times and brought back to live by the sadistic serial-killer Cusp. Now she is tracking down the infamous criminal through his mind using a device to protect herself but after an unsuccessful manhunt, she quits the FBI. One year later, when the niece of Sheriff Harris (Chris Bruno) is abducted by Cusp, Maya's former chief Kassel (Michael Flynn) summons her back to the investigation. Maya teams up with Harris trying to save his niece Penelope (Amee Walden), but her time is short and she must risk her own safety to help the young woman.

"The Cell 2" uses the idea of the average "The Cell" combined to these sadistic movies of torture like "Saw" franchise, but the result is weaker than the foregoing films. First, the screenplay is terrible, with many clichés and holes and awful characters. The restricted budget associated to the reasonable acting make this direct to DVD movie forgettable and a waste of time. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Cela 2" ("The Cell 2")

I read some of the other reviews, and at the time I went to see it the votes from other IMDb users were up there (over 5 stars average). I must say I wish I hadn't been exposed to it.

Let's start with the acting. It was so incredibly dry, unemotional, and boring that even if the script was good (which it most definitely was not), it wouldn't have helped. I was not drawn in even a bit by any of the characters in this film, and in a film of this genre you sort of need to be to enjoy it.

Then we have the villain, who was so contrived and boring that it took all of the anxiety and depth away from the film. The so-called "heroes" were an absolute pain to watch as they fumbled over their lines and delivered a performance memorable only for its lack of talent.

The "special effects" were reminiscent of early 90s power rangers episodes, I think that's enough said there.

The actual plot was annoying and underdeveloped. The general idea had some merit to it, but the angle they took with the hero/villain interaction ruined it for me, just too far-fetched for this kind of movie. The direction as well made this feel like a home made film, and not in a good way. It was just scene after scene of amateur shooting. I'm not a film buff by any means, and even I thought it was horrible. They even showed you some "behind the scenes" shots at the end, so make sure you stay tuned through the credits....wow.

You'll notice I gave this film 3 out of 10 stars... that's because the last 10-20 minutes of the film might have warranted 4-5 stars, whereas the first 90% probably 1-2 stars, so I averaged them. Though to be fair I'm not sure if the end was better than the beginning, or if I was just getting excited that it was almost over.

Also of note: I haven't seen the original "The Cell", so no, it's not like I went into this expecting a similar movie to the original, I had no basis for comparison.

Anyway, if you decide to watch this regardless of my warnings above, I'll leave the "I told you so" here for you when you're done. Otherwise, you can thank me later.

Just like the summary, the MacGyver TV show was better. It had a better storyline, plot summary and special effects. For this movie to be have the same name as the first cell, it's quite a cheap knockoff of the original. The premise behind the serial killer was cool, but that was about it. Personally, I'd rather watch livestock hump. Thank goodness this was a DVD rental. If we had paid upwards of 20 buck to see it in the theater (40 with popcorn and soda) I would have either demanded my money back or be serviced by an Albanian midget as compensation. Does that sound absurd to you? Yes it does. It is as absurd as this movie remotely being linked to the first one...

---end of line---

this movie is another pathetic attempt of making a sequel for monetary reason. it's the couple-ideas-four-coins movie made for satellite TV's needs. if you're planning to see it, you can spend the one and half hour in a different way with no regret. none of the creators of the first movie are involved in this "sequel" and after you see it it's easy to understand why. it's ugly to see once again that producers and money are totally in control of something that should be the sum of all arts, and it's really incomprehensible how can they still think is possible to make a movie without any talented writer. only positive note is for Frank Whaley, whose A-class unexploited talent is anyway not enough to save a D-movie like this.

Can a movie be not good but still fun to watch? The Cell 2 is the perfect zone out movie to be honest, not a great recommendation, but it also had some so bad it was good scenes (somebody mention the ax in the back scene already, watch for it--it propels the entire thing into cult movie status.) Who is Frank Whalley, I had never heard of him, but then I looked up his page and he has a huge resume - this was the guy who was in "The Freshman"? No friggin' way, time was not kind to him but he did a great job in this movie. I was a little baffled by most of the actors in this, especially the lead actress Tessie Santiago who seems to be in a trance most of the time, is it because she's under the spell of The Cusp killer? I think that was the direction but it just wound up making her dull. Cheesy graphics, and an improbable but exciting helicopter crash scene at the end makes this a pretty hilarious movie, and yes, I mean in a good way, even if they didn't mean it.