Dialing Up 'Cellular' (2004) (V)

Director:

Jeffrey Schwarz

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Cast

Kim Basinger	...	Herself
Richard Brenner	...	Himself
Larry Cohen	...	Himself
Douglas Curtis	...	Himself
Dean Devlin	...	Himself
Annie Ellis	...	Herself
David R. Ellis	...	Himself
Tawny Ellis	...	Herself
Chris Evans	...	Himself
Freddie Hice	...	Himself
Jaymes Hinkle	...	Himself
Lauren Lloyd	...	Herself
William H. Macy	...	Himself
Chris Morgan	...	Himself
Art Rochester	...	Himself
Jason Statham	...	Himself

Runtime:

26 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Automat Pictures

Movie Connections:

References Fargo (1996)

At the beginning William H. Macy says that there's nowhere that you can't be reached anymore. Obviously he's never tried making a cell-phone call from my apartment.

Larry Cohen tells an interesting story at the beginning of this documentary about conversations that he had with Alfred Hitchcock about the screenplay for Phone Booth, which gives you an idea of how long he's been kicking that idea around. Also, the theme of extraordinary things happening in ordinary places probably explains why Hitchcock found it interesting.

Unlike one of the other documentaries that accompanies Cellular, "Celling Out," this one is actually about the making of the movie and is pretty impressive. There are interviews with all of the major cast members and plenty of good footage from the set, which I also found particularly interesting because I have been to so many of the locations on which the movie was filmed. It's interesting to watch a movie being made and to know exactly where they are and what that environment is like.

At one point in the documentary someone claims that Chris Evans, who plays Ryan, is the next Tom Cruise. He turns in an impressive performance, but I wouldn't go THAT far. Just as I would disagree, despite the fact that director David Ellis says "dude" a lot, that he is "the" dude. David Ellis is NOT the Dude. Jeff Bridges is the Dude.

Other than that, this gives a pretty good look at the making of the movie, especially a lot of the stunt scenes and car chases, for which they utilized some pretty impressive film-making techniques. Worth watching.