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What glorious fun this film is! The tag line goes "if the line goes dead, so does she…." Delightfully B movie schlock and that is exactly what you get in this efficient 89-minute telecommunications thriller. If the film reminds you of Phone Booth about a psycho sniper who pins smooth talking city slicker Stu (Colin Farrell was uber cool) to a phone booth, it is but natural, as Larry Cohen has writing credits on both the films.
The film starts with Jessica, a science teacher, (if we had teachers that looked like Kim Bassinger, we would be a nation of Einsteins) who sees her son off to school and returns home only to be kidnapped by wicked kidnappers led by the evilest of them all, Ethan (Jason Statham). She is whisked away to a safe house and held captive in an attic. There is a wall phone in the attic, which Ethan smashes with a hammer. Jessica is not science teacher for nothing and she manages to connect a couple of wires together and place a random call to Ryan, a beach bum immersed in bikini research on the beach.
Something about Jessica’s voice convinces Ryan to help. Then starts cat and mouse game involving the high-octane car chases that would have been brain numbing by itself. It is the sly humour and believable situations and reactions that make the movie a happy viewing experience.
All of us are so connected and use the phone to do gazillion things. Here the cell phone is a character, a plot point, a device and hey you can also make calls. All with cell phones know the horrors of bad signals and batteries dying, cross conversations, static, sundry tunnels and lack of a charger will totally empathise with the difficulties Ryan faces. Ryan also has to contend with officious people who ask you to take a token and wait your turn and stuffy lawyers with pompous number plates.
The film is well acted – Statham looks suitably cold-eyed, Bassinger is lovely and vulnerable and Chris Evans does a star making turn as Ryan. Last but not the least is wonderful William H. Macy as the world-weary cop. The plot is gimmicky but on the right side of believable. All in all 89 minutes of unadulterated fun
The film starts with Jessica, a science teacher, (if we had teachers that looked like Kim Bassinger, we would be a nation of Einsteins) who sees her son off to school and returns home only to be kidnapped by wicked kidnappers led by the evilest of them all, Ethan (Jason Statham). She is whisked away to a safe house and held captive in an attic. There is a wall phone in the attic, which Ethan smashes with a hammer. Jessica is not science teacher for nothing and she manages to connect a couple of wires together and place a random call to Ryan, a beach bum immersed in bikini research on the beach.
Something about Jessica’s voice convinces Ryan to help. Then starts cat and mouse game involving the high-octane car chases that would have been brain numbing by itself. It is the sly humour and believable situations and reactions that make the movie a happy viewing experience.
All of us are so connected and use the phone to do gazillion things. Here the cell phone is a character, a plot point, a device and hey you can also make calls. All with cell phones know the horrors of bad signals and batteries dying, cross conversations, static, sundry tunnels and lack of a charger will totally empathise with the difficulties Ryan faces. Ryan also has to contend with officious people who ask you to take a token and wait your turn and stuffy lawyers with pompous number plates.
The film is well acted – Statham looks suitably cold-eyed, Bassinger is lovely and vulnerable and Chris Evans does a star making turn as Ryan. Last but not the least is wonderful William H. Macy as the world-weary cop. The plot is gimmicky but on the right side of believable. All in all 89 minutes of unadulterated fun
posted by caffeinekick at 12:00 AM
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