Hanging on for slick action and smart laughs charged with taut suspense? Cellular's got your number. A polished hybrid of Speed and Phone Booth (whose scripter Larry Cohen provides the story), it's a mobile thriller that has a feckless jock (Chris Evans) racing against time to save the kidnapped mother (a breathlessly OTT Kim Basinger) who cold-calls his Nokia begging for help.
Hitchcock would have had a field day with this economical premise, though not with its clueless hero: Evans makes so many elementary boo-boos, it's more a case of Dial M For Moron. But whether laughing with or at it, Cellular is very funny. Director David R Ellis shows the same touch that made Final Destination 2 such dumb fun, cutting briskly between the attic-bound Basinger and hardman kidnapper Jason Statham, William H Macy's dogged cop and Evans' amusing encounters with numerous unhelpful, obnoxious Los Angelenos.
A tidy potboiler that never stays still long enough to slip through its gaping plotholes.
