Parents' Guide to

The Cell

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

A movie with no plot, no logic, no meaning.

Movie R 2000 107 minutes
The Cell Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 17+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 18+

Excellent plot! This is not for the faint of heart though...

This movie is a depiction of society if soicety were to discover telepathy by mehcanics. Also if society were to move foward with psychology as a primary tool for remedy in regards to society's flaws. The plot gets mixed up in the demented mind of a serial killer and his haunting past. The appropriation for the disturbing nature of this film is that the movie...takes place inside of a human mind / serial killers mind. We all have thoughts that are distorted, if not every thought. The purpose for this is to unlock a memory of where he put his next victim, and to find the next victim before they die.
age 15+
An extremely surreal and disturbing film. I have never seen anything quite like it. It captures the mood and atmosphere of a nightmare so perfectly. If you have not watched it yet, you must. One of my all time favorites. As for content, it is VERY disturbing and creepy overall and has some violent and gory scenes.

This title has:

Too much violence

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2):
Kids say: Not yet rated

I think the idea here was to cross The Silence of the Lambs with The Matrix. THE CELL's so-called plot seems to be just an excuse for lots and lots of stunning but often gruesome surreal visual effects that fall somewhere between the hyper-clarity of a nightmare and the claustrophobic grotesquery of a bad acid trip.

The movie is all sensation, no plot, no logic, no meaning, no effort to explore or illuminate. It is filled with juxtapositions that seem more meaningful than they are, creating an illusion of profundity that dissolves before your eyes.

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