Cellular

"Isn't it funny? A phone rings and it could be anybody. But a ringing phone must be answered."

Those words were Kiefer Sutherland's closing lines in Phone Booth and they could easily be the last words in Cellular, too. It's interesting that the script comes from the writer of Phone Booth (that would be Larry Cohen, the brains behind Maniac Cop and The Stuff), a movie about a man trapped in one tiny place on the phone to a complete stranger and yet Cellular is about a man trapped on the phone to a complete stranger who is free to go anywhere he wants.

Only Cellular is a more wholesome and complete film than Phone Booth. It doesn't make any attempt at satire, or taking the piss out of the media, but does have terrific energy and intelligence. No, Cellular is NOT a no-brainer.

Ryan, played by Chris Evans (no, not the ginger, speccy twat), is a punk kid who never takes anything seriously and is far too laid back to keep his girlfriend happy. But his life crosses paths with a woman in trouble. Will he finally grow up when her fate becomes his responsibility?

Kim Basinger (aging more gracefully than I previously assumed) is that woman. She's being held in a spooky old attic by corrupt cop Jason Statham and painstakingly "repairs" a broken phone. She's about to reach out to somebody, anybody. The only number she manages to hook up to is Ryan's.

He immediately takes the problem to the fuzz. The only cop who will listen is Mooney (William H Macy), but he's too fed up and dismissive to take much notice. Not at first, anyway. As Ryan races around the city, overcoming difficult and dangerous obstacles, Mooney puts it all together and slowly realizes things ain't what they seem.

I've only ever seen Evans in the rather dull Perfect Score before now, but he makes a totally cool hero that everyone can relate to. Most actors his age irritate the hell out of me. I can only imagine how bad this film would have been with Seann William Scott, or Freddie Prinze Jr., for example.

Basinger does everything she can with her damsel in distress. It's usually quite insulting to an actress's intelligence to reduce her to such a cliche, though she manages to bring integrity and desperation to the role more convincingly than most actresses her age.

And of course we all love and adore Jason Statham. He may be a skinhead with a funny sounding voice, but be it hero or villain he's dead cool and makes Vin 'Donald Duck' Diesel look like a right poof.

Director David Ellis races through the far-fetched plot without looking back and keeps everything fast-paced and exciting right up to the last minute. He's the man who made a good sequel out of a bad original (that would be Final Destination) and with many other directors the ludicrousness of the plot would be all too apparent. Here, we don't get a single breath to take it all in.

The show-stealing is split two ways. Macy is great as the Ned Flanders-type cop, but Rick Hoffmann is hilarious as an obnoxious lawyer who stands in Ryan's way and gets his comeuppance not once, not twice, but thrice.

There's not been a kidnapping thriller as gripping as this since Kurt Russell lost his wife in Breakdown. Cellular is definitely the right number.

Oh, and in case it was bugging you, that movie the bad guys are watching is Final Destination 2