MovieChat Forums > Cellular (2004) Discussion > Basinger i,i,i,i,is a,a,awful in this...

Basinger i,i,i,i,is a,a,awful in this...

posted 17 years ago by LastGunslinger05
56 replies | jump to latest

My god she was terrible! Why did she ever win an oscar? I have no idea. She was so ridiculously over dramatic in this i didn't care at all about her. I just wanted the crooked cops to get nailed. Her and her family? Whatever, didn't care at all, and in fact i think i was hoping Statham would just shoot her already so i don't have to hear those awful whimpers and stuttering of her ridiculous melodrama. Aside from her...i did enjoy the movie. pretty typical thriller, nothing original WHATsoever, but it is what it is. And for some reason i like Chris Evans. He's not a great actor...yet...i think he's got potential...but for some reason i enjoy his characters and think he's pulls them off quite well enough. William H. Macy was good as usual, and Statham as always was fantastic. Weird seeing him as a bad guy, but of course most of his characters aren't what you would call upstanding citizens so i don't think this was a stretch for him at all, as he played it very well. Anyway...enough rambling...decent usage of an hour and 25 minutes if you have nothing else to do...and kim basinger sucks.

El Ultimo Pistolero

[–] Natural-Born-Killer 16 years ago

Totally agree- when she was 1st trying to convince Ryan (Chris Evans) that she had been kidnapped she sounded so bored and uninterested that it wasn't surprising that he nearly ignored her. I normally don't mind Bassinger but, in this, she wad dreadful.

Chris Evans was fantastic I thought- he was far better in this role than he was in either of the FF films... and he gave us something to look at xD.

Statham was his usual stereotypical self but it worked because he always suits the roles he's put in... considering they're always the same.

As for the others- well William H. Macy ended up being the character I cared most about, even though he only got to shine in the last 15 minutes but yes, Bassinger was bloody awful.

[–] linotheundead 16 years ago

Me too... I agree so so so much. She sucked even worse in this than in 8 Mile!

In fact it now occurs to me that I've never felt she was at all believable in any single role I have ever seen her in. She's just beyond awful.

How the hell did she get so popular in hollywood in the first place???

Don't be hatin'

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] linotheundead 16 years ago

Lol, yeah Mickey's not really on my list for brilliance either. However I did think he played Marv spectacularly in Sin City... perhaps only because it was cheesy, over-the-top and perfectly envisioned to be exactly that.

Hmm... I' ve never seen 9 1/2 Weeks, but I'm assuming she plays a rather saucy minx, revealing her famous skin throughout the film? I don't deny that she always was somewhat attractive, but was her acting really ever actually believable? If so I simply have not been witness to it.

Perhaps she should've just done porn, haha

Don't be hatin'

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] linotheundead 16 years ago

Yeah, I definately enjoyed it too. Everyone else was pretty good, and it is a decent story with some capable actors pulling it off quite well.
The ending wasn't exactly award wining, but it was decent and it's a film worth watching all the way through.

But as much as I love Statham, I hate when they want him to put on an american accent... It just seems he's not good with that, his british one is too strong. Throughout the film his accent changes about 3 times, lol

Don't be hatin'

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] blowfly13 15 years ago

She sucked in 9 1/2 weeks also. She's a bad actress, kind of along the lines of Farrah Fawcett. And her face always looks greasy. Yuk! No idea why she was ever considered anything in Hollywood. Even in L.A. Confidential she wasn't anything great. Oscars don't mean a thing - they seem to just be political. Who cares about Oscars anyway - just more of Hollywood kissing their own a**es.

I'm not really hungry, but I would like to have reservations somewhere.

[–] TMC-4 (20160) 7 years ago

https://www.videodetective.com/movies/cellular-scene-ive-been-kidnapped/257916

[–] Daytripping 16 years ago

How old are you people? Seriously. With the "i,i,i,i,is a,a,awful in this" crap, and she sounded "bored" when she first called Evans' character. She was trying to keep her voice down in case anyone else could hear her. When Statham came in with the sledge hammer, and smashed the phone? The way she layed there shaking.....s he was amazing. Basinger might not be Meryl Streep, but she's a seasoned actress. Which is why she was cast in this. She brought class to the film. And she was quite good. As her reviews reflected. They call this a B type thriller. But I was completely and thoroughly entertained from start to finish. And on the edge of my seat. Thumbs WAY up!

[–] QBallFra3 16 years ago

Daytripping.... No. Do NOT defend her. She was horrible. You can't put a good spin on bad acting... She was WAY too over dramatic and unbelievable given the situation.

I am the phantom... My real name is Jerrryyyyy.

[–] secondeye 16 years ago

I can't believe someone is defending Basinger.. my god she was incredibly bad.. just AWFUL.

[–] Lrdenicon 16 years ago

I came to IMDB and this movie just to say how bad she was. This was some of the worst acting I have ever seen.

It's not fair to call it over acting I think because how could anyone possibly know how one would act if someone pointed a gun at their kid. I don't know how I would act...but I know it is not like the way she did.

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. ~ Shawshank Redemption

[–] LastGunslinger05 16 years ago

I'm plenty old enough. My age has nothing to do with the fact that i've seen enough movies in my day to see good acting and bad acting. In my OPINION, she was freaking awful and portrayed one of the most annoying characters i've ever seen in cinema. Maybe not quite Winona Ryder level, but still...

El Ultimo Pistolero

[–] monimunich 16 years ago

I disagree. She was doing great.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] contux 16 years ago

I think she was just GREAT in this movie!
http://www.kimbasinger.too.it

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] ceebeegee 13 years ago

Agreed, I thought she was fine, especially on the voiceover stuff (when he was listening to her on the phone as the kidnapper was interrogating her).

[–] complications123 11 years ago

Who is "they" and what is a "B type thriller"?

[–] SteveGreen 9 years ago

Basinger had already displayed her acting credentials with an Oscar-winning performance in L.A. Confidential (1997). By the time she made Cellular (2004), she was into her fifties, and had already shifted into meatier roles less reliant upon her beauty queen looks (cf Bless the Child, 8 Mile). Personally, I thought all four principal actors acquitted themselves well in a fast-paced drama.

[–] feliciano2040 16 years ago

Exageration at it's best!!!

She wasn't awesome or anything among those lines, but she delivered properly, a little overacting here and there, but if you think that's bad then you need to see more movies.

[–] LastGunslinger05 16 years ago

You're implying that there's plenty of movies with acting way worse than that. Well, i would agree, but why would i want to watch those movies? Why would i need to see more movies if those movies have such terrible acting in them? I'm pretty choosy about wha ti see, and more often than i not i make a good pick. And in Cellular, Basinger drove me up a fvkking wall and i almost couldn't finish it because she was so annoying. Maybe more annoying than just plain awful, but still. That's reason enough. If you've seen loads of movies with worse characters than this, then maybe you're the one who needs to see more movies...of the good variety.

El Ultimo Pistolero

[–] feliciano2040 16 years ago

What i meant was that there is a lot worse out there, that's why i liked Cellular, because it's better than the average, it's not over the top, which applies to Bassinger, who delivered properly, not great but certainly not bad at all!

[–] LastGunslinger05 16 years ago

Well i suppose that's the beauty of opinions huh?

El Ultimo Pistolero

[–] Octavian1034 9 years ago

How the hell did this get 6 stars!? This is perhaps the worst movie I ever watched half way through. How anyone watched this entire movie is beyond me.

[–] Sidewindr 9 years ago

Very much like your viewing effort your opinion is incomplete and therefore you and it are invalid.

It really annoys me when people try to offer opinions on movies without actually seeing the entire movie..

[–] chrisbedford 15 years ago

No, no, NOOOO...

because it's better than the average, it's not over the top, which applies to Bassinger, who delivered properly, not great but certainly not bad at all!

Yes maybe the movie is (a little) above average but KB did NOT deliver (anything but hysterical melodrama) and was not bad she was AWFUL.

The worst part about her performance was probably not her fault, it's the director's. And the director gets a lot of his - er - direction from the script. What doesn't gel about Jessica's character is the shrieking over-reaction to violence together with the calm reconstruction of a telephone; the totally girly fight she puts up followed by accurate slashing of an artery and the then almost nonchalant explanation of the damage she had done to him and how much blood he was going to lose... and so on.

As for the dialogue - hmmm, well, lots of rather silly gaps there. Ryan always seems at a loss for words when a quick, short explanation could have saved a lot of confusion in a few situations but that at least was consistent. KB's role however seemed to be short of lines in some places but it over-did it in others.

Ah well, where would we be without movies to pick apart.

[–] TMC-4 8 years ago

http://www.avclub.com/article/its-die-hard-cell-phone-232473#comment-2549828992

It may be badass on paper, but that is, without a doubt, one of my Top 5 worst line deliveries of all time:
"Tenth grade biology. Brachial artery... pumps 30 liters of blood a minute. There's only five in the human body. I'm sorry."

Just you know, with Kim Basinger at the nadir of her fairly limited acting powers.

[–] spittle8 16 years ago

Haha, I'm 30 minutes in and I went to this page just to see if anyone agree with me on this. Her acting is joke-bad.

"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised."

[–] bahaak_246 11 years ago

about 5 years later and history repeats itself :D

[–] Enigmatic-Ocean 11 years ago

Almost six months later and it is repeating itself again.

Memories, you're talking about memories.

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

I wish I'd had a biology teacher like her at high school.🐭

[–] Artemis_of_Ephesus 16 years ago

Oh my! totally agree. It was like she's on drugs: talking in a mono tone, broing, uninteresting voice and the acting? ugh!
I mean you're kidnapped for God's sake, panting and saying "no, no" is not enough. This is not to mention her awful make up and fake looks.

She wasn't even a tiny little bit believable in her role.

Just in case you're interested, it's called the suprasternal notch.

[–] RivenWinner 16 years ago

Basinger was definitely the weakest aspect of this film. Her acting and delivery of the lines was terrible.

on top of that, I just couldn't stand staring at her face. agh. I'm not accusing her of plastic surgery or anything like that, and it's not my business and I don't care, but I really couldn't get into this film because her face was just so distracting (and not in a good way).

____
At long last BLADE RUNNER: FINAL CUT !

IMDb needs to get rid of the "Sponsored Links" section.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] andre_giao 15 years ago

I think everyone here can't distinguish the script from the actor. Kim Basinger had little to do with, some of her lines were cheesy. But she delivered a very natural performance (I think american audiences aren't used to this, but you should check some european thrillers): she seemed disturbed and she was shaking like any other common woman in that same situation. In fact, they didn't want a kick-ass actress type like Sigourney Weaver, but a vulnerable woman and that's what she acomplished. You could almost feel her fear (she's noted for doing that, KB surely knows how to be vulnerable). But I think you're all watching too many super hero movies and would like to see her kicking the bad guys and flying from the attick.

[–] Smack_Down 15 years ago

I know she was not top notch performance in this.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] TMC-4 8 years ago

What kind of troubles me about a movie like Cellular is that the it’s a movie that’s seemingly designed/set up (rather intentional or not) to make Kim Basinger look incredibly demeaned, foolish, and disrespected.

Like there’s a scene if I remember correctly, where Jason Statham’s bad guy character says to Chris Evans’ character, “Even the bitch has more fight then you”. And then there’s another scene (which is supposed to be a crowning moment of “bad ass”) where this big bald headed thug is pinning down Basinger and in self-defense, Basinger stabs the guy in the heart. Naturally, in the process, the thug also refers to Basinger’s character as a “bitch”.

The whole movie seems to be Kim Basinger’s past damsel-in-distress roles like Vicki Vale and her Bond Girl character in Never Say Never Again turned up to 11.

https://youtu.be/tvParHRbknk

[–] RosieT20 12 years ago

Why do people so often try and justify liking Chris Evans? He's a very good actor - great as CA, excellent (probably the best) in Sunshine, and he was great in this, one of his first dramatic roles I think? He was very believable and very likeable. I don't know why people are always surprised when he does a good job.