Cellular is the perfect popcorn film; it doesn't waste time, it keeps the action and the humor quick and easy, and it has a fine stable of character actors ready to go.

Chris Evans is good as the lead; it's not that difficult to play (punk kid that becomes a hero), but he does a nice job. I have never been a Kim Basinger fan, but she delivers a good "neutral" performance (neither amazing nor poor). Jason Statham, always to be called upon for brute violence, is effective as the thug. William H. Macy, always good, is interesting in the rather offbeat casting of a cop (I can't recall Macy killing two people in a film before this). Noah Emmerich, last seen as the dutiful assistant coach in Miracle, plays a character that experienced filmgoers will easily figure out before the film tells us. And Sherri Shepherd, bless her heart, does another in her long line of smart-talking black women.

Cellular doesn't always make sense: Evans does a lot of goofy gyrations at times when it seems like the most sensible thing to do would be to calm down and stop running all over the place. The coincidence factor is through the roof. Some might raise their eyebrows that this gang is taken down by basically a tandem of Kim Basinger and William H. Macy.

One can see Hitchcock making a film like this if he had access to modern-day technology; there's the MacGuffin in the form of the video camera. In Hitch's version, I see Cary Grant as an irresponsible playboy that gets roped into this world of suspense.

OK Here's a nit.

Is Ryans cellphone on him when he jumps into the water, because do you really expect it to work and therefore show the crucial bit of evidence after his dive?

I certainly doubt it would still work. I used to be a tech for Sprint PCS and if you dumped a glass of water on a mobile phone it would frotz let alone diving in a river.

This makes me wonder why cell phones aren't made water resistant like most digital watches have been for decades now. It can't be *that* hard to do.