The whole thing skims along on suspension of disbelief.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
It's an honest, unpretentious, well-made B picture with a clever, silly premise, a handful of sly, unassuming performances and enough car chases, decent jokes and swervy plot complications to make the price of the ticket seem like a decent bargain.
A thriller that isn't kinky isn't much of a thriller. And Cellular has the best kinky phone gimmick since "Sorry, Wrong Number" (1948).
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Its adroit use of suspense makes you overlook the silliness.
Cohen and a crew of script doctors have thrown in some of the oldest cliches in the book.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Macy once again brightens an otherwise mundane character.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Slickly produced, well cast and very excitingly made, it's based on plot hooks so silly, most of them blow up in your face.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Chris Evans is blithely likable despite a few faux-Cruise mannerisms, Basinger makes a vividly frightened yet resourceful woman in peril, and William H. Macy scores as a mild L.A. cop who lets out his inner macho.
Because plot is the sum total here, the alarming holes, inconsistencies and impossibilities in Chris Morgan's script corrode this drama of distress.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
Very slick, very compelling and not nearly as predictable as it sounds.