Some things age really well – and I'd certainly include Jason Statham within that selection. But some of his movies, um, really just aren't like a fine wine, eh? Somehow or other, one such little-known Statham movie, from back in 2004 – which I genuinely didn't even known existed, and I'd have been the prime catchment age for it – has just crashed Netflix's Top 10 chart.
In the UK, Cellular is currently sat at no.3 in the Netflix movie rankings, but there's scope for it to further rocket up the charts – especially if you dig deeper into its all-star cast list, only adding to the appeal. Not only does Statham play the bad guy here – the trailer, below, opens with him kidnapping Jessica Martin (played by none other than Kim Bassinger) – there's also a leading role from Chris Evans, who plays Jessica's apparent only hope of rescue and all-round hero, Ryan.
Not only does it star some of those big-screen names, it features another major classic: the Nokia 6600! Once a powerhouse when it came to the best phones, I've had a definite wave of nostalgia wash over me thanks to that phone's appearance. But it also very much dates the movie, which is now 21 years old, and shows that technology's speedy advances can hinder – and arguably suppress a movie's appeal to all age groups.
Not that Cellular ever really set the critical thermometer's mercury rising: its 56% score on Rotten Tomatoes shows that it was always tepidly received, even way back when. The audience score doesn't deviate far from that, at 58%, but it's in no way Statham's worst movie – Rotten Tomatoes has a whole list of those, with the bottom-of-the-barrel hitting just a 4% score (In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is from director Uwe Bol, so hardly a surprise).
If you fancy surfing that wave of nostalgia, or happen to be much younger and just want to laugh at the old Nokia handsets we old folk used to cherish so much, then Cellular is very much alive and kicking on Netflix right now. It also features Kim Bassinger crying for the entirety of her performance, Statham with at least 1mm more hair, and Chris Evans' is topless within mere seconds of his appearance – hardly the recipe for a classic, but here we are.
In Netflix's quest to be the best streaming service, it's interesting to watch the streamer add older movies to its roster, not just brand new Netflix Original shows and movies. I hope to spot a bunch of other little-known flicks that I didn't know existed – and I thought I knew most of Statham's movies! – to try and pull me away from my current Severance obsession on Apple TV+.
