DVD details for for
The Cell (2000) More at IMDb Pro »

Michel Hafner (8 February 2001):
One of the visually most arresting films of 2000 is now available on DVD by New Line: The Cell (2000). Has the eye candy been successfully recreated on this disc for your home cinema?
The film master used is very clean. Since large parts of the film exist as a digital master anyway (because of the color manipulations and CGI that were needed) some of the DVD might be coming directly from it. Image steadiness is very good.
Color and contrast rendition look fine.
Sharpness is uneven. Some shots are very sharp, others less so (filtering takes a toll and complicated special effects as well).
The noise and grain level is low except for some of the sfx scenes that are grainy and have been filtered to remove some of the grain. But the DVD looks definitely less grainy than the 35mm print I have seen.
Unfortunately there are quite some video artifacts for a New Line DVD. There are noise filtering artifacts in the form of somewhat messed up textures in a couple of shots, and there are overenhanced edges in most shots. Sometimes so much that it becomes really ugly and distracting. From New Line I expect that they know better than this. Disappointing.
Compression is good. Obvious problems are absent.
This DVD will look good on all kinds of displays, but under revealing conditions the video artifacts become occasionally distracting and destroy the film look.
The deleted/extended scenes have the same quality as the film. Well done!