Jennifer Lopez And Vince Vaughn's Hit Sci-Fi Movie Left Audiences Divided

Before Jennifer Lopez ventured into the realm of romantic comedies, she took a huge gamble, appearing in a trippy sci-fi thriller from a fresh new filmmaker. "The Cell" hit screens in 2000 and marked the directorial debut of Tarsem Singh, who worked from a script by Mark Protosevich ("I Am Legend"), showcasing just how wild his vision could be with Lopez at the center. The film cast her as a child psychologist, Catherine Deane, who, through special technology, is tasked with entering the mind of a serial killer to find the whereabouts of his next potential victim.

Vincent D'Onofrio was the cold-blooded bad guy in question, Carl Rudolph Stargher, whose brain Deane bravely ventures into to find out what makes him tick. What she arrives in is a tripped-out world that feels somewhere between Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" and "The Lawnmower Man" with all those entering this reality dressing for the occasion in some truly wild outfits. Joining them in the mix was also Vince Vaughn in one of his rare serious roles as Special Agent Peter Novak.

The film marked another great turn for D'Onofrio, who was in yet another startling performance only three years after his unrecognizable appearance in the comic book movie adaptation "Men in Black." In fact, "The Cell" was a wild venture for all involved. It makes sense, then, that when it was released, it was met with a very mixed reaction from both audiences and critics alike.

Running off a budget of $33 million, "The Cell" was a hit in theaters, raking in an impressive $104 million. Unfortunately, even with such a financial success, critics and audiences were unsure what to make of a film that really felt just a little ahead of the curve. Critics have definitely been harder on this movie than fans with a 46% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes versus a 57% Popcornmeter rating. Andrew Pulver of The Guardian said the film's "jazzy photography and fancy design in no way compensate for a dull, suspense-free screenplay and unwise casting." Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote, "If you thought virtual-reality thrillers and spin-offs of 'The Silence of the Lambs' had run their course, guess again."

One critic who backed the film, however, was Roger Ebert, who labeled "The Cell" as "one of the best films of the year." Even with such a high bit of praise, it wasn't enough for "The Cell" to become even something of a cult classic. Had it arrived perhaps a few years later, when movies like "Inception" were blowing people's minds, "The Cell" could've opened the door around the same time and gained a little bit more well-deserved praise because of it.