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Phone Booth

Phone Booth

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Intense concept film that keeps you on the edge of your seat
Review: Judging from the wide range of reviews I've seen here (from "it stinks" to "it's the best") I thought I'd add my 25 cents (phone booth contribution).

I found Phone Booth to be the most thrilling suspense film I've seen since The Negotiator. Dramatic and stunning performances make, what many people called a weak script, an almost believable story (remember, it's Hollywood, not a documentary we're watching here). Colin Farrell maintains a consistent level of paranoia, fear, and even denial throughout the entire ordeal. I am very disappointed in the trailer for the film, which practically shows you the entire movie with little room left for curiosity. I went in only knowing a guy is trapped in a booth because of a sniper, and that was it. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed it so much. At any rate, if you like dramatic performances and an interesting concept, Phone Booth is definitely worth a viewing. Although Sutherland's physical screen time may be about two minutes, his chilling voice throughout the entire film has a powerful presence of its own.

I give it 4 stars because there was just too much profanity... so when will they make DVDs with the 'clean' version feature??

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Slick Direction, Memorable Dialogue, Suspense Aplenty
Review: My review title pretty much sums it up. It's kind of hard to devote too many words to a film that only demands an 81-minute investment of time from its audience. But, what PHONE BOOTH (2003) does, it does well, so I'll try...

First of all, Jeff Shannon, lighten up! Obviously this movie was not made to bring in any Oscars for Fox 2000 Pictures. It was created as an exciting way to pass one's time, and on that level, it succeeds very nicely. PHONE BOOTH stars two of Hollywood's biggest "It" actors, still-rising star Colin Farrell and comeback kid Kiefer Sutherland (thanks to the fantastic and heart-pounding TV action series "24"), in an exciting, suspenseful "all-in-one-day" film that borrows some inspiration from DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975), directed by Sidney Lumet, and FALLING DOWN (1993), directed by Joel Schumacher. Well, reminders of the latter picture are no accident indeed, since Schumacher is the man at the helm of PHONE BOOTH.

This movie is slick and almost impossibly fast from the get-go. It begins with a view of satellite communication systems orbiting far above Earth, then rapidly shoots all the way down to North America, to the northeastern United States, to New York City, to one single block in Manhattan (53rd Street & Eight Avenue) on which stands the City's last remaining phone booth, which the helpful voice-over informs us will be removed the following morning to make way for a phone kiosk, the typical replacement for the notoriously dangerous phone booths. However, the final occupant of this phone booth is in for a big surprise...

The final occupant being Stu Shepard, a young, greedy and dishonest publicist who believes his own b.s. probably because he spouts it out so fast that he hasn't the time to remember it once he's said it. He seems to be constantly yelling at people via his cell phone, but (as we find out within the first five minutes) uses this phone booth to make calls to a potential mistress Pam (Katie Holmes) so that his wife of one year, Kelly (Radha Mitchell) won't find out from the bill. With angry streetwalkers waiting to use the phone, Stu speaks briefly (and lasciviously) to Pam, when the phone rings again. Stu quickly answers it, and is met by a calm but threatening voice owned by a man who can see Stu from "any one of a hundred windows" around, and threatens to kill him if he hangs up. The hookers get super-angry and call on their pimp to get this yuppie phone-hogger off "their" phone. Stu tries to explain that he can't get off, the pimp takes a bat to the phone booth, Stu needs help...and quickly gets it from his tormentor, who shoots the pimp with a well-aimed hollow-point bullet that makes no sound but drops the big man like a sack of bricks. Everyone standing around thinks Stu shot the man, but they're wrong...and Stu can't get anyone to believe him. In the meantime, he is made to call his mistress and then his wife to spill the truth to each of them. Then Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker) shows up on the scene, and wants answers, answers which Stu desparately tries to give him. Then the media arrives, all the while Stu is still kept on the phone...it's a tense situation that doesn't let up for a moment!

Irishman Colin Farrell does a good job with his heavy Bronx accent, with his dark tones and pronounced inflections he almost seems Puerto Rican! Australian actress Radha Mitchell, who had already put on a successful American accent in the even more pulse-pounding PITCH BLACK (2000), obviously has no trouble here. However, Texas-born Forest Whitaker, a great African-American actor that I've admired for a long time, ends up overdoing his own New Yawk accent, so much so that I wondered if he'd prepared for this role by studying James Gandolfini in "The Sopranos!" Oh well, I still like him very much, and will note that he put on a great British accent in THE CRYING GAME (1992), which is another movie I need to review soon, come to think of it!

PHONE BOOTH is directed in a frenetic, kinetic style, which lots of multiscreen shots (kind of like Kiefer Sutherland's show "24") and *lots* of quick-cutting. Obviously, there is some violence, but it isn't very graphic; the main reason why this film earns its "R" rating is the language! There may be some plot holes here & there, but I didn't think about them for the most part while watching. I would watch this movie again, so for buying purposes, I'd have to say that this film is

RECOMMENDED; AGES 15 & UP

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not an entire waste of 81 minutes.
Review: This is a movie that I put off watching for a long time, because it sounded really boring. Trap a man in a phone booth, and talk him to death? Yawn.

I finally watched it with the rationale that it is Colin Farrell in the booth, and therefore would not be another "My Dinner with Andre" kind of movie.

While I've seen better movies, this one kept my attention, and I would never consider it to be 81 minutes of my life irretrievably lost. Colin Farrell is brilliant as Stu Shepard, but the rest of the cast fails to register on the "Wow" scale. Katie Holmes is cute, but horribly miscast, and Forest Whitaker won't be putting this one down as one of his better performances. Nobody else even registers, except of course the caller, who has a suitably creepy voice.

The concept is intriguing, as a mystery caller with a wealth of technology and information seeks to right the wrongs of the world, one slime-ball at a time. Worse offenders must have crossed his path, but for some strange reason, he decides to target Shepard for the "crimes" of fantasizing and nearly cheating on his wife, for faking his success, and for not being nice to people in general. After Shepard manages to tip off the police, and they finally realize that something's not right with the scenario, the movie wraps up in an untidy hurry.

The major let down for me was the prominent billing for Keifer Sutherland, even with his face in the cover shot, so you definitely knew something was wrong by the time you got to the end, said end being quite unsatisfying.

Plot holes abound, but if you can get past them, you will enjoy Farrell's performance.

Amanda Richards 7/12/04

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Another Kid movie
Review: This movie is supposed to be another action packed thing. But its more like a 2 year olds scary movie. This guy goes in to a phone boothe at a time given and if he puts down the phone hes gonna get shot. Theres this big red dot that stays on him all the time so if he puts down the phone hes gonna get shot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: deeeeeeeeep
Review: this movie is so deep it's not even funny
it goes to show you what happens to a smart ass client that thinks he can talk sh** about people and get away with it
still the sniper guy is more crazy albeit
but the ending is great
the movie keeps you in suspense
I was so scared for the guy
I mean the minute he leaves the booth he gets shot
so here he is
he can't call the cops
he can't leave the booth
he has people pissed at him and some scared for him around him and he can't even leave
that is a truly terrifying situation
and on top of that
I really thought the guy that said "you'll regret that" at the beginning was the killer. but I was wrong. a shocking movie that sends shivers down your spine. that's what I felt. and that's what I'll feel every time I watch this in my dvd player. a timeless shocker movie that goes to show you that you can't always get away with what you do without punishment. glad I have this on dvd. you should give it a try

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A TRUE MASTERPIEC E !!!!!!
Review: One of the best movies I've ever seen. Truly original, very suspensefull and thrilling, very creative. You never know what the hell's gonna happen in this one. Collin Farrel's performance is fabuloso. A must-watch. Own it, not rent it. You will not regret it. If you like original, suspensefull, thrilling and NEW (not the same garbage you see all the time) type of cinematographic movie. WATCH THIS ONE. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT !! I PROMISE YOU.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Interesting
Review: I have to amit Collin is very hot but he is a fine actor. This is a movie I have to amite I didn't get what was going on but then as I watch I got what was going on. I think I will have to rerent it but it was a good movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Hmph!
Review: I am a steadfast, loving, caring, diligent, and proud mother. I selected this movie to allow my 3, 5, and 9 year old children to have a cultural awareness of the hubbub of New york City life. It was but a learning experience, which turned it not something far more.

This film is an outrage. Earplugs were neccessary to shelter my babies' ears from the vulgar dialects. Slanderous, primitive, adn vile, this movie fails to meet the standard levels of human decency. I regret showing it to my children, who now know a variety of curse words, but it is not my fault! It's the movies'!


HMPH!

(ha just kidding. That was just a joke. I'm no mother! Ha ha! I got you real good! No, but seriously, this movie is awful. The cursing was unneccessary and the acting adn story were of failing proportions. Pick another one.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beware about your free will!
Review: In the middle of the Big Apple a successful but outlaw executive (to win , to win , no matter the prize) will have an unexpected with an extension of his conscious embodied in a merciless , unscrupulous and disturbed man in the other side of the telephone line. Somehow this invisible enemy works out as his mirror distorted image.

Sharp metaphor and interesting approach about the dark side of the moon in the human being. This cathartic experience will be unforgettable for him because never before this hell's journey will allow him to explore his real nature.

That dark confession about his secret life backstage will be increasing. The dramatic construction is formidable. The different suspenseful vignettes are carefully filmed thanks a dazzling camera work , accenting the inner tension in our victim. He will have to face the sinister consequences of an out of control ethic, a real therapy session searching for his inner demons with New York city as landscape.

Another additional evidence the film noir genre is still alive.



Rating: 1 stars
Summary: the most boring movie in decades!
Review: Well what can I say about a tediously boring movie which centers around an equally boring character who gets trapped at gunpoint in a phonebooth by a mysterious sniper.

A total bore from start to end with horrendous acting and an equally nonsensical script, we are made to sit through the tedious process of watching the character which colin farrell portrays eventually breakdown and whimper and cry like a weak child ...? for what? the whim of a moralistic sniper? In a nutshell this movie was painfully tedious to watch...I wouldnt recommend it to anyone..a C grade flick at best...horrible horrible storyline


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