Phone Booth

Rating:
Summary: Reallly good and different
Review: This film was really good and a different idea for a movie. It is a belivible story and it shows great devoplement with the actors/atresses.

Rating:
Summary: One of the year's best films
Review: I went into this movie reluctantly since I heard it only has one scene in it, which is obviously "The Phone Booth" smack dab in the middle of New York City. I was PLEASANTLY surprised to see that this setting couldn't have been more perfect for the plot. I haven't enjoyed a thriller in a long time but this turned that all around. A word to the wise though: this movie, as you probably already know, is rated "R", and it's for a good reason, besides violence. There is EXTREME language throughout the entire movie. It would definately not be suitable for younger viewers, not only because of language, but for sexual content as well. Don't get me wrong though, since it was a VERY GREAT movie with an even BETTER PLOT. I highly advise that you see this movie (if you can tune out the profanity and don't mind hearing about explicit sexual references).

Rating:
Summary: plot is extraordinary, movie didn't do the ideas justice
Review: Most of the time, movies suffer from poor thinking and bad plots. Seldom are the thoughts provoked by the movie equal to the special effects or the actors delivery. This movie is the opposite. It has an extraordinary story line but doesn't do the ideas presented justice as it develops.

The plot is about a psychopathic killer who listens to cell phone conversations looking for people in need of an opportunity for self-redemption....Something he kindly (*grin*) provides with the potential for a high velocity bullet to the victim's head, figuratively and literally. For what he does is to call the victim, in this case at a phone booth he was using to deceived his wife while trying to setup a liasion with a young tempting actress in-training.

With scenes through the targetting scope the plot thickens with a killing of a pimp with the ladies of the night screaming that our victim in the phone booth did it, while he hangs on the phone talking all the while with his potential murderer. The idea is that decisions we make, the people we hurt, need redeeming, need justification for their pain. The shooter offers redemption through choices: the pimp, the cop, the wife, the potential quickie. Choices the victim is offered, along with his own [demise] at the hands of the cops---[demise] by barrage of police bullets.

The movie suffers from potty mouth without reason or meaning, choices not explicit but left hanging (why didn't he [take out] the cop?), choice started and awkwardly dropped, (oughten one- wife or young girl have died?) But the threads are there, just dropped rather than explored, moving to something else rather than finishing what was started.

Looks like the authors ought to get an A and the director a C. but it is an exciting movie, worth the time to see and even more so to investigate the threads the authors would have finished if he was allowed to actually make the movie rather than just write the script.....

thanks for reading this. see you at the movies....
richard williams

Rating:
Summary: Please Hang Up
Review: There's about 15 minutes worth of script here. At best this film could have been stretched into a taught half-hour TV show in the hands of a director like Alfred Hitchcock. However, those days are long gone. This is another example of a potentially good story premise poorly executed. The trailer says it all.

Rating:
Summary: Superb!!!
Review: Phone Booth was just plain great!!! Never have i ever seen a movie that takes place in one area and keeps you on your tippy toes all the way until the end. Colin Farrell plays a actor agent and decides to go to a phone booth to call his girlfriend and all of a sudden a pizza man shows up and tells him that he odered a pizza, Colin looks confused and tells him to get get a way (in a rude, vulgar way of course) and then all of a sudden when he hangs up the phone and is ready to leave the phone rings and he does the mistake of picking it up. He then discovers that there is a sniper that has his gun aimed right at him and if he doesn't do what he says he will kill him!!! Sounds somewhat familiar to the movie Liberty Stands Still with Wesley Snipes, but to be honest i enjoyed Phone Booth a lot more.It's a great movie and i recommend it to everyone. The film might be short but yet the entire 90 min you will not get up and leave, guaranteed.I'll say it again "GREAT FLICK" and definitly worth purchasing when released on July 8th!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Go In That Booth!...Your Live Might Be On The Line...
Review: I know what a lot of people are probably thinking. How could a movie about some guy continually talking on a pay phone for an hour possibly be entertaining? Well, thanks to some incredible direction by Joel Schumacher, and an outstanding performance by Colin Farrell, Phone Booth is able to pull it off easily.
This is a project that has been kicked around Hollywood for years. There where plans to have the movie be one long continuous shot, unbroken by editing. The concept would be that the movie would only star two actors, one in the booth, and the other talking on the phone, unseen. Actors like Tom Cruise, Will Smith, and Jim Carrey became interested in the role. In the end, this idea was changed when the film was give to Joel Schumacher to direct, under a small budget, who cast Collin Farrell in the lead.
The story concerns Stu (Colin Farrell), a married fast track publicist who could care less about anyone, unless they can do something for him. He employees a college student as an apprentice, but fails to give him any pay for his hard work. He also juggles around his clients as if they were beanbags and not people. To top it all off, he is seriously thinking of having an affair.
The latter is the reason why he is at the phone booth in the first place. Stu makes a call to his mistress, Pam (Katie Holmes), every day from the same booth, to avoid the call from showing up on cell phone bills his wife checks. When he finishes the call and hangs up, the phone rings. Stu takes the call and starts a conversation with a mysterious stranger, a conversation that will change his life forever.
The voice on the other end knows an incredible amount about Stu's life. He knows about Pam, about all Stu's clients, and other personal details. Furthermore, if Stu hangs up, he is told he will be shot with a rifle from one of the nearby buildings.
Throughout the course of the movie we meet a diverse group of interesting characters. This is one of the reasons why we never really get tired of the film. Also, "the voice" on the line is not only disturbingly scary, but also ironically funny. The movie is always throwing something new on the screen, keeping the audience absorbed in the action.
What keeps the whole piece grounded is the performance that Colin Farrell gives. This is without a doubt the best in his career to date. There are moments when he's required to go from extreme anger and frustration to complete anguish and despair. This is a movie where he is required to have it all.
Joel Schmacher directs this material wisely. I particularly liked his opening sequence commenting on how it was once thought that people with cell phones were eccentric and outrageous. Now, as the movie states, "it has become a common symbol of status." The film is shot cleanly and with style, and Schmacher never loses focus on the story.
This project was tedious, and a lot could have easily gone wrong. But, in the end, Phone Booth proves to be worthwhile. Thanks to a various group of talented people, we are provided with not only an entertaining action thriller, but an interesting character study as well. It's not often we get both in a movie these days. That may be reason enough to see Phone Booth.

Rating:
Summary: Fast Paced Fun-- Ben N. At The Movies
Review: okay when i saw this commericial i was like yeah right as if a movie about a phone booth will survive well turns out it will not only does Colin Farrell give out a good performance but it has a intresting plot about a sniper killer wanting to convince Colin to give out is inner secrets to let forth and tell the truth to the world even if it cost him his life good movie great entertainment if you havent seen a movie in a while go check this one out

...Ben N.

Rating:
Summary: Phone Booth is an intriguing thriller!
Review: This movie is interesting from beginning to end with Colin Farrell in the best performance of his career so far as Stu Shepard, a publicist who thinks he is sure of himself. A little over 20 minutes into the movie, Stu enters a pay phone and tries to call Pam, his mistress, but not before taking off his wedding ring to call her. But before he gets a chance to, the phone rings. He picks up the phone and a voice of a sniper tells him that he will be shot if he doesn't stay in the phone booth. At first, he doesn't believe him until he shoots a man threatening to pull Stu out of the phone booth. Then, the police arrives onto the scene and tries to talk Stu to get out of the phone booth. The ending is very interesting, prompting us to realize that a person's life can be change. Joel Schumacher, the director is brilliant at directing the movie and Larry Cohen's script is brilliant as well, too. Kiefer Sutherland is amazing as the sniper who is prompting to kill Stu if he doesn't do what he wants him to do. I appreciated the movie because of how it made me feel. For 81 Minutes, Sheer brillance doesn't get any better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Intense Drama
Review: I was on the end of my seat during this entire movie. Colin Farrell is an outstanding actor, and he is perfect in his role in this movie. Forest Whitaker was also very good as the cop who helps him. I felt the female characters, his wife and his mistress, were somewhat one dimensional and lacking in character development. I also felt that the voice of Keifer Sutherland came across sounding too much like a newscaster, and was not scary enough. But then again, this movie belonged to Colin Farrell. If you focus on Colin Farrell and what his character is going through, you will be thoroughy entertained.

Rating:
Summary: Truth or consequences
Review: PHONE BOOTH is essentially an 80-minute one-man show by Colin Farrell, and he pulls it off flawlessly.

Farrell is Stu Shephard, a glib New York press agent who'll concoct any story and utter any lie to further his own agenda. And he's also hoping to cheat on his wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell) with Pamela (Katie Holmes). In the pantheon of the world's villains, Stu is relatively minor. But not to The Sniper.

All of PHONE BOOTH was filmed on a single set, depicted as the site of the last enclosed phone booth in Manhattan, at 53rd and 8th. Hearing the booth's phone ring, Shephard picks it up. The audience hears (as a voiceover) the disembodied words of The Sniper. Apparently peering from an overlook above the street, the caller threatens Stu with death if he hangs up and leaves. An appropriate demonstration of his shooting capability is provided, which anchors Stu in the booth.

The Sniper has recently executed two of society's sleazebags, one a pornographer. Now it's Shepahard's turn, unless he repents publicly for his many sins, all knowledgeably listed by his tormentor. And to whom is Stu to make this confession? Well, to the hordes of police now surrounding the booth, who think the body in the street is Stu's doing. To the on-site police commander, Capt. Ramey (Forest Whitaker), who has to sort out the mess while wondering why Shephard is glued to the phone. To the broadcast media descending with soundtrucks and cameras. And to Kelly and Pamela, both drawn to the scene by the live TV coverage.

Farrell is the unquestioned star of this nail-biter, but it wouldn't work without The Sniper's mesmerizing voice (provided by Kiefer Sutherland). It could be the voice of Satan himself welcoming Stu to Hell, and Farrell's bravura performance leaves the audience with no doubt that he's burning in his own personal napalm of self-judgement, humiliation, and terror.

Once one accepts the plot's premise, there's no fault to be found with this film. As an entertainment vehicle, it delivers edge-of-the-seat tension, a moral message, and a satisfying twist of an ending. And even a bit of humor, as when three local working girls berate the beleaguered Shephard for monopolizing the means of secure contact with their Johns.

PHONE BOOTH is a jewel of escapism.