Phone Booth

[Lilaena De'Ville]

YUM! Colin Farrell is his usual delicious self.

I don't want to give anything away, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows the basic premise: Man in a phone booth is held hostage by a sniper. I really enjoyed it, although I think my ears blistered from the sheer number of times the F word was used.

Colin did a great job, he is such a good actor...and Keifer Sutherland was sufficiently chilling.

The escort girls were cracking me up the entire time they were trying to get him out of the booth!

All things considered, I give the movie a gold star. And Colin gets two. :D

[sirdizzy]

Phone Booth (2003)


Drama and Thriller 1 hr. 20 min
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language and some violence
Starring: Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Keith Nobbs, Katie Holmes, Kiefer Sutherland
Directed by: Joel Schumacher

Stu Shepard is a fast-talking, two-timing Broadway publicist whom lies to everyone to get ahead in life. He has been using the last phone booth in Manhattan (at 53rd and 8th) to call a potential actor Pamela that he has been lusting after and wants to be his mistress and he is using this particular phone so that his wife Kelly cannot trace this indiscretion on his cell phone bill. But today is not Stu’s day as he becomes pinned down by a sniper whom has been watching him at that very phone booth for quite some time. When Stu answers the phone the sniper seems to know everything about him and in some weird way may think he is representing God, as he is demanding a confession of Stu’s sins for all his indiscretions and lies. For the next hour or so, Stu will be trying to keep the man on the other end from pulling the trigger as the sniper on the other end won’t allow him to hang up and just walk away. But all chaos breaks loose as the sniper shoots a man that had been arguing with Stu and everyone seems to think that Stu killed him and that he is armed. This brings the police to try and talk him away from the phone booth but the sniper won’t let Stu leave so now Stu finds himself in a Mexican standoff with the police and the sniper as everyone including his wife and his mistress get involved. Stu is faced with the decisions of confessing his sins or being shot by a man that is judging them for them but even this might not save his life in the end.

The movies outcome is only one of two options either Stu gets shot or he lives, what makes the movie so good is that the movie never lets you know which is going to happen. The movie is a suspense ride as we see the characters vie with each other in a struggle of life and death. Collin Farrell does a masterful job as the smooth talking deceitful liar that has found himself being judged for his sins and he tries to talk himself out of the mess. And while you only hear the voice of Kiefer Sutherland as the sniper he also does a great job of entertaining you as him and Collin play a game of cat and mouse over the phone. One of the best and most unique things about the film is how they used multiple screens at times to show you 3-4 different angles and viewpoints. It adds to the poignancy of the film and allows for the action to progress. The movie is quite short and I think that is because I doubt they could have filled in any more than its 80-minute runtime. The filmmakers were smart to keep this short because had they made the mistake of drawing it out the film could have grown boring and stale. The movie was scheduled to be released last year but the mirroring of too real events in Washington D.C. delayed its timing which might have been for the best. The movie is a good thriller and drama and does a good job of what it sets out to do and that is entertain you.
3.5 stars out of 5


and call em hookers will ya

[James Prent]

I enjoyed the multiple screens, although at first I wasn't sure it was going to work. And ok ok they were hookers!!

[Shawn]

It was an ok movie. Definitely not a waste of time but not something I'd be interested in seeing again. It was basically as good as a movie with this premise could possibly be.

You could tell that the sniper really had thought things out fairly well, which was interesting. It was kind of bothersome that they basically caught him because he made a mistake. I mean, if someone had thought things out as well as he did, would he have really slipped up like that? Or do you think that maybe he called Kelly from the hotel room on purpose, so the cops would eventually catch on and end it?

[Nathanial K'cansce]

...They never caught the sniper. Just the pizza guy who was basically the lackey. I think the sniper/caller knew he was being found out, or figured he would be found out and had the pizza guy take the fall for him, while he escaped unnoticed. Until he showed himself to Stu at the end. That was a nice touch.

All in all, I thought the movie was pretty good, given that it centered around a guy in a phone booth. It was better than what I expected.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I loved that the sniper got away. I don't think that it was a mistake at all...I mean, he had the pizza guy there to take the fall...he must have had him tied up or something, or else why would the guy still be there? He was a contingency plan, mebbe, but I like to think that it was all done on purpose.