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Phone Booth
by 20th Century Fox
| List Price: |
$14.98 |
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$13.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$1.49 (9%) |
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DVD
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Matthew Libatique
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Actors: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes
A single phone call can change a man's life…or possibly end it. Colin Farrell delivers a captivating, off-the-hook performance as Stu Shepard, a self-centered New York City publicist who suddenly finds himself on the deadly end of a high-powered rifle scope. Now it's a real-time race against the clock as Stu must outwit a psychotic sniper in a frantic scramble from phone booth to freedom. Directed by Joel Schumacher, this groundbreaking "tightly-made thriller" (Sidekick Magazine) co-stars Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, and Kiefer Sutherland as the crazed gunman calling the shots, literally.
By some lucky quirk of fate, Phone Booth landed on Hollywood's A-list, but this thriller should've been a straight-to-video potboiler directed by its screenwriter, veteran schlockmeister Larry Cohen, who's riffing on his own 1976 thriller God Told Me To. Instead it's a pointless reunion for fast-rising star Colin Farrell and his Tigerland director, Joel Schumacher, who employs a multiple-image technique similar to TV's 24 to energize Cohen's pulpy plot about an unseen sniper (maliciously voiced by 24's Kiefer Sutherland) who pins his chosen victim (a philandering celebrity publicist played by Farrell) in a Manhattan phone booth, threatening murder if Farrell doesn't confess his sins (including a potential mistress played by Katie Holmes in a thankless role). In a role originally slated for Jim Carrey, Farrell brings vulnerable intensity to his predicament, but Cohen's irresistible premise is too thin for even 81 brisk minutes, which is how long Schumacher takes to reach his morally repugnant conclusion. --Jeff Shannon
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Get off the phone buddy! |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Phone Booth Colin Farrell is a suspensful thriller and of course more than half of the film is based aroung a disturibing phone booth call. Kiefer Sutherland supplies the creepy voice as the caller. Katie Holmes isn't the worst actor in this movie, the girl who plays Farrell's annoying wife, jeez she deserved a Razzie Award for that over-the-top performance! Forest Whitaker doesn't get to show his acting chops and by the end you never want to make a call again. This film is a mixed bag for me.
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| An innovative suspenseful thriller!, |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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An innovative suspenseful thriller!
Schumacher's latest outing PHONE BOOTH takes a familiar formula and applies some clever new spins. We begin with a stereotypical `Scream' like psycho killer (voice of Kiefer Sutherland) who loves to taunt and terrorize his victims via the telephone. However, Schumacher deviates from the standard psycho killer fare in intriguing ways. Firstly, our primary victim is male (Colin Farrell) not female. Rather than being trapped helpless and home alone, the victim is duped into answering a phone call in a busy New York City telephone booth. The killer then threatens to open fire with a high power rife unless Farrell (playing a New York City publicist) stays on the line and does everything he's told.
Schumacher takes pains at the beginning of the film to paint Farrell's character as a lying, manipulative self-centered lowlife. Again, the director breaks with the stereotypical formula in which the killer's victims are innocents who draw the audiences' sympathy, by painting Farrell as a worm, Schumacher cleverly inverts the formula so that the audience actually enjoys watching the victim squirm.
The killer tells Farrell he has set other victims up in the same manner and has killed before. To prove to Farrell he means business, he kills a bystander. This acts as a reality check both for Farrell and the audience - it's one thing to see a low life being made to squirm but quite another for the sniper to open fire on a crowded New York Street. The audience now expects Schumacher to start running up the body count. But the director again dashes audience expectation and turns the film primarily into a psychological thriller rather than the action suspense or slasher fare we've been led to expect. The camera and action focus almost exclusively on the phone booth (reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's ROPE) and the publicist's agony and humiliation as the killer forces him to stay in the booth, now surrounded by police, and carry out his twisted wishes upon threat of death. Unaware of the sniper's presence, the police think the publicist has the killed the bystander. Farrel's character must continue playing the killer's deadly game in hopes he can somehow tip the police before either they, or the killer, end his life. Schumacher caps the film with a nice (though not totally unpredictable) twist ending. An innovative suspenseful outing!
Rob Rheubottom
Wpg, MB Canada
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| An Awesome Film!!! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I always liked this movie. It's cool how a snobby publicist named Stu is cheating on his wife, then 'the caller' calls Stu at a phone booth, and if Stu hangs up, the caller will shoot him. The caller does shoot someone and everyone thinks Stu did it, then the police get involved. It's also cool that Stu confesses everything to his wife and everyone watching. I would have liked to see a sequel where the caller makes someone else confess their sins. If you love suspense and thrillers, you'll love PHONE BOOTH!!!
"Isn't it funny, you hear a phone ring and it could be anybody, but a ringing phone has to be answered, doesn't it?" - The Caller.
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| Phone Booth a Winner |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I had forgotten about the copy of "Phone Booth" that we purchased from you and guess what........IT PLAYED OKAY!!!!
So, THAT would be a good reason, why we then ordered the "Sweet November" and "Love Floats" DVDs and were disappointed, as previously stated!!!
How could I have forgotten about this one, "Phone Booth"????
It was GREAT!!!!!!
I am really interested in the "Ice Road Truckers" series, so will give it some serious consideration, then let you know!!!!
Yours sincerely,
Lou Baby.............
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| Not Bad |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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When this came out, it sounded silly. Kept putting it off until my movie queue dwindled. Gave it a second chance. Not bad. I couldn't quite give it four stars, but it was better than expected.
In some ways, the acting was almost too realistic (which makes it more life-like but less likely to win awards). For that, I would give four stars.
But, there is a lack of direction. Too many starts that are abruptly halted. On the flip side, it was pleasantly surprising that it ended when it did (i.e., short film) instead of dragging on and on like some competing films.
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