A taut, engrossing thriller.
Phone Booth (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:182
Fresh:130
Rotten:52
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Quick pacing and Farrell's performance help make Phone Booth a tense nail-biter.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive language and some violence
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Apr 4, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $46,524,362
Synopsis:
Red-hot superstar Colin Farrell ("Daredevil," "The Recruit") toplines the thriller PHONE BOOTH, from director Joel Schumacher. A phone call can change your life, but for one man it can also end it....
Red-hot superstar Colin Farrell ("Daredevil," "The Recruit") toplines the thriller PHONE BOOTH, from director Joel Schumacher. A phone call can change your life, but for one man it can also end it. Set entirely within and around the confines of a New York City phone booth, PHONE BOOTH follows Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell), a low-rent media consultant who is trapped after being told by a caller - a serial killer with a sniper rifle - that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up.
What do you do when you hear a ringing public phone? You know it's a wrong number, but instinct forces you to pick it up. A ringing phone demands to be answered, but when Stu Shepard takes the call, he finds himself hurtled into a tortuous game. Hang up, says the caller (Kiefer Sutherland), and Stu's a dead man.
A sudden and shocking act of violence near the booth draws the attention of the police, who arrive backed with a small army of sharpshooters. They believe that Stu, not the unseen caller of whom they remain unaware, is the dangerous man with a gun.
The senior officer on the scene, Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker), tries to talk Stu out of the booth. But unbeknownst to Ramey, his team, the media circus that has flocked to the site - and Stu's wife, Kelly, and his client /prospective girlfriend, Pamela - the caller has them all in his high-powered rifle sights.
As afternoon turns into evening, Stu, the embodiment of an unethical, self-serving existence, must now undertake a sudden and unexpected moral evolution. He is emotionally stripped naked by the caller. Stu's lies, half-truths, and obfuscation no longer matter. Instead, he must dig deep into his soul, find his strength and attempt to outwit the caller, taking the game to an even more dangerous level. -- © Fox
Starring: Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, Katie Holmes
Starring: Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, Tia Texada, Richard T. Jones
Director: Joel Schumacher
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Larry Cohen
Producer: David Zucker, Gil Netter
Composer: Harry Gregson-Williams
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Reviews for Phone Booth
Nothing about Stu, in the end, is really important enough to justify the Sturm und Drang of Phone Booth or its tempest in a telecommunications teapot.
For most of its lean 81 minutes, Phone Booth crackles with the raw energy of a filmmaker on the fringes who has nothing to lose.
boasts a single-note plot that evokes tension from its earliest moments and carries it through its svelte 80-minute running time.
'Enlace Mortal es un sólido thriller que representa una de las mejores opciones de escapismo que han llegado a las pantallas en lo que va del año. Verdaderamente recomendable.'
Its plot ... not only fully exploits Schumacher's strengths as a filmmaker but also has encouraged the director to keep things atypically simple.
The best way to describe Phone Booth is preposterous but entertaining.
A devilishly fun film, full of juicy performances, unrelenting tension, and a sense of unpredictability that lasts right up to the very end.
...(but) the film's intelligence and creativity have to fight for screen time with invasive popcorn-movie superficiality.
The problem with Schumacher’s direction is that while he keeps the suspense taut, he fails to utilize or heighten the danger and, most importantly, the claustrophobia, of the situation.
Powered by a hard-hitting performance from Colin Farrell, Phone Booth will keep you riveted to your seat--and make you turn that darn cell phone off, for a little while at least.
My appreciation extends to the creators who, instead of falling in love with their creation, keep it going only as long as its suspense is sustainable, turning in that rare film that plays under 90 minutes.
Phone Booth proves to be an entertaining, tension-filled morality tale.
Get past [the] dubious logic and what's left is a taut psychological thriller that's directed for maximum impact by Joel Schumacher and vigorously performed by Farrell.
Phone Booth is a taut psychological thriller about a scary encounter between a vigilante sniper and a self-centered publicity agent who is brought face-to-face with his sins of spin.
Larry Cohen's script is so clever, crafty and resilient that even a moron like Joel Schumacher can't ruin it... Not that he doesn't try his damnedest.
A lean, mean tension machine, setting up its premise, executing it with smarts, throwing in enough twists to keep things interesting, and wrapping it up before anyone can get fatigued or reflective.
Latest News for Phone Booth
July 20, 2007:
Larry Cohen Plans Remakes of It's Alive, Black Caesar, and The Stuff
Long before he wrote movies like "Phone Booth," "Cellular," and (ugh) "Captivity," filmmaker Larry Cohen was making horror movies about killer babies. And (guess what?) he just... More...
February 07, 2007:
Joel Schumacher Wants to Direct Neil Gaiman's "Sandman"???
At last year's Comic Con, writer/artist Neil Gaiman said "I'd rather no Sandman movie got made than [to have] a bad Sandman movie." And now comes word that director... More...
January 19, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Spear," "New World" Are OK, Not Great
This week at the movies brings us three culture clashes: Native Americans and Europeans ("The New World"), the Waodani people of Ecuador and a group of missionaries... More...
May 09, 2005:
Elisha Cuthbert Bound for "Captivity"
Variety brings news of the currently young and hot Elisha Cuthbert's next big role. Only a few days removed from the opening of her "House of Wax," Ms. Cuthbert has... More...
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