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Movies / On DVD / Phone Booth
Phone Booth

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Phone Booth (2003)

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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 [More]

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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Release:

Jul 8, 2003

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Reviews for Phone Booth

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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A taut, engrossing thriller.

Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | comment Comment
03/31/03
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

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.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
04/04/03
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
04/11/03
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

boasts a single-note plot that evokes tension from its earliest moments and carries it through its svelte 80-minute running time.

Full Review Source: Beach Reporter (Southern California) | comment Comment
04/07/03
Brian J. Arthurs
Brian J. Arthurs
Beach Reporter (Southern California)

Eighty-one minutes of sheer anxiety.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
04/01/03
Jeanne Aufmuth
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

'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.'

Full Review Source: Moviola | comment Comment
07/04/03
Jorge Avila Andrade
Jorge Avila Andrade
Moviola

Its plot ... not only fully exploits Schumacher's strengths as a filmmaker but also has encouraged the director to keep things atypically simple.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
04/04/03
Joe Baltake
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee

It's a movie perfectly designed for tossing back popcorn.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
04/07/03
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

The best way to describe Phone Booth is preposterous but entertaining.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
03/31/03
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A devilishly fun film, full of juicy performances, unrelenting tension, and a sense of unpredictability that lasts right up to the very end.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
03/23/03
Merle Bertrand
Merle Bertrand
Film Threat

...(but) the film's intelligence and creativity have to fight for screen time with invasive popcorn-movie superficiality.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
04/03/03
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

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.

Full Review Source: Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN) | comment Comment
04/05/03
Bob Bloom
Bob Bloom
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

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.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
04/04/03
Kit Bowen
Kit Bowen
Hollywood.com

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.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
04/29/03
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

Phone Booth proves to be an entertaining, tension-filled morality tale.

Full Review Source: Houston Community Newspapers | comment Comment
04/04/03
Gary Brown
Gary Brown
Houston Community Newspapers

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.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
04/16/03
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

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.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
04/03/03
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

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.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
04/01/03
Sean Burns
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

Short, suspenseful, funny, and profane.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/04/03
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
04/03/03
Mark Caro
Mark Caro
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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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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