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Critics Consensus: Quick pacing and Farrell's performance help make Phone Booth a tense nail-biter.
Critic Consensus: Quick pacing and Farrell's performance help make Phone Booth a tense nail-biter.
All Critics (186) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (133) | Rotten (53) | DVD (18)
Phone Booth is thrilling on many counts...
Raises more questions than it answers as it attempts to convince us that a moralistic sniper would torture a sleazy publicist into tears of guilt and remorse over what amounts to a few paltry, venial sins.
If this sounds like a Kafkaesque spoof thrown together for the annual Publicists Guild of America luncheon, Larry Cohen's script is only occasionally that clever.
The premise is admittedly a killer -- fun to think about, fun to see realized, not so fun to see screwed up in the last half-hour.
A first-tier thriller, Phone Booth will make you think twice before you ever enter a public phone facility again, but while it curls your hair, it makes you think.
[A] taut thriller that hooked me from the outset.
The script reads like it was phoned in. Why doesn't Farrell use his cell phone? We're offered a lame excuse.
One of the few artistically decent and commercially viable films Joel Schumacher has made over the past decade.
This movie doesn't make sense on any level.
The next time I hear a payphone ringing, I definitely won't pick it up.
Gives a fond remembrance of the days when a thriller actually used its title "Thrill"...
And here it is, ladies and gentleman, an entire 90-minute movie primarily set inside the cramped confines of a phone booth.
Very good tense thriller!
Super Reviewer
Joel Schumacher gets the most out of a telephone call with Phone Booth.
It's a simple title for the movie and it's backed by a simple story. The plot details are straightforward, thus creating a picture that is easy to follow and make sense of. There is only so much to do with a film that takes place in a single phone booth 90% of the time, but this picture makes the most of it with an intriguing concept behind the phone call.
Most of the R-rated material is in the language, without much in the way of violence or action, which this film doesn't need since it thrives off of its thrills and suspense.
Colin Farrell proves to be a solid choice for the call recipient, while the voice-work of Kiefer Sutherland is absolutely fantastic. Forest Whitaker steps in with a nice supporting role.
With only a 75 minute run-time, Phone Booth uses its time well. Recommendable.
This is exhibit I can't remember which letter in the case for why Joel Schumacher is at his best when given smaller efforts with lower budgets. Filmed mostly in one location and predominately in real-time, this is the tense and gripping tale of a really douchey, cynical, self-centered, and arrogant publicist named Stu held hostage in a phone booth by a menacing sniper. Communicating through the booth's phone, Stu is informed that if he hangs up, leaves the booth, he will be shot. Anyone who tries to interfere and use the booth or phone will likewise be shot. Well, long story short, one of those thigns happens, and when the cops get involved, Stu finds himself not only having to deal with the sniper, but the cops too. This is a really tense and suspenseful film. It apparently had origins going back to Hitchcock, and I can see that. The film actually does have a purpose with the sniper and Stu, but I'm not sure if I really want to reveal all of that. I will say that the results are quite satisfying, though. Since Colin Farrell
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