Posted 14:54 by Grote 0 comments

Movie Review: "Phone Booth" or why I'll never answer a public phone again.

First a word about my reviews: Ratings are out of four stars, I'll give the running time and rating and I'll usually link the principles to the appropriate areas on the IMDb. Ok, on to the review!

Phone Booth: Rated:R; 81 minutes Any film directed by Joel Schumacher brings a little bit of the fear of God into a person. Especially after seeing him turn Gotham City into Goth Vegas in the last two Batman Movies. This one is a little bit different. We join our hero(?) publicist Stu Sheppard (Collin Farrell) as he walks down the busy New York streets setting up deals for his clients. Magazine covers, restaurant parties and the like. When he reaches the last phone booth in Manhattan to call his girlfriend. The problem is, Stu is married. After he hangs up with his girlfriend, the phone rings. The caller (Kiefer Sutherland) tells Stu he has a gun and that he will kill him if he hangs up. The caller knows all the little personal details about Stu's life, right down to the last phone call he made. As things play out the caller shoots someone. Which, of course, brings the police. Things get really hairy as the police arrive because they now believe Stu shot the man. Capt. Ramey (Forest Whitaker) comes along to try to talk Stu out of the booth, while Stu tries to convince him that he's the victim not the perp.

Sometimes, the most simplistic ideas fall the hardest. Not this time. This movie was right to the point. This is the definition of thriller; a crazed man has a gun, he's willing to shoot Stu if he doesn't confess his sins to his wife. What makes this film is Kiefer Sutherland. If his almost invisible performance as the caller doesn't play right then the whole movie fails. Trust me, it works. Since there's really only one scene, you quickly get the same type of clausterphobic sense Stu has, being trapped in a phone booth with a sniper trained on him, knowing that time is running out. Normally, I would complain about a one hour and twenty-one minute running time for a movie that I just paid $6.00 (Matinee) to see. However, this time it felt just right, if they had stretched this into a two hour film, it would have seemed overdrawn. I highly recommend this movie, its not going to win any Oscars and it'll probably be dethroned by Adam Sandler's new movie but it was worth it. I give it: ***1/2