Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8008 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-11
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Swahili
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
For a film confined almost entirely to one tiny location, Phone Booth has been the centre of a lot of off-screen action: changing lead man from Will Smith to Jim Carrey to Colin Farrell, with various directors attached, and finally postponed as a result of the Washington Sniper attacks--and all this before its release. Still, Larry Cohen's taut 80-minute script finally hits the screens and, as public utility-based thrillers go, it's pretty gripping stuff.

Colin Farrell plays slick and obnoxious PR man Stu Shepard who picks up a ringing payphone only to be informed by a mysterious sniper (Keifer Sutherland) that there's a gun pointed directly at him. What Stu initially believes to be a joke turns about to be a vendetta from the sniper who objects to married Stu's philandering ways, and it soon escalates into a prime-time TV siege.

Joel Schumacher's energetic direction--employing some snappy editing and nifty split-screen techniques--helps distract from an uneven and often predictable plot. It's easy for the audience to think of a dozen ways this siege could be averted, but by upping the tension stakes Schumacher still makes it fun to watch.

Colin Farrell gives a compelling central performance, which runs the emotional gamut from anger to fear to anguish and even carries off a cheesy absolution scene. Keifer Sutherland's husky baddie voiceover is not exactly the stuff of nightmares but, like the rest of the film, you could do a lot worse. As a pure popcorn thriller, Phone Booth hits all the right buttons. --Laura Bushell

Special Features
Audio commentary by Director Joel Schumacher
Featurette: The Making of Phone Booth
2.35:1 widescreen (16:9)
Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
Joel Schumacher (8 MM, FALLING DOWN) directs this suspense drama set in New York City's Times Square. A wannabe hotshot entertainment publicist who's more intent on posturing for his unpaid assistant than he is in actually working, Stu Shepherd (Colin Farrell) ducks into a phone booth to make his regular afternoon call to his girlfriend (Katie Holmes). Stu stops in the same phone booth at the same time every day to flirt with the young girl, who does not know that Stu is happily married with no intention of dating her seriously. When Stu says goodbye to his girl and sets down the receiver, he picks up a call from a threateningly sarcastic man with a deep voice. This man seems to have been tracking Stu's visits to this booth every day, and suddenly Stu knows that his secrets are no longer his own. Soon, the caller identifies himself as a sniper and begins shooting. Police are called in, and Stu must use his PR skills in a final test to get out of the booth, alive. This compelling drama, expertly crafted for maximum tension, will keep audiences nervously awaiting its outcome, unable to look away from the screen for even a moment.

Customer Reviews

**** GRIPPING STUFF ****
For a couple of years now (since Tigerland) Colin Farrell has been much vaunted as the next big thing but with the exception of his supporting role in Speilberg’s Minority Report, Farrell’s subsequent additions to his CV have hardly enhanced his reputation. Movies such as Hart’s War and The Recruit have left both audiences and critics somewhat underwhelmed, whilst the release of Phone Booth was much delayed due to the real life Washington snipers mindless killing of innocent people.

So what of Phone Booth: Is it any good and does Colin Farrell deserve the tag of next big thing?

Farrell plays Stu Shepard a slimy, unscrupulous, and very small time, Manhattan PR man with a daily habit of using the same old fashioned phone booth to call a prospective client (Katie Holmes) with whom he is trying to start an affair with. After all he wouldn’t want his wife to see a mobile phone bill listing calls to other women, would he? Enticed into picking up the ringing phone, Stu becomes trapped by an unseen sniper who tells him that he will be killed if he tries to leave the phone booth or puts down the phone. 'What do you want?' demands Stu, 'I want your complete attention' replies the sniper (Kiefer Sutherland) and not only does he get Stu’s complete attention he gets the audiences too as we watch Stu unravel into a pathetic mess pleading for his life over the next seventy minutes.

With his cocky charm, good looks and uncanny ability to mimic an American accent, Farrell is perfect for the part, which was at one point reportedly earmarked for Will Smith. The Dublin born actor appears to revel in playing the anti-hero forced into confessing his sins by the psycho sniper playing God in order to achieve some form of redemption. There are good supporting performances too from the likes of Forrest Whittaker (as the cop in charge at the scene) and in particular Kiefer Sutherland as the menacing assassin at the other end of the line.

Written by veteran writer/producer/Director Larry Cohen and Directed by Joel Schumacher, responsible for the very lamentable Batman & Robin, Phone Booth is (in my humble opinion) a very exciting and claustrophobic edge of the seat thriller. Cohen’s script and Schumacher’s Direction keep the movie lean and tight, steadily cranking up the tension to new heights right up until the movies conclusion. Cohen’s script is so ingenious in that it takes an old movie premise (the irresistible ringing phone that has to be answered and the anonymous caller) and gives it a new spin. It’s almost hard to believe that this is the same Joel Schumacher responsible for the last two movies of the Batman franchise. Indeed this is very much a return to form for the man that brought us the urban thriller “Falling Down”. Keeping you hooked throughout it’s (by current standards) relatively short running time, it is refreshing to see the old adage that less is sometimes more once again proved true.

The only arguable fault with Phone Booth is in its last two minutes, when we are treated to some unnecessary moralising. That apart, this is top-drawer entertainment and the best thriller I’ve seen in a long while. There are certainly much worse ways to spend 81 minutes, so take my advice and give this one a try, I’m sure you wont regret it!!! Four stars ****.

The art of listening.
Before I watched this film, I read several reviews on it. Most of them was negative. Than I checked out the director: Joel Schumacher. I found few mediocre films by him but at the same time I found few of my favorites: The Lost Boys (1987), Flatliners (1990), Falling Down (1993), The Client (1994). Based on this research I had no choice but to watch this film.
Main character Stu (Colin Farrell at his best performance) is one of this fake New Yorkers: some publicist, dressed in a fake coat of bogus fame and unexciting BIG contacts. He stops by at the phone booth to make his regular call to another women, the one which doesn't know that he is married... As soon as he hangs up? A phone call... A phone call for him... A phone call by a sniper. He has to play by the sniper's rules, or someone will die.
A thriller? An action? A psychological drama? I would say all of it at the same time... but much more. Did I want to know what will happen next? Yes! Did this film make me think? Yes!

From my point of view, this film mostly about art of listening. We often prejudge situations and people. But we forget to listen, to understand and hear the meaning of simple clues which might save our own life. And Forest Whitaker as Captain Ramey did this part very well.
On the other hand it gives us a slight idea how one second can change our life forever. And it does every single day.
The ending made me disappointed but I can't give this film less than A- grade. I've seen better, but not as many as you might think.
Reviewed by "russianwriter.net"

A Cheaply Made Film That Knocks The Spots Off Most Big Money Blockbusters
Forget your Lord of the Rings or Star Wars and Harry Potter this feature has got to be the best film for years. It proves that movies don't need a multi-million dollar budget to be a class product. This film was shot in just ten days and in a way it shows but that is the appeal of a real-time drama, there is almost a documentary 'shoot-it-as-it-happens' feel that gives the impression of continuation. Too many retakes can end up spoiling the flow of a scene and as the film is technically one long scene with cutaway pictures to other participants on the phone it makes sense to record it like this. I suspect that the film was shot in narrative order, allowing the actors to build upon the emotions that arise from the mounting stress of the situation rather than having to remember how they were feeling if it was shot out of order. In writing terms this is called the Fleming Sweep, so named after the James Bond creator, his theory was that he would write a Bond novel from beginning to end without looking back over what he had done and when he had finished only then would he revise and polish his story, the idea being that it creates a better flow than the usual stop-start approach and for me this film is very similar.

The acting is world class, that statement can be used too often but here it is true. Colin Farrell is wonderful and it needed a top-notch performance from Kiefer Sutherland as the Caller to match and even exceed Farrell. Sutherland steals the show and this was amazing considering that he only used his voice until the very end and actually upstaged Farrell, who himself was awesome. The director took the correct path in chosing Sutherland and resisted the obvious temptation to go for a darker voice ala Tom Baker, Patrick Stewart and James Earl Jones, I think a Vincent Price type of voice would have been a mistake as the true terror of the performance comes from the fact that it is an every day normal type of voice rather than the forced horror of a scarier vocal interpretation.

The film ends at exactly the right time on 77 minutes, a very short film, but one of the things that annoy me about most films is their need for padding, I have always subscribed to the theory that when a film naturally comes to an end then end it, if it can be told in 77 minutes then do so, I think that had Phone Booth been fleshed out by just five minutes it would not be the masterpiece that it is today.

There is however one little gripe that I have and that is that I would have prefered not to have seen the Caller at the end of the film and left it to the imagination, but when you cast an actor of Kiefer Sutherland's calibre I suppose that you do want him in there somewhere, this is just a minor irritation on my part that in no way spoils this fantastic psychological, manipulation thriller. And the making of... documentary is great too.

If so-called 'cheap' films are always as good as this then I will take them over the big money Hollywood blockbusters any day. This is proper film making with actors rather than computers and such like. Go on give it a try.