Phone Booth

MPAA Rating

R

Theatrical Release Date

Apr 03, 2003

Genre(s)

• Suspense
• Mystery
• Hostage Situations
• DVD
• Full Screen
• Widescreen
• US & CA DVDs: Region 1

Rating (Stars)

Description

By some lucky quirk of fate, Phone Booth landed on Hollywood's A-list, but this thriller should've been a straight-to-video potboiler directed by its screenwriter, veteran schlockmeister Larry Cohen, who's riffing on his own 1976 thriller God Told Me To. Instead it's a pointless reunion for fast-rising star Colin Farrell and his Tigerland director, Joel Schumacher, who employs a multiple-image technique similar to TV's 24 to energize Cohen's pulpy plot about an unseen sniper (maliciously voiced by 24's Kiefer Sutherland) who pins his chosen victim (a philandering celebrity publicist played by Farrell) in a Manhattan phone booth, threatening murder if Farrell doesn't confess his sins (including a potential mistress played by Katie Holmes in a thankless role). In a role originally slated for Jim Carrey, Farrell brings vulnerable intensity to his predicament, but Cohen's irresistible premise is too thin for even 81 brisk minutes, which is how long Schumacher takes to reach his morally repugnant conclusion. --Jeff Shannon

Director

Joel Schumacher

Stars

• Colin Farrell
• Kiefer Sutherland
• Forest Whitaker
• Radha Mitchell
• Katie Holmes

Running Time

81 minutes

Original Price

$14.98

Current Value

$0.14

DVD Features

• Anamorphic
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Dolby
• DVD-Video
• Full Screen
• Widescreen
• NTSC
• 2.35:1