phone booth

[cowboykurtis]

has any one seen it? i curious to see how it holds up with such minimal means to tell the story -- a la the SINGLE location -- it has the potential to be an interesting chamber drama... thoughts?

[Thecowgoooesmooo]

I saw Phone Booth tonight ... It was absolutely horrible. :x It really was.

I thought that the 1 location, Phone Booth concept could either be really shitty or very interesting if done well. But it was not done well.

Terrible dialogue as expected. At some parts of the movie, I swear I thought the actors were reading from cards. The acting was not good at all. I haven't seen "The Recruit" and I don't plan on ever getting near it after watching him in this movie act.

Extremely over the top... Unrealistic... For example... When he is talking into the phone to the killer above, the killer comments on what people are saying to him. When the cop trys to talk him out of the booth, the sniper seems to hear him and constantly makes witty remarks and comments.

This movie could have been pulled off in a short film. But not 80 minutes! It gets sooo old real quick.

Also I thought the directing was shit as well. Especially when the director decides he wants to constantly use this small box to display action going somewhere else. He then decides to put 4 or more up on the screen and it makes u sick. It looks real bad and he seems to overuse it as his "style".

i give it 2 stars out of 5


chris

[cine]

It certainly has potential, yes.. if you like "Phone Booth's" concept, you should rent "My Dinner With Andre."

[cowboykurtis]

i love my dinner with andre. chamber dramas are an interesting concept, that are extremely hard to pull off. have you seen linklater's TAPE? i didn't like it -- i think it was adapted from a BLACK BOX stage play. some things just dont work on celluloid. i guess you can consider submarine movies chamber dramas -- can you think of any more?

[RegularKarate]

Yeah, I just saw it because I had nothing else to do and no other shows fit my schedule...

I wouldn't go as far as the cow, because I realize that it's a Joel Schumacher movie and you should only expect the worst.
However, it was pretty bad... I've seen worse for sure.  It was like an okay episode of the Twilight Zone, very very VERY predictable.

***SPOILER****
You already know how it's going to end.

anyway, I don't see what the big fucking deal about Colin Farell is... I guess he was okay in it, but it's hard to say, any perfomance is overshadowed by the weak script.... and yes, Schumacher tries to be creative, but it only ends up looking like a poorly executed episode of 24 in the end... and the sound mix was truly obnoixious.

Side Note: Does anyone else see the retardedness of a coca-cola commercial containing a rap about keeping it real and not selling out?

[SHAFTR]

Did you guys know that Jim Carrey was originally going to star in the movie?  He backed out, Mark Wahlberg was next...he backed out...so in comes Colin Ferrel.

Excuse me name spelling mistakes.

[dufresne]

it was a great business decision to make this movie.

budget = 10 mill.
shooting location = one set in L.A.
shooting schedule = 10 days

it's already made $15 mill. in the first weekend alone.

[MacGuffin]

Did you guys know that Jim Carrey was originally going to star in the movie?  He backed out, Mark Wahlberg was next...he backed out...so in comes Colin Ferrel.

Will Smith was attached at one time too.

[Ghostboy]

I enjoyed it for the most part. I think Colin Farrell actually is a really good actor and worth all the hype (let's hope he picks good roles from now on and leaves the likes of American Outlaws/The Recruit/Daredevil safely in his past).

The sound mix did suck, though. It sounded like Kiefer Sutherland was on a loudspeaker, which called even more attention to his consistently trite dialogue.

It got really slow at two points, but succesfully managed to re-enegage my attention both times. I don't know, maybe I let myself get played, but I found it to be pretty suspenseful now and then. For what it was, it wasn't bad. And Matthew Libatique's cinematography is always great to watch.

[russiasusha]

I fuckin hate that coca cola commercial!  The one that talks shit about selling out.  It goes for like five minutes with that retarded song!   Another thing, why are there commercials before movies?  It makes no since!  That's why we go to the fucking movies is that we don't have to put up with advertisments (except trailers of course which is alright).  And there usually the most annoying commercials you have ever seen!

[bonanzataz]

When was the last time anybody saw a phone booth in new york city?

[RegularKarate]

When was the last time anybody saw a phone booth in new york city?

Actually, they say in the film that that's the last phone booth in Manhattan and that it was about to be torn down.

[bonanzataz]

at least they explain that, even if it is a completely lame excuse.

[GodDamnImDaMan]

Bonzaztaz.....why the fuck are you crying?

[Recce]

I saw it recently and didn't think it was that bad. The whole affiliation of Schumacker did throw me off, but the concept is cool. And I found they did manage to keep it entertaining and fulfilling.

***Sort of a spoiler, but not really, I jsut dont wanna risk people getting pissed***
One thing that did bug me is some of the shots where they shoot out and scan buildings and stuff.  The shots are all croked and the images are really pixelated. They kept cutting to those shots and it constantly threw me out of the story.
***End of sort of a spoiler, but not really, I jsut dont wanna risk people getting pissed***

***Real Spoiler***
The ending was excessively predictable, though. You see this guy who's supposedly the sniper, but its not keifer sutherlan. I mean, everyone knows his voice, and his names in the credits. The hell!
***End of spoiler***

This was an idea Hitchcock had, right? Does anyone know anything about that? I heard he planned to do it and claimed he could make it interesting, but he never got around to it.