| | | Your Life is On the Line.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, French, Spanish, Subtitled, Dubbed
A single phone call can change a man's life...or possibly end it. Colin Farrell delivers a captivating, off-the-hook performance as a self-centered New York City publicist forced to match wits with a psychotic sniper in this groundbreaking suspense thriller directed by Joel Schumacher.
"...Farrell keeps up a kind of frenzied panic for the entire film...I'm not certain of his future as a Great Movie Star, but...he's off to a tremendous start." Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
"Farrell is a dynamo...Sutherland, whose sniper role is essentially a voice on the phone, matches Farrell subtle shift for subtle shift." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"A tense, thought-provoking drama." Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News
"...82 New York minutes long, all of them exciting." Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post
"Short, suspenseful, funny, and profane, the film's a throwback to the neat little B-level thrillers the entertainment industry used to crank out..." Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Editor's Note
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.
| Features | Audio Commentary By Joel Schumacher | | Audio: English DTS HD 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Theatrical Trailer In High Definition | | This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 11/17/2009 |
| Running Time: 102 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 2241452 | | UPC: 00024543414520 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2004) | | | Image Award, Forest Whitaker, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture | | | MTV Award, Kiefer Sutherland, Best Villain |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...Schumacher keeps his camera in a state of high agitation, bumping and swirling around the spectacle of Farrell's motor-mouth frenzy..." 04/11/2003 p.52-3Rolling Stone
"...Director Joel Schumacher, with the help of the gifted cinematographer Matthew Libatique makes a tight, tense job of it....Farrell is a dynamo..." 04/17/2003 p.111 Total Film
"...[Farrell] makes lowlife media pimp Stu Shepard his own....A high velocity thriller..." 05/01/2003 p.100 Chicago Sun-Times
"...[Farrell] shows energy and intensity?" 04/04/2003 p.29 ReelViews 8 of 10
Phone Booth became one of a number of post-9/11 films to fall victim to an increasing reluctance on the part of motion picture studios to release movies where on-screen events echo real-world tragedies...The result makes for a pleasant early-year surprise...Obviously, with a phone booth, there is claustrophobia. In addition, for most of the film, the villain is faceless - a cold, menacing voice on the other end of a phone line, playing at being God. Give Kiefer Sutherland credit for doing as much as he does with limited opportunities. Like in Steven Spielberg's Duel or John Dahl's Joy Ride, we are confronted with an implacable enemy. As time wears on, Stuart finds his range of options increasingly limited. He's a pawn in a one-sided game that may only end with his death. Phone Booth makes us care whether or not this happens. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Phone Booth" is a religious fable, a show biz fable, or both. It involves a fast-talking, two-timing broadway press agent who is using the last phone booth in Manhattan (at 53rd and 8th) when he's pinned down by a sniper. The shooter seems to represent either God, demanding a confession of sins, or the filmmakers, having their revenge on publicists...The movie is essentially a morality play, and it's not a surprise to learn that Larry Cohen, the writer, came up with the idea 20 years ago--when there were still phone booths and morality plays...For the voice of his sniper, he calls on Kiefer Sutherland, who also starred in Schumacher's "The Lost Boys" (1987), "Flatliners" (1990) and "A Time to Kill" (1996) and here takes the mostly (but not quite entirely) invisible role as a very useful favor to Schumacher--because if the voice doesn't work, neither does the movie. It does. - Roger Ebert
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