So I recently watched the 2003 thriller film "Phone Booth", directed by Joel Schumacher (of Batman and Robin infamy).

The main character (played by Colin Farrell) is Stu Shepard, an arrogant New York publicist who routinely visits a New York pay phone to telephone his mistress in an affair he's involved in. However, the day before the booth is to be demolished, he receives a call after he hangs up from a complete stranger.

That stranger (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) possesses an unusual amount of knowledge about Stu's life and his affair. He goes on to describe Stu as a corrupt individual undeserving of his life and proceeds to threaten him by loading a sniper rifle against the phone to terrify him.

So the film obviously has a lot of paranoia and suspense in reach, which it lives up to pretty well. It manages to create a pretty frustrating, tense, and paranoid environment, and Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland both put up good performances that suit it very well (Sutherland has some fantastic dialogue!).

As for the story, it grows from the premise fairly well. It supplies enough twists and suspense to keep your attention, and there's enough intelligent writing to keep the story grounded and plausible.

So the movie's got that running for it. Are there any complaints? Well, a few...

To begin with, Kiefer's character, albeit an intimidating and powerful villain, is given very vague motivation. There are some very vague references to his backstory, but when the film ends, it doesn't really feel like his character was truly completed or realized.

Speaking of the ending (and without giving away too much), the ending to the film wasn't all that great, either. Although it's not horrible or ridiculous or anything, it ends on an image that feels somewhat unnecessary. I think the route they chose could've worked better if it was an ambiguous ending, but as is, it's pretty empty.

Also, and this is probably just me complaining, but I think there should have been a lot more interior shots of the phone booth, which would have really capitalized the claustrophobia factor.

However, it's not to say that those are huge complaints and that the rest of the film is destroyed by them. As is, Phone Booth supplies a slew of great performances, decent twists, and a pretty vivid, tense atmosphere. As one of Joel Schumacher's few critically acclaimed movies, it holds up well to its public acceptance.

I give Phone Booth 7.5 Twilights out of 10.

NOTE: If you want to see the movie, don't watch the trailer. It gives away a vital scene that happens about 2/3 in.

It's a bummer that blockbuster is closed, because now I cant just hop in the car, go rent the movie, and watch it at my convenience. short of actually buying the movie. it really makes it much harder to watch relatively obscure movies like this.
On a unrelated note, if you punch in 'Phone Booth' on the Netflix instant queue, the second result is MLP FIM. not sure how i feel about that