A tense and tightly constructed thriller. Probably Joel Schumacher's best film.

Film 18 for my December Challenge.

Great film.

Put a man in a phone booth and get a sniper in a nearby building talking to him on the phone and threatening to kill him if he hangs up. Add a couple of prostitutes who need to use the booth into the equation, and an angry pimp who's being hounded by the afore mentioned ladies and you have yourself a little pot of bubbling drama.

Superbly acted by Farrell (who is convincing both as the brash, arrogant, chancer and also the emotionally wrecked man later in the film) and ably supported by Sutherland who plays the calm, psycho with aplomb and Whittaker who is great as the Police Captain tasked with talking down the guy in the booth.

The tension is cranked up throughout the 77 minutes runtime, and not a second is wasted. Excellent stuff!

Already out of date but still interesting tale of a man (Colin Farrell) trapped in a NYC phone booth, held there by a sniper (Kiefer Sutherland) with a grudge. Farrell was still struggling with an American accent at this point, and Sutherland's voice should have been processed through a phone receiver instead of sounding as if he was recorded in a sound booth. Those are minor qualms though.

I've taken a lot of flack in the past for liking this film but dammit - I think it works! In fact, I think I'm brazen enough to call it Joel Schumacher's best film. Granted, the competition isn't very high in that department but still...
Colin Farrell gives a riveting performance in a film that moves like gangbusters and feels like its over within 10 minutes due to some stunningly on-point pacing.
I'm still waiting on a sequel featuring the sassy hooker though.

good film, I loved it:)

Es de esas películas que te gusta pero sabes que le faltan muchos elementos. Logra mantenerte en suspenso, la actuación de Colin Farrell es respetable, los diálogos son excelentes pero un final no tan asombroso, hasta predecible. Creo que falto una mejor intervención de los personajes secundarios, en realidad daba igual si mataban o no a alguno. Interesante en ciertos puntos e insulsa en otros.

Cortita y directa. No se andan con pajas mentales ni rellenos.

Liked it. But its not my favourite film.

Oj, hade för mig att den här var bättre. Ganska sentimentalt dravel genom hela filmen, och väääldigt slö. Tråkig också. Suck

I like the idea of trying to contain an entire film within the confines of a phone booth, but this one doesn't really pull it off. Sooner or later it runs out of good ideas and just gets kind of boring.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I've seen this so often but every time it comes on I have to watch it. Clocking in at little over an hour it flies by at a frantic pace, to be honest it feels more like an episode of a brilliant TV show than a movie. Colin Farrell is good in this but Forest Whitaker steals it as the sympathetic cop.

So yeah, not much wrong with it to be honest. A perfect popcorn thriller that passes the time.

Tense, highly watchable real-time psychological thriller in which Colin Farrell's slick PR man (and inveterate liar) is held to account by a sniper-weilding HAL 3000-alike on the other end of the telephone line.

That the film isn't ruined by a crappy framing device, some rapidly dated visuals (split screen, hyperactive cutting) and a slight anticlimax, is testament to Farrell's barnstorming performance and a script that only just manages to keep itself half a step in front of the audience.