Hey folks, Harry here... Squifster here seems like he was blown away by PHONEBOOTH... I'm working up my review of the film, which I saw at the Paramount theater here in Austin during SXSW... and man, this film blew the illuminated ceiling off the grand ol dame of a theater. But lest you think that was a unique film experience, across the Atlantic in the land of Tony Blair... here's Squifster...
hi harry
squifster here from the 51st state of the united kingdom,i am a long time reader, never managed to get one printed yet though but there's always a first time. just got to see schulmacher's pretty damn splendid "PHONEBOOTH" and i must say splendid it is!
so let me get to phonebooth, the old fella joel has definately returned to his former glory, back to his stupendous days that bought us such delights as FALLING DOWN, A TIME TO KILL and TIGERLAND, he managed to pull off a very amicable and captivating movie indeed, the camera work was intriguing although a little bit of a "24" rip off with the picture in picture sequences i found myself glued to screen.
Harry Note: Technically this was filmed PRIOR to 24!
was it colin farrell's performance or the direction that kept me transfixed? i guess a combination of the two, they really do bring the best out of each other. after jim carrey (thankfully) left the project and joel was attached, they could not have picked a better actor to take the leading role. i bow to you mr farrell, who would have known that you would have gone from a bbc1 series to hollywood star so quickly, many have tried few have succeeded.
watching the story unfold was pure exhilration, much better than the wesley snipes "LIBERTY STANDS STILL" although that was good, this like a tomahawk missile simply blew it away. unlike "liberty" the story was much more personel, the charactor "stu" was not a real bad person, being arogant, self obsessed and fond of the opposite sex his only real crime, keifer sutherland, the faceless assassin, came across as more of a vigilante of the down-trodden and underdog than a cold hearted killer, although a few sessions with a shrink wouldn't go a miss you kinda felt for the guy standing up for those who were oblivously being mistreated by those around them. ok shooting them with a high powered silenced rifle was a little extreme but nonetheless it was kinda honourable. maybe after this movie mr schulmacher might be forgiven for the dire that was BATMAN AND ROBIN and BAD COMPANY.................
we'll have to wait and see when his next projects hit the screen, will he destroy phantom of the opera? or will he leave us the audience with a gentle feeling of satisifaction? only time will tell!
next on the list to view is the rob zombie horror fest, not quite sure if im looking forward to this or not, after all the delays and stuff in my experience delays don't usually mean good things, pluto nash anyone? mind you "phonebooth was worth the wait!
also im going to be receiving very very shortly on-set photos from the johnny depp peter pan movie "neverland" so as soon as i get then so do you......keep up the fantastic work, and that goes from all your u.k based dedicated readers
hopefully you'll print this but i guess i can only live in hope!
squifster
