Phone Booth
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: April 4, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Phone Booth is 82 New York minutes long, all of them exciting. Read full review
80
Film ThreatClint Morris
It spends little time on exposition, instead quickly getting into the thrust of the movie. For a film like this, it’s advantageous, grabbing the audience almost immediately after the opening credits. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Provides a reminder of the power of unadorned drama and language -- whole torrents of eloquent words -- in the service of a nifty idea.
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
What keeps Phone Booth going, despite its premise, is the acting and the writing, both of which are top-notch. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The result is a movie that combines a seriousness of purpose with an impish delight in craft, in a way Hitchcock would have appreciated. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A tabloidy, nail-biting thriller. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A perverse kind of payback for every terrorizing cabbie, bullying streetwalker, insulting bike messenger and screaming corner grocer in Manhattan. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
A lean, mean tension machine, setting up its premise, executing it with smarts, throwing in enough twists to keep things interesting, and wrapping it up before anyone can get fatigued or reflective. It's on the money. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Farrell is a dynamo. And Kiefer Sutherland, whose sniper role is essentially a voice on the phone, matches Farrell subtle shift for subtle shift. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The best pure thriller of 2003 to-date. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Short, suspenseful, funny, and profane, the film's a throwback to the neat little B-level thrillers the entertainment industry used to crank out by the dozen in the post- World War II era and the early days of TV. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Has undertones of serious commentary on American violence, thanks to the screenplay by Larry Cohen, who often uses horror-film plots to explore cracks and contradictions in society. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Gussied up with a host of filmmaking tricks in an attempt to keep things lively, this intensely acted little exercise just doesn't have enough going for it, with the exception of gradually growing interest in lead Colin Farrell. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
It's a movie perfectly designed for tossing back popcorn (the jumbo kind so you don't have to leave your seat during the show); not until later do you get the empty feeling that you've swallowed an entire bucket of popped air. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerD. Parvaz
Gripping in parts, tedious in others, the film works best when the action is brisk. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's an energetic stunt of a movie, and it wants to make us sweat like it's 1974. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Can't spoil the ending, except to say that it spoils itself. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
Superficially gritty yet soullessly slick melodrama. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The movie's so hung up (pardon) on its gimmick it never transcends it; might have been better had Kiefer called Moviefone. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The payoff doesn't quite equal the intensity of the spectacularly squirm-inducing premise, but Farrell takes his showboating star turn and runs with it. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Schumacher's depictions of street life are cartoonishly ludicrous and riddled with cliches -- a pair of garish hookers, for instance, can't be excused simply because one is played with engaging vigor by Paula Jai Parker. Read full review
50
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
The situation is suspenseful and unique enough to hold our attention for a time. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Farrell, adding to the case for his impending stardom, locks into his role with the laser precision of the sniper's rifle scope. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Proves that a movie can be true to life and still seem utterly preposterous. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Best appreciated as hilarious pulp metaphor, which, not coincidentally, happens to be one of the screenwriter's specialties. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Loud and frantic and filled with all sorts of business, but it's also empty and inert, a creative exercise that would have played better as a 30-minute short. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Phone Booth may not be awful, but it's puny. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
At only 84 minutes, Phone Booth's brevity turns out to be its only saving grace. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Schumacher choose to start the movie in outer space? The opening shot epitomizes everything wrong with Phone Booth: Given the chance to stage human drama on an intimate, suffocating scale, Schumacher begins in the endless expanse of the void, tricked out with gratuitous CGI effects. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Without question, the whole thing's absurd -- this is, remember, about a guy stuck in a phone booth -- but for its first 40 minutes or so it's also mildly entertaining, fueled by the nuttiness of the setup and Schumacher's energy. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A high-concept hostage drama of absolutely no value to anyone -- except maybe Bell Atlantic, whose titular street-corner pay phone is on screen for almost every agonizing frame. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A movie that's laughable without, alas, even being enjoyably awful. Read full review
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
The premise is admittedly a killer--fun to think about, fun to see realized, not so fun to see screwed up in the last half-hour. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Bogus on every level, right down to its half-hearted trick ending. Read full review
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