Phone Booth (2002) or, Boxed In

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A dramatic and dynamic mix of images and text make up this poster for Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth

Stu is a PR man in New York and relatively successful in his line of work, until a moralistic sniper gets him to come clean inside of a phone booth!

 

Phone Booth is written by Larry Cohen (The Ex (1996)) and directed by Joel Schumacher (The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)).

There's a confession scene and a cop character (played by Forest Whitaker (Empire (2017-18))) that are a bit naive in their design, but otherwise this minimalist, real-time thriller works. Colin Farrell (Widows (2018)) is naturally decisive as Stu, and he does well. Perhaps most impressive about Phone Booth is that it was shot in around 10 days - in Los Angeles!

 

Related posts:

Joel Schumacher: House of Cards - season 1 (2013, VoD) - Mean streaks at the sausage factory 

The Number 23 (2007) - Carrey's big ol' turkey 

Falling Down (1993) - Schumacher's arguably best film, a fiery dragon of a societal thriller

The Lost Boys (1987) - A crazy 80's teen vampire bonanza 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 13 mil. $

Box office: 97.8 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 7.52 times its cost)

[Phone Booth premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 81 minutes. Cohen pitched the idea to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s and kept him updated over the following years on his inability to find the necessary ploy that would force the protagonist to stay inside a phone booth. The solution came to him in the late 1990s in the form of the sniper antagonist. Jim Carrey was set to star but bowed out. Shooting took place from November - December 2000 in New York and Los Angeles, California. The release was postponed from November 2002 to April 2003 due to the D.C. sniper attacks that left 17 people dead and 10 wounded over a 10 month period. The film opened #1 to a 15 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#5), grossing 46.5 mil. $ (47.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 10.9 mil. $ (11.1 %) and Spain with 5.8 mil. $ (5.9 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Schumacher returned with Veronica Guerin (2003). Farrell returned in The Recruit (2003). Phone Booth is fresh at 72 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Phone Booth? 

Henry Poole Is Here (2008) or, Faith in Sunny California

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A cluttered poster for Mark Pellington's Henry Poole Is Here that establishes that the film is set in California

Poole buys a house in Los Angeles, where he intends to drink, be lonely and die in peace from his unnamed fatal illness. But his neighbor sees Jesus on the side of his house; the other neighbor is highly interested in Poole himself; and miracles start to occur.

 

Henry Poole Is Here is written by Albert Torres (The Fugitive (2020, TV-series)) and directed by Mark Pellington (Going All the Way (1997)).

Radha Mitchell (Bird People (2014)) is too good for this film. Luke Wilson (The Skeleton Twins (2014)) as Poole pulls faces and doesn't entirely seem to believe the script, which is also quite hard-pumped with missionizing cliches. Adriana Barraza (Dark Blood (2021)) is, however, wonderful as the faithful Catholic next door.

The film has plenty of music that it doesn't seem to live up to. Henry Poole Is Here also suffers from an inordinate amount of focus shifts as well as unrealistic endings. It has its heart in the right place but is very far from convincing.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.9 mil. $

= Uncertain - but likely a mega-flop (projected 0.38 time cost return)

[Henry Poole Is Here premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 99 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including in Los Angeles. It opened #16 to an 805k $ first weekend in 527 theaters in North America, where it receded from then on, grossing 1.8 mil. $ (94.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 29k $ (1.5 %) and UAE with 16k $ (0.8 %). If made on a scant 5 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop with a 0.38 time cost return. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Pellington returned with a TV movie and 2 music videos prior to his theatrical return with I Melt with You (2011). Wilson returned in Tenure (2008); Mitchell in The Children of Huang Shi (2008). Henry Poole Is Here is rotten at rotten at 40 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Henry Poole Is Here?

Silent Hill (2006) - Gans' senseless, unfrightening adaptation

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A mouthless girl with grey, ghostly eyes and a decaying paint face entreats you from this poster to see Christophe Gans' Silent Hill

A mother drives her adopted daughter to a ghost town called Silent Hill that the girl talks of in her sleep. This proves to be a place with some dark secrets.

Silent Hill is written by Roger Avary (Glitterati (2004)), based on Konami's same-titled 1999 Playstation game, and directed by Christophe Gans (Crying Freeman (1995)).
The film makes no sense to me: SPOILER Silent Hill is a parallel universe with monsters from environmental disasters (it seems?), and a religious demon cult. It is incredible to me that Avary, who had made the masterful Rules of Attraction (2002) shortly before, would fall into this CGI-fueled pit of a film.
Silent Hill does produce great discomfort for its viewers and also boasts some really sick inventions, but as for narrative stringency, building atmosphere and tension, and, most importantly, real scares; this is an empty drum.

Gans gives a 2-minute interview about the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 97.6 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.95 times its cost)
[Silent Hill premiered 20 April (Hollywood, California) and runs 125 minutes. Gans had reportedly lobbied to attain the film rights for 5 years, eventually getting them after sending an interview of himself explaining what he would do with the property. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, and in Manitoba, Canada from April - July 2005. Sony Pictures bought the US and Latin America distribution rights for 14 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 20.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 46.9 mil. $ (47.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.7 mil. $ (6.9 %) and France with 5.8 mil. $ (5.9 %). The film made in excess of 22.1 mil. $ from North American home video sales of 1.3 mil. units in 4 weeks, which, if added into the calculation, would change its status to that of a minor flop. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1½/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Michael J. Bassett directed the sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation (2012), which got even worse reviews but was a box office success. Gans didn't return for 8 years before his Beauty and the Beast/La Belle et la Bête (2014). Radha Mitchell (The Crazies (2010)) returned in Pu-239 (2006). Silent Hill is rotten at 30 % with a 4.52/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Silent Hill?

The Crazies (2010) - Eisner's insipid, brainless Romero-remake

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The stars of Breck Eisner's The Crazies may or may not be chased by a man with a pitchfork on this appropriately uninteresting poster for the film

In a small American city the sheriff, his pregnant wife and deputy are put to a test, when a virus breaks out, which turns the population into bloodthirsty maniacs.

The Crazies is an incredibly stupid movie, which also some time into it turns deadly boring: After about an hour I found myself thinking that the film would have to end soon, - but no, - there was a full 40 minutes left!
The film begins with some Johnny Cash, - a clear attempt to recall the success of Zack Snyder's great Dawn of the Dead (2004), also a remake of a George A. Romero horror, which begins with a cool sequence to a Cash song. The attempt is inopportune here, however, as it just brings to mind a horror film that really works.
People die left and right in The Crazies, while you'll nearly yawn you jaw off as its audience, because we never feel anything for the protagonists: Timothy Olyphant (Auggie Rose (2000)) and Radha Mitchell (Feast of Love (2007)) are incredibly dull to look at throughout this turkey. The Crazies is an awful film.
It is written by Scott Kosar (The Machinist (2004)) and Ray Wright (Case 39 (2009)), based on Romero's original 1973 movie of the same name, and directed by Breck Eisner (The Last Witch Hunter (2015)).

Related posts:

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Olyphant gives an interview about the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 54.8 mil. $
= Box office success
[The Crazies premiered February 26 and runs 101 minutes. Filming took place in and around March 2009 in Georgia and Iowa. It opened #3 (behind Shutter Island's 22.6 mil. $ and Cop Out's 18.2 mil. $) to a 16 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 39.1 mil. $ (71.4 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.8 mil. $ (8.8 %) and Italy with 1.4 mil. $ (2.6 %). The Crazies is fresh at 71 % with a 6.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Crazies?