Given that Joel Schumacher’s minimalist thriller was delayed by the real-life D.C. sniper saga last fall, one might expect “Phone Booth” to open with a “ripped from the headlines” intensity. But c’mon – this is Joel Schumacher, so “Phone Booth” opens instead with a sped-up montage of hip-hoppers and a quasi-Encyclopedia Britannica lesson on phone usage in the Big Apple. Thankfully, it soon gets better as ***censored*** publicist Colin Farrell answers a ringing pay phone in a Fifth Avenue booth and finds himself in the rifle sights of a sniper (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), who says he’ll shoot him if he hangs up.

The rest of the film takes place at this booth, soon visited by a toy robot; several skanky, sassy hookers; a pimp with a baseball bat; Farrell’s wife and girlfriend (Radha Mitchell and Katie Holmes, respectively); police captain Forrest Whitaker; and a whole lotta cops. It all makes for a tense situation, but not INtense as it should be. In the hands of a real director, that would change; as it is, it’s bested in that department every week by Sutherland’s “24” TV series.

The main problem is that Farrell – as this character or an actor – is just not likeable. For most of the movie, I was rooting for Sutherland. (At a point early on, Farrell pauses to ogle a woman walking by him – “Nice,” he says – and one wonders if it was in the script.) The real star is the script, by genre filmmaker Larry Cohen ("It’s Alive,” “Q,” “God Told Me To"), providing a nice, novel twist on the hostage drama.

Don’t get *too* wrapped up in it, though; it’s only an hour and 15 minutes long.

Rod Lott writes about pop culture, annoying celebrities and life’s other absurdities every day at Hitch Daily and he also publishes the long-running Hitch:The Journal of Pop Culture Absurdity which is actually made out of paper.[/url]