Reviews

I am a member of the minority, in that I, proudly and without revocation, HATE Joel Schumacher. Whenever I say this, after ducking out of the way of the rotten tomatoes and kitchen appliances aimed at my head, people throw "8MM" and "Tigerland" in my face.I'll admit, these were great movies; phenomenally acted, brilliantly written, standouts in their respective genres. However, I can't, try as I might, get past the death of Batman. Not the character, obviously, but the franchise was murdered when Schumacher took the helm from an absolutely brilliant visual mastermind in Tim Burton. Neon tommy guns? Characters flying through the air on rigs so poorly constructed that you can see them change speeds in mid-flight? And characters who, though over-the-top by nature, are so far flung from the carefully crafted reality built by Burton that Batman was no longer a Dark Knight; hell, he was 2 steps shy of being Captain Amazing from Mystery Men, with his cape and cowl plastered with the corporate logos of the crap he was schilling. After walking out of the theatre in disgust and cursing the cool Spawn action figure I COULD have bought with my $12, I swore I would never again see another movie by Joel "I Killed Batman" Schumacher.

And then along came Phone Booth. I learned a while ago not to too fully research a movie before going to see it, for obvious reasons, and as such, as I settled into my seat to see a film that had garnered the review of my friend of "Dude, this movies kicked ASS", I was mortified to see Schumacher's name emblazoned on the screen in those huge blue letters. I stayed, but was prepared to not even give this one the benefit of the doubt. And then, after the opening montage, it began. It began so quickly I felt like I was running along the street with Farrel trying to keep up. The dialogue was perfectly hackeneyed, the camera shake was perfectly, the dirty-silver-nitrate treatment on the film added that hot, hazy New-York feel...I felt wrapped up in the moment almost immediately. And this if the first 10 minutes.

All in all, I'd say Phone Booth is a triumph of writing and acting more than it is of directing. This is another fine example of how casting can make or break a film. WHile I'm sure there a dozen a**hole actors out there who could play Stu's part (Jay Mohr, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Damon all come to mind), I doubt that any of them could have been that good an a**hole; as easy to hate as to have pathos for, as easy to reject as to identify with. Keiffer Sutherland lends the perfect touch of villainy, acting as judge, jury and executioner to any "evil-doer", to use a coloquial presidential word-o'-the-week, that he feels is a denigration of modern society, ethics, and just plain old manners. By the end, you wind up being not too sure whom to root for, but a very satisfying climax ensues, and the ordeal is over as quickly as it started. Just another New York day that will be forgotten by dinner time.

Phone Booth is quick, smart, edgy, and best of all, short. It is no longer than it absolutely needs to be. There are no superfluous characters, no side plots, no in-jokes, no tangents, no life-altering lessons about the state of the world. It is simply a very entertaining movie with all the essential components: An excellent cast, an engaging story, and a director who did a good enough job that I just might be able to overlook the fact that he killed Batman.

R

Baby Bob is yet another fine example of why there is something fundamentally wrong with TV these days. I throw it in the same bin as "Girlfriends", "Suddenly Susan", "Just Shoot Me" (winner of the worst title in television history, by the way), "Bob and Margaret" and "King of the Hill", just to name a few. This kind of cookie-cutter crap goes beyond the argument "if you don't like it, change the channel", because it only furthers the much more convincing argument that 10% of the people control 90% of the wealth, and sadly, that 10% has virtually nothing interesting or original to say. Whil brilliant shows like "The Sopranos", "The Daily Show", "That 70s Show", "The Practice", and a handful of others are setting a new standard of excellence in creativity and flat-out brilliance in terms of writing, acting, and originality, shows like "Baby Bob" continue to lower the bar and allow the lowest common denominator to laugh at horribly badly-set-up one liners that have no point or relevence to the rest of the story, such as it is, and are, more importantly, profoundly un-funny. Sadly, since the lowest common denominator makes up about 90% of the viewing public, this kind of insultingly-bad crap will continue to be churned out in the hopes that they will get 20 million viewers a week, because after all, the only kind of crap that doesn't stink is the kind that turns things green. Thankfully, I have the Discovery Channel and HBO, so I at least have 2 bastions of decency away from the hoards of garbage I'm constantly bombarded by. A note to the writers: Come on, man, I can't believe you suck THAT bad.