PHONE BOOTH (2003). Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth (notoriously delayed because of parallels with the Beltway-sniper murders) is a smashmouth spectacle that hangs on the staying power of its psychological suspense. Stu Shepherd (Colin Farrell) is a hot-shot publicist who cuts deals from the end of his cell phone yet uses the last phone booth in Manhattan to call a struggling actress (Katie Holmes) in the hope of enticing her to an afternoon tryst, even though he's married. One day after the routine pandering, the phone rings back; it's not the capitulation he hopes for but a sadistic sniper (Kiefer Sutherland) who's versed in every detail of Stu's overamplified life. Soon there's a corpse in the street, SWAT teams hang from every ledge and Stu can't hang up or else. The single-set cop/perpetrator standoff on a crowded New York City street is reminiscent of Dog Day Afternoon. And like Sidney Lumet's irreverent 1975 classic, Phone Booth is fueled by its tart dialogue and tawdry revelations, which combined with the coincidental tie to real-life sociopaths ought to make for provocative fare. Schumacher (8MM; Falling Down), however, aims for the cheap and sensational. Farrell is effusive as the resourceful weasel, and Sutherland's creepy voice almost makes this slick, empty exercise worthwhile. (80m)

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