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  1. #1
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    Another New Review: Phone Booth (Fox)

    From 20th Century Fox Video comes this "psychological thriller" from Joel Schumaker (The Lost Boys, Falling Down); while I missed this in theaters, on DVD, it actually entertained for an hour and 11 minutes....is it just me or should all films be this short so we can actually enjoy them without our asses killing us?

    Anyway, dont really wanna get into the plot so much, and give you the rundown on the audio and video for your surround systems, but in a nutshell Colin Ferrell plays a prick of a publicist working in NYC and he is targeted in a phone booth by nutjob Keifer Sutherland; good concept, loads of unrealistic scenarios here though. The disc is available with a widescreen or pan and scan presentation although you would never know this by the labeling....only one side of the disc reads "Widescreen and Standard" on the inner ring, leading you to believe that BOTH versions are on one side. Untrue. One side is the full screen, the other the wide, but you are never told this. Watching the pan and scan version on my 27" set, I saw no problems with the image.

    The audio is in standard 5.1 Dolby Digital and has its moments; for the most part, the New York City environment is not really rendered that loudly through the five speakers, believe it or not....dialogue, again, was soft and low on this soundtrack except for when Sutherland's voice booms through the speakers as he torments Ferrell on the other end. Actually, "booming" sums up how his imposing voice seems, but again, even the VOLUME on his voice was quite low; what is going on with modern DVD soundtracks today? Why are all the dialogues so soft, needing us to pump the volumes up so much? And my center is calibrated so that the center channel is two decibels higher than the other channels....I have heard about this Dolby Digital dialogue algorithm problem theory, where most films' dialogues are weak and effects and music crash loudly and that DVDs are recorded this way for effect....so that the viewer is startled by the sudden loudness of the effects and score after soft dialogue puts us in a lull.

  2. #2
    Sgt. At Arms Worf101's Avatar
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    I liked phone booth as well...

    It was a taut thriller with some surprising twists and I loved the way the prick was made to see the error of his ways. You could do worse than this movie believe me. Rented it, then watched it again on HBO a couple of times...

    Da Worfster

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Worf101
    It was a taut thriller with some surprising twists and I loved the way the prick was made to see the error of his ways. You could do worse than this movie believe me. Rented it, then watched it again on HBO a couple of times...

    Da Worfster
    True. Very true.

    Like I said, though, with regard to the sound analysis, the surround was engaging --- many wraparound sequences making good use of the rear channels --- but overall, the power of this 5.1 soundtrack wasnt there....I was able to talk to my girlfriend easily over the dialogue and some action sequences during the film --- dissapointing to me, I am sorry. And that was with my receiver turned up to "44" or "45" or so on the Onkyo's display.
    Last edited by Lexmark3200; 04-26-2004 at 05:23 PM.

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