jcasedc Reviews

Phone Booth (2002)

Superb filmmaking and my favorite thriller

[9/10 · 10 February 2004]

Phone Booth is an outstanding movie, though many of my friends disagree with me on that issue. I thought it was great filmmaking, and it was a superb thriller. The arguments I've heard for why this movie isn't good is: 1)It's predictable 2)There's not enough character development 3)There's too much swearing

For #1, I agree that it is somewhat predictable, but I didn't think the predictable part was really the significant twist or crux of the movie or the ending.

For #2, this movie is not about Stu's wife or love interest, so their characters don't need developing. This is all about Stu and the life he's been leading, so it needed only introduce his lifestyle, give it history and a dramatic change, and it did just that, quite well in my opinion.

For #3, It's a movie set in REAL New York, not a Hollywood-style New York that families can sit down and experience it together. There's cussing (lots), there's hookers, and there's unwholesomeness. It helped make the movie seem much more real and gave it an edgy style.

For me, this movie is #4 on my all-time list, and I easily give it an A+ grade.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

How is this rated lower than Superman III???

[5 February 2004]

My friends and I regularly sit down and watch an entire movie series in consecutive nights, and we just watched Superman IV last night and the third one the night before. I can't believe Superman IV is not only ranked lower than Superman III, but that it's on the Bottom 100 list. Granted, this is by no means a great movie or very good at all, but there are definitely more than 100 other movies that are worse. Superman III is one of those, in which the opening credits set up the rest of the movie for failure (having everybody in town falling down, running into things, tripping over other people, etc. and not having that tie in to the plot is not a good start to a movie. It is just ridiculous and tells the viewer not to give this movie any respect). If it were me, I would put Superman IV at maybe a 4 or 5 (no higher), and Superman III at a 3 at the most.