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SLIMY MEDIA PUBLICIST Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) – he puts the P.R. in "prick" – stops by New York City's last operating public phone booth daily to call a young actress (Katie Holmes) he's trying to seduce (his wife checks his cell phone bills, y'see). One morning, the phone rings after he's hung up; picking up the receiver, he's told by the voice on the other end that if he hangs up, he will be shot. There's a sniper who's watching him, an all-purpose avenging angel whose "wake-up call" to Stu comes with an ultimatum: either use this metaphorical kick to the head to change your ways or risk a literal bullet to your brain. One of Hollywood's legendary legacy projects, B-movie maestro Larry "It's Alive" Cohen's script has gone through years of stop-start turnarounds and various casting incarnations (Jim Carrey, Will Smith, and Brad Pitt were all attached at one point or another) before ending up in the hands of A-list hack Joel Schumacher (8mm) and current it-boy Farrell. Plagued by further bad baggage when real-life snipings last fall pushed back its release date indefinitely, the movie seemed more cursed than a play about a Scottish king. Maybe it's the diminished expectations but, given its dodgy history and pedigree, Phone Booth isn't nearly as bad as one would expect. Schumacher is a director whose plentiful excesses tend to be curbed under the governance of imposed restraints (see the low-budget, low-key Tigerland), and the built-in tension of the plot's geographical space is foolproof enough that even split screens and fish-eye lenses can't smother the claustrophobia. Farrell, who might as well officially change his name to "Rogue Charm," handles his pseudo-Sweet Smell of Success banter and paranoid, unraveling sleaziness smoothly until the third-act moral punctures the bubble. Still, given that it doesn't immediately descend into a mere Dog Day Afternoon with a dial tone, the film's a pleasant enough one-trick pony to ride to the end. (David Fear)