Posted 8:17 PM by Blah blah

Picking up a Pregnant Hitchhiker. Saw Phone Booth

Oh my God, Sgt. Hook just told this awesome story on his blog, about picking up a pregnant lady while driving through Canada to Michigan. Either he's a better storyteller than I, or he has a more interesting life. I say both.

Like some movies are "popcorn movies," Hook's story is a "popcorn blog post." Sit back and read his posts on April 4. Part 1 is at 2:39. Part 2 is at 21:17.

Just saw the new movie Phone Booth. Bravo Colin Farrell for a giving a tour de force performance! While the premise may seem like that of an experimental student film, that's what I like about this challenging, intense thriller. It's unique. So atypical Hollywood. And cheap too (less than a $2 million budget I think).

Director Joel Schumacher has an unerring eye for casting gifted young unknown actors that end up as the hottest new thing. Schumacher did that with Kiefer Sutherland (who stars here as the bad guy) in Flatliners, with Matthew McConaughey in A Time to Kill, and now with Colin Farrell in Tigerland, followed by Phone Booth. If you like Colin, you will absolutely be blown away by him in Tigerland, a drama about military recruits training before they get shipped to Vietnam. Schumacher plucked him from Irish TV for the beginning of stardom here. (By the way, ladies, he spends much of Tigerland with his shirt off.)

Based on Colin's critical acclaim and promise from Tigerland, Schumacher used him for Phone Booth, shot in only 10 days in 2000, mainly in Los Angeles. Colin made Phone Booth before his fame for Minority Report and The Recruit. He was only 25. He shows an incredibly range and maturity for someone so young. He also reminds me of a young Brad Pitt. And my favorite TV star now, Kiefer Sutherland, shows authority and menace as a bad guy whom I ended up rooting for as well. I wanted both men to win.

Phone Booth does have a lot of swearing, though, which it didn't really need.