Thriller’s phoney tone
Phone Booth
Stars Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes, Paula Jai Parker. Rated M.
Reviewer: PTE Simone Heyer
The number of senior citizens in the audience should have been clue enough that Phone Booth was attracting a certain set.

Now the theory behind this film is sound. Man answers phone in the last phone booth in New York and if he hangs up, or gives up the game, he’s dead.

Real treat dished up for film-lovers
Dinner Rush
Stars Danny Aiello, Kirk Avevedo, John Corbett, Edoardo Ballerini, Mike McGlone, Sandra Bernhard, Vivian Wu, Summer Phonix. Madman Cinema.
Rated MA. 98 mins.
By PTE Simone Heyer
Dinner Rush follows the scenes that take place during the evening meal at a popular New York trattoria. The scene for the film is set when we see a trattoria co-owner gunned down, mafia-style in the street.

Love Letters from a War
By Len Johnson. ABC Books. 282pp. $32.95.
Reviewer: CPL Alisha Welch
This book made me cry. Not just a single poetic tear rolling down my cheek, but a full-on sob.
It took me a while to read it as I kept putting it aside to regain composure. I would only admit this if I thought the book was worth me receiving public ridicule – this one is.

Something lacking
Greed
By Chris Ryan. Century. 313pp. $29.95.
Reviewer: CPL Jonathan Garland
It has become standard for ex-SAS soldiers to write fiction based on their experiences but Chris Ryan has been at it for longer than most and, with titles approaching double digits in number, has staying power in the marketplace.

Courtney saga rolls on
Blue Horizon
By Wilbur Smith. Pan Macmillan. 624pp. $49.
By PTE Simone Heyer
Part of the Courtneys-coming-to-Africa series, Blue Horizon is an epic adventure.
Predominantly set on and around the African continent, also extending up the coast to the Middle East, Blue Horizons features cousins Mansur and Jim, sons of Dorian and Tom Courtney.

An ordeal by fire
Germany’s War
Screens Sundays until August 10
SBS, 8.30pm
Reviewer: LS Rachel Irving
This 10-part series is a real gem. Eyewitnesses from both the Allied and German side give viewers a real insight into the affects of war on the people and the cities left destroyed.