BY STEVE RAMOS

Colin Farrell is Hollywood's dude-of-the-moment thanks to the initial success of his new film, Phone Booth.

Colin Farrell, a 26-year-old Dublin native, officially became Hollywood's big male lead sometime late Saturday evening when the opening box-office tally for his new film, Phone Booth, inched high enough to secure first place on the weekend charts. He's been at the No. 1 spot before, a few months earlier with the CIA thriller The Recruit, although he shared the credit on that film with his better-known co-star, Al Pacino.

Phone Booth is a street savvy thriller directed by Joel Schumacher and Farrell appears in just about every scene in the film. The lion's share of credit for the film's early success belongs to him. He might not be the man behind the camera, but it's his face that put people in the seats. Making movies is a numbers game, and the latest tally has tagged Farrell a star.

In Phone Booth, Farrell plays Stuart Shepard, a fast-talking agent who regularly uses a phone booth on the seedy corner of 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan to secretly call an aspiring actress (Katie Holmes) he wants to bed. The suspense begins after he answers the phone and a voice at the other end threatens to shoot him if he puts the phone down and leaves the booth. A shot passerby proves that the creepy voice is serious. When the police arrive and accuse him of the murder, Shepard clearly does not know what he must do to survive.

The sole backdrop for Farrell's performance is the titular phone booth of the movie. This means that it's up to him to bring the movie alive. Audiences watching Farrell for the first time will probably be shocked by his swaggering presence in Phone Booth. Shepard is oily and believably smarmy when Farrell yells at his young intern. For the rest of us, it's exactly what we expected from someone who's been residing on the ones-to-watch list for the past two years.

Farrell's showbiz biography reads something like this: The Vietnam War drama, Tigerland (2000), was an impressive foot in the door. His role as Tom Cruise's government nemesis in the sci-fi thriller, Minority Report (2002), was a taste of celebrity to come. The Recruit (January 2003) is likable fluff and a solid career move, with Farrell playing a hotshot college software engineer pulled into the CIA by Pacino's mysterious recruiter. Daredevil (February 2003), with Farrell's over-the-top villain, Bullseye, facing Ben Affleck's costumed superhero, is macho fun-and-games wrapped in computer-generated effects. When it comes to a breakout performance, Phone Booth is the real deal, and Farrell's arrival as a leading man comes not a moment too soon.

The irony is that Phone Booth was pushed back from its original release six months by an epidemic of sniper murders in the Washington, D.C., area. The delay has not dimmed Farrell's stature. In fact, the triple punch of The Recruit, Daredevil and Phone Booth appears to be working in his favor. Suddenly, everyone knows his name and face without the need of paparazzi pictures taken alongside Pop star Britney Spears.

Moviewatchers do not need studio accountants or juicy gossip columns about Farrell's bachelorhood nights to convince them of his potential as a top leading man. They know he has been delivering significant performances since Tigerland. The difference is that the latest box-office numbers have changed him from a critic's darling and fan favorite to a casting choice who's safe and bankable. From one vantage point, it's as if success has rubbed out some of Farrell's loose-cannon luster. The last thing that anyone wants is someone as distinct and charismatic as Farrell to settle into safe, bloated blockbusters and mass appeal dramas packaged with a famous leading actress. Farrell joins Samuel L. Jackson in the upcoming summer blockbuster S.W.A.T., based on the TV cop show. He's already earned his first epic picture, playing the famous conqueror Alexander the Great in director Oliver Stone's blockbuster period drama.

Time will tell if Farrell made the right choices. My only advice is that there is a career away from the accountants and the big-picture deals. Make honest choices and share those experiences on-screen with the world around you.

Farrell is rough-edged and macho and those aren't words I'd use to describe his "Generation Now" peers Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire. More importantly, I can't imagine any of those actors grabbing hold of Phone Booth with the same sweaty intensity. Colin Farrell is the latest macho dude being hailed as the next big thing, but this time I think the hype is real. ©

E-mail Steve Ramos

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