Phantom Racer

Well, given the premise of the movie and the synopsis, I must admit that my expectations to "Phantom Racer" weren't exactly sky high. I assumed that I would be in for something in the likes of the 1983 movie "Christine", the 1971 "Duel", the 1977 "The Car", the 1980 "The Hearse", the 2007 "Death Proof" movie, or a movie in that ilk.

And that was exactly what "Phantom Racer" turned out to be. So if you enjoy a good old fashioned thriller/horror movie with a possessed vehicle, then "Phantom Racer" might be something for you.

Sure, the storyline in the movie is fairly out there, I mean, a possessed vehicle with a returned ghost at the steering wheel, well, it is pretty far fetched. But hey, it actually made for adequate entertainment.

The movie actually had a decent enough cast ensemble, for a movie such as this. With the likes of Greg Evigan and Nicole Eggert at the helm of the cast list.

Visually then the movie wasn't actually all that bad, and the effects definitely served their purpose well enough. So that worked well in favor of the movie.

I found that "Phantom Racer" proved to be adequately entertaining for what it turned out to be. Was it a cinematic masterpiece? Not even close. But the movie provided me with sufficient entertainment for a single viewing, However, this wasn't an outstanding movie or particularly memorable movie, unless you like racing cars I suppose.

My rating of the 2009 movie "Phantom Racer" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Two rival race car drivers crash. One of them burns to death, but the other survives. Cut to several years later. The one guy is now a trucker, and the other is still dead. His red #66 (an obvious reference) car has now been restored, freeing the sinister apparition to roam the highways, looking for victims to mow down.

It's a familiar theme, cars possessed by an entity with an attitude. "The Car," "Maximun Overdrive," "Christine," and others were run by demons, or ghosts, or aliens, or they were living beings themselves. The evil presence's identity is too obvious, and so can't be developed much. The script then is just limited to endless car chases and failed attempts to destroy the thing. There's a subplot about a teen finding out who her dad is. They must be related; both of their acting skills are equally limited. Or maybe the director is to blame for this: there's one scene where they've just escaped a car attack and witnessed two people die horribly, so how do they react? They're cruising down the road, kidding with each other.

What would a movie like this be without clichés? 1) The evil car has many chances to finish off its main target victims, but doesn't do it. 2) The good guy's truck breaks down at the worst possible moment. 3) The sheriff is a dumb hick who insults people. 4) The teen dimwittedly wanders into trouble with the monster. And so on.

However, the film never really attempts to be anything noteworthy, and just goes for some goofy horror chills. On that level, oddly enough, it actually works. An OK movie to laugh at if you have nothing else to do.

Movie was so-so. But it had been quite a while since I saw Greg Evigan or Nicole Eggert in anything so I decided to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised by Eggert's acting in the movie. I thought she did a great job. She has become a much better actress than she was in her Baywatch days. I've seen her in some Holiday specials but she was better here than in those as well. Would love to see her get more serious roles. Greg Evigan's acting I thought was about the same from years back.

The movie is about a possessed car. Sort of a 'Christine' type movie. An okay movie just to pass the time. But if you are an Nicole Eggert fan you might want to check it out too.

I have seen far worse movies than Phantom Racer, even though I do think the movie could've been much better. It does have redeeming values certainly. A couple of the attacks are actually gory and quite fun. But it was the three leads that really elevated. Greg Egvian still has a lot of charisma, Nicole Eggbert shows good chemistry with him and I do think she is better than she was in Baywatch and Brenna O'Brien despite her rather clichéd role has a couple of amusing wise-cracks. The film looks decent too, nothing extraordinary to see but much more than the usual hackneyed editing and fake effects I've seen in too many movies of late. However, the characters are never developed sufficiently enough, they are stereotypical(the sheriff, the teen) and some like the sheriff are so annoying it is difficult to identify with them. Even after someone dies they don't act in ways you'd associate someone to react in those circumstances. The script is very formulaic as well, there are a lot of car chases, action scenes and attempts to destroy the thing but it all amounts to little and none of it is particularly exciting. The dialogue is trite, especially in the "finding out who your dad is" subplot, which never did ring true to me due to how forced everything was. The story, not helped by the lame climax and the evil presence being far too obvious from the get go, never really grabbed me and came across as silly in places such as the people cruising down the road and somehow the car can kill people in really wild ways yet can come away unscathed with no explanation as to how. Apart from a couple of good ones, a lot of the action and killings while inventive on paper look very average on screen. In conclusion, could have been far worse mainly because I liked the leads but it was too silly and formulaic with characters I didn't care for for me to really sink my teeth into it. 5/10 Bethany Cox

As I just said, there's a film called The Car (1980) about a driverless automobile (I'm not a car lover or even a driver, but still, the car in that film was custom-built for that film, and it was cool-looking) that terrorises a small isolated area in California, if I can remedy it right.

This one is filled with non-professionals who are behind the camera and skirt every single one in front of it.

Call me a 'snob' (I just said I saw and liked The Car, so I am not. A snob, that is), but I have A HUGE problem watching something SO written and acted.

None of these people have anything close to decent line readings.

Films aren't made in sequence; they're made in whatever order the director thinks is the best, most effective way to shoot them. When you've got scenes with more than one person (that's over 99.98%), you have to film scenes where the 'performer' is reacting to something that only makes sense when it's edited.

Sometimes, someone will read the (unseen) part of the actor being filmed to help give them something to actually 'feel' something.

Still, unless you've done it, it doesn't come naturally to most people, as practically all conversations are with someone else who's there.

There's one performer in this (all I can say is it's yet ANOTHER WAY over-bleached blonde - ugh. What is it about Southerners that they all want to look so trashy?) who's probably THE worst thing in this muck. I laughed hard at her deep, embryonic reading of 'My family's breaking into a million parts!'

It would probably be better if she went to her local takeaway place and placed her order.

This is yet another of the way-too-many piles of dreck used to fill airtime these days.

I wish someone with a brain would wake up and have a brain and say, 'people like to watch GOOD things, not garbage, so let's spend a little more for REAL folks who tell GOOD stories.'