Phantom

The absence of thick accents almost makes you miss the fact that Phantom is set in cold-war Russia. That, and the presentation of the characters as real people, not your mediocre Party worshipping, vodka glugging, every-sentence-with-comrade-ending Soviet stereotype.

That's just one factor which makes the movie worth watching. Ed Harris plays his role as epileptic submarine captain with a similar character profile to his Major Koenig in Enemy At The Gates, with a little more personality thrown in this time. His vulnerability adds shades of meaning to his grit and courage as he and his supporters stave off a mutiny. William Fichtner and Jason Beghe play their supporting roles admirably, while Johnathon Schaech plays nearly to perfection the indecisive political officer. However, David Duchovny fails to impress in his role as ideological antagonist, and seems to be the only poor casting choice.

The plot, by itself, does little to stand out. The combat sequences are adequately executed; I feel that the levels of suspense generated could have been taken up a notch or two. There are moments where the dialogue could have delved deeper; the debate between Harris and Duchovny over the necessity of a missile launch being a case in point. None of these failings, however, take away from the movie its human portrayal of the Russian submarine crew, and that alone makes this movie worth watching.

Like another reviewer from Samara has mentioned here, you can count tons of fakes here. Usually a Hollywood movie at least tries to be as much accurate as possible. Here, apart of gears showing authentic Russian readings and navy/military uniforms looking right, everything else looks and feels American. I can mention few "gems" here, like what and how "Russian" officers drink! They do not gulp (as any normal Russian does) - they sip, just like ladies. Then all these "sir" and "mister", and then a Russian captain reflecting and even crying about killed sailors. Really? And all those nice and glowing scenes from an Orthodox church! Yes, of course. Churches in Russia in 1960s. The director, Todd Robinson, should have hired just one Russian as a consultant, that would serve the movie for sure.

However, if you ignore the lines in the story that this is supposed to be about Russian people and Russian navy and few real things like those gears, and imagine that this is about a US navy, and about rogue CIA agents, then everything falls in its place and looks natural. This could be a good watchable movie.

Much is made of perceived weaknesses in "Phantom," most notably the absence of Russian accents. This doesn't bother me, certainly no more than watching anything by the BBC in which everyone, regardless of character nationality, has an accent found somewhere in the British Isles. I'm not familiar with the minutiae of Soviet era submariners, so I can't suitably critique the proper etiquette or uniform details. Looked accurate enough for me to accept it. If you're willing to look past that, you'll be able to enjoy a competent, if slightly derivative, submarine flick. Frankly, it's worth watching for the performances of Ed Harris (the sub captain) and William Fichtner (Harris's second in command) alone. They carry the movie, and, in my case at least, kept me watching through to the end. David Duchovny, as the rogue KGB agent is a little harder to accept, but I suspect that has less to do with his performance than my own inability to not think, "What the hell, Mulder?" every time I see him. The supporting characters do their best with what they have, and honestly, I admire anyone who can work in even a mock submarine's space. Ultimately, this movie is about sacrifice, whether on the part of the family separated by military service, or the things one is willing to do for the sake of one's nation. If you've actually read this far into the reviews, or even this far into this one review, I think you'll be engaged enough that it won't be a waste of your time to watch "Phantom," especially if you can see it via whatever instant service you use. Like it says above, it's not "Das Boot," but really, what else is?

Submarine films are few and far between - which is a shame, because there are few settings which breed tension in the way that a steel coffin submerged 200m below the sea's surface can. 'Phantom' isn't groundbreaking, but if you're after tension, heroism, drama and bravery, few current new releases deliver in the way that this movie does. There are a few real tearjerker moments - and at the end of the day, the movie does what it says on the box. Submarine. Conflict. Awesome. Sure, it's not going to fetch many stars from the art-house crowd - but if you want a simple, tense actioner; that doesn't ask you to suspend belief too much - you could do much, much worse.

'PHANTOM': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Cold War submarine thriller starring Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner. It was written and directed by Todd Robinson, who's also directed multiple documentaries (on subjects ranging from rock music to Billy the Kid) and wrote the 1996 Ridley Scott directed sailing thriller 'WHITE SQUALL'. The film is about the captain of a Soviet missile submarine, during the Cold War, who must stop a rogue KGB agent from taking over his ship and seizing the nuclear missile onboard. It's loosely based on actual events of a missile crisis in 1968 involving the K-129 sub. It sort of plays out like a second rate 'THE HUNT FOR RED October'. It had a very limited theatrical release (in which it made about one eighteenth of it's $18 million budget back) and the film has received harsh criticism for it's inaccurate depiction of a Soviet sub (and no attempt was made to have the actors speak Slavic at all, with subtitles, or speak with accents). The film is definitely cheesy at times but for the most part it's intense and amusing. The acting is great as well.

Harris plays a Soviet Navy captain named Demi, in the 1960s, who's set to retire when he's asked to go on one last mission with his old crew on his old ship. Demi feels his career has been a disappointment and is still haunted by mistakes he made in his past, which cost the lives of several of his men (he also suffers from seizures at times, due to a past injury). So he jumps at the chance to command his ship on one last mission, and possibly redeem himself, even if it's a mysterious classified one. He's joined on the mission by a KGB group, lead by a man named Bruni (Duchovny), who obviously have ulterior motives. It soon becomes apparent that Bruni and his men have went rogue as they seize control of the ship and the missile on board. It's up to Demi and his loyal men to stop them before they start a nuclear war.

The film co-stars the likes of Lance Henriksen, Johnathon Schaech and Sean Patrick Flanery. Like I said the acting is all more than decent. Harris is always a pleasure to watch and Fichtner is a likable and interesting actor as well. Duchovny is kind of just menacing and mysterious in this but he fits the part. The directing I'd say is adequate; the mood and atmosphere are decent. It's the script that could have used some more work, I especially didn't like the ending (which is by far the most cheesy part of the whole movie). Up until the ending I was into it though. It's not nearly as good as something like 'THE HUNT FOR RED October' but it was fun and suspenseful enough to keep my interest. Movies like this aren't a bad way to pass the time, in my opinion, at least.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_1fzjYYyuk