Phantom starring Ed Harris from RCR Media Group with film review presented by West Coast Midnight Run

West Coast Midnight Run™ is a copyrighted publication of Citadel Consulting Group LLC

PHANTOM
RCR Media Group
MPAA Rating PG-13

(Mystery, suspense, action, adventure)

Starring: Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner.

Directed and Written by: Todd Robinson
Cinematography: Byron Werner

Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min.

Score: B

By Francis Benetti

World War III could break out at any moment due to the flawed chain of command in the military of a nuclear powered superpower.

Moviegoers that enjoy this genre of film have seen shades of thrilling boat adventure on more than one occasion in the most recent decade, including Crimson Tide, the Hunt for Red October and Widowmaker.

Original source photo © RCR Media Group

Phantom starring Academy Award nominee Ed Harris with David Duchovny, from X-Files fame, is a very cool and taut submarine adventure film produced by RCR Media Group.

This film is actually more interesting than any prior submarine adventure films since it involves initiative and James Bond-style intrigue and action in the most unlikely of all settings, aboard an aging submarine scheduled for tear down and an aging captain at the height of the cold war between the USA and USSR.

And while avid moviegoers that are absolutely driven by the submarine

adventure genre may find some scenes to be repetitive of earlier cinematic adventures and a cause for complaining, perhaps they ought to ask themselves how come they are in the theater in the first place.

Those that love the genre and came expecting something familiar, precisely since this is their purpose in going to see this film, will go home having enjoyed exactly what they paid for.

Those members of the audience that have not seen this type of film before will find the adventure exciting, well written and very well edited despite a less than grandiose feast of special effects

and pyrotechnics, offset mostly by skilled acting from Harris, Duchovny and Fichtner.

The best parts of this movie finds the moviegoer in the officer’s mess hall meetings, sharing the senior officers’ insights into the life of a mariner entrusted with only so much information and knowing they are part of a military system that could well be manipulated accidentally or maliciously into taking actions with consequences that would be irreversible and the price tag? Well it could range from staggering to O’ Joy to the World, the Second Coming is Upon Us - just push the button.

This film never mentions the Cuban Missile Crisis but at some point the history of the US-USSR face off will jump into the framework of the narrative and the mind of the moviegoer simply from the flow of events portrayed in this adventure.

This movie may irk some viewers, not because of the nature of the philosophical issues espoused by the lead characters; rather the source of the issues is most unexpected and the viewer may feel is most unlikely.

Oddly enough, this movie presents the flip side of the highly popular 1980s film, War Games, with our heroes

pondering what World War III would be like, if you do make a move. For those that can’t remember, War Games was touted in the media as being partly responsible for injecting a thaw between the USA and the USSR prior to Mikhail Gorbachev launching Perestroika - or “restructuring”.

Aside from solid acting all around and nice flashbacks that peel off the layer of intrigue for the viewer, the only quibble I had is the very last minute of the movie, where the editor felt an epilogue-style closing scene was necessary and had an over the top mushy performance by an unknown actor that doesn't quite deliver the punch to what would

otherwise have been a good film.

I would simply watch the scene with
my fingers plugged into my ears as it wasn’t only the dialogue that was just a tad over-sentimental for me, it was the manner in which a really bad actor has the closing lines for a terrific cast that carried the movie entirely for the viewer. It may have served the movie far better if this scene had been left on the cutting floor.