MRavenwood
I'm no historian. I've never been to Russia or seen the crew of a 1968 Russian Navy sub. But I remember the 80s and I'd say within the first 10 minutes of this film you had a content veracity problem. An early scene shows a hasty church wedding. A naval officer who knew about a religious wedding and didn't report it might subsequently find himself in conversations with KGB at minimum, I'd have thought. Add that to a very casual communication style on the sub and several naval crew being unshaven? Hard for me to believe. Despite all of that though, I loved the acting. A choice was made to dispense with any Russian accents, which may hurt the story cred, but not the acting itself. Ed Harris has a challenge playing a captain with a past who has been demoted to his old sub, a diesel - not a nuke for a special assignment. He manages an admirable job of maintaining a haunted, nothing-left-to-lose demeanor in his role opposite David Duchovny, who should have been in shorter hair for this role. Duchovny plays cool emotion well, but missed some opportunities for more dimension to the ruthless edge his GRU character requires. William Fichtner's loyal and pained performance is my favorite of them all, however.
brchthethird
PHANTOM is a solidly entertaining, if unspectacular submarine thriller in a tradition of, but not quite reaching the level of better films such as THE HUNT FOR RED October (a clear inspiration, as Tony Scott was memorialized in the end credits). The cast is headed by Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner, all of whom give respectable performances. Another plus is that the subject matter is never treated in a melodramatic way. Everyone plays it cool as they can given the circumstances of the story, but never descends into hysterical shouting matches. That being said, the movie is about a submarine captain, soon to retire, who is taking an old sub out for its last mission. During the course of the movie, he has to deal with hallucinatory episodes (brought on by epilepsy) and rogue KGB agents who have been implanted to carry out a covert mission. Dramatically, there are no surprises and the mechanics of the story are dealt with in a rather straightforward manner, but the actors help to elevate the material somewhat beyond its made-for-cable trappings. The camera-work and cinematography is OK. The action is mostly confined to a submarine, so the shots are mostly close-quarters, but there isn't any shaky-cam and geography is defined adequately. Also worth mentioning is the score, which reminded me at times of the Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes movies. On the downside, one element which is hinted at and developed early on is that Ed Harris' character suffers from occasional hallucinations. This potentially could have added an extra layer of drama and suspense to the movie if they'd have stuck with it. However, after a few of these episodes, he explains why he's been having them and then it's dropped. Definitely a missed opportunity there. Also, despite the story being adequate, it's almost too mundane. These types of movies have been done many times before, and even though PHANTOM functions like a well-oiled machine, it could have done with a few extra flourishes to make it stand out some more. That being said, it's a perfectly serviceable thriller with decent performances and enough conflict/action to keep you interested.
lewaynelwhite
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?
Jack Stars
When you are on a 12 hour airplane flight you will try to do anything to keep your mind occupied from being bored. The 40 minutes or so I watched of this movie made the flight longer. Luckily the plane was a 787 which each seat had it's own TV screen with a myriad of options to watch other great titles, like, "Miracle" and even the slightly cheesy yet somewhat funny "In a World".This movie was so horribly done. I know they have to make the movie in English for us Yanks, but C'mon, at least add a little realism by making the actors portray a Russian accent. Maybe it was the director's fault, but I think Ed Harris played a better German in "Enemy at the Gates" than he did as a Russian in this flick. The film looked as though it should have gone straight to DVD or debuted on cable TV. It's 2013. . . How is it that "Hunt for Red October" had better submarine effects in 1990 than this misfire? Actually, if you want to see the best American vs. Soviet submarine movie, that is what you should see, again if you have to - Hunt for Red October.I see other comments on here from Russian reviewers or historians saying that the communist guy couldn't have gotten married in a church or other anachronistic failures, but I'll have to take their word for that because I did not grow up in Soviet Russia nor am I a Russian history/culture buff, which is probably who the movie's target audience was intended. Even in my ignorance I could still sense this movie did not have a Russian feel that it should have along with a boring story and plot. Doesn't matter anyway. I turned it off.
AD
