Phantom

source: Phantom

Very well acted, with a great cast. If you are fan of Red October you will like this movie. The sub plot about the captain was unnecessary. Ed Harris does a great job in delivering his character. Story is well told, although not new. I am surprised that this didn't do better in general release. William Fitchner should also be pointed out as an actor who always delivers good character roles. I like the fact that they didn't try to have the actors deliver lines in broken Russian/English. We didn't need to hear bad accents to believe that this is a Russian boat. They didn't try to make the characters appear more 'Russian' by giving into stereo types.

PHANTOM (2013) **1/2 Ed Harris, David Duchovny, William Fichtner, Jason Beghe, Johnathan Schaech, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Gray-Stanford, Julian Adams, Kip Pardue, Dagmara Dominczyk. Water-logged at best cliché riddled submarine drama based on Cold War event that nearly happened, has Harris (grizzled gravitas golden as always) as a demon-plagued Soviet captain whose final mission is guided by man of mystery Duchovny (trying to be villainous and nearly succeeding) whose covert plans could very well lead to nuclear Armageddon (what else is new?) Novice filmmaker Todd Robinson (who wrote the inert screenplay) pulls out all the stop for the sub-genre (yes pun intended) from ticking clock tension taut with 'silent running' to loaded guns aimed in semi-threats to advance the goals necessary.

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.

"There are only 2 reasons for a boat to go rogue. One is to defect and the other is to start a war and I don't think we're defecting." This movie is based on actual evens set during the Cold War between the US and the USSR. After returning home and excited about being on leave the A Russian sub captain (Harris) and crew are stunned when they are chosen to go on another mission right away. The mission is classified and the only one on the sub that knows the details is a KGB agent Duchovny). When certain details emerge the crew starts to rethink the orders they are given. I was looking forward to seeing this for really one reason. I am a huge Ed Harris fan. He did not disappoint in this movie. The movie itself is also really good and the best way to describe it is a mix of Hunt For Red Octber and Crimson Tide. The fact that the movie is true makes it even more interesting to watch. It is a little predictable but that does not take away from the enjoyment of the movie at all. If you are a fan of movies like Red October then this movie is for you. I recommend this. Overall, very tense and exciting. I give it a B+.

this is a great film if compared to those clichéd and formulaic over-the-top sci-fi movies full of phony computer generated cgi effects. this film has signed up a lot of good actors to perform a suspenseful submarine tactical war story. i was amazed to see ed harris did another great performance again. how could he remember so complicated dialog in so many films one after another and still did each one like he only did just one film annually. great actors must have very high i.q. and unusual memory ability like pianists, violinists and those great singers; only these kind of people could memorize so many and so much. by watching their performances only reminding me how ordinary and how averagely common i am. people like us whose only ability is to criticize and nothing else. this film has also reminded me to search out 'crimson tide' and some other wwii submarine movies and re-watch them with regenerated interest and enthusiasm. thanks to all of the people who produced this nostalgic film.

The movie is plain retarded, from it starts out with an USSR submarine officer getting married in a church, over that the commanding officer on the submarine declares his love to the great, good, humane USA. The movie is just another American propaganda flick, where the captain in reality is an good and great American cowboy which just happens to be born in the wrong country. Furthermore there is of cause no Russian audio, because who would think that people on a soviet submarine could speak anything else than American English. You wont miss this movie go and watch some of the old, but GOOD submarine movies there already exist!

I love war movies and especially cold war era. But this film could have been much better if they would have simply used Russian accents. Sounds dumb but I couldn't get into the movie because of this. Really how hard is it to do a Russian accent? They used great actors for this movie but dam!! No accents!! Also the KGB agents where so unbelievable. I feel like the director did not do any research into this subject. So silly! I would not recommend watching this movie. My love for soviet era times made me sit through this horrible movie. NO ACCENTS lol

Inspired by actual events in 1968 In 1968, a Russian diesel submarine goes out for one last mission and then it will be given to the Chinese. Captain Demi (Ed Harris) believes Bruni (David Duchovny), a KGB operative, has plans to take over the ship and start a nuclear war. Bruni will use Phantom to accomplish his mission. How to stop him? I may be dating myself, but I couldn't help thinking of Richard Widmark during this movie. This was his kind of movie and Ed Harris does an Oscar Worthy job filling in for our departed (2008) friend. Kudos. The language was all in English, not English with broken Russian accents. That was a good move as nothing was lost in translation by doing this. The acting by all was excellent. There was good suspense and tension with the music helping. This was thoroughly enjoyable and the last scenes were heartfelt and very, very clever. Keep a box of Kleenex handy as you may need it. Did I mention that the last scenes were very clever? There is a statement at the end that says in 1968 a Russian submarine went missing and all is still classified by both the Russian and American governments. (9/10) Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, not much though.