Demi (Ed Harris), a huanted submarine Captain in the Soviet Union Navy, is assigned a secret mission by Admiral Markov (Lance Henrikson) that is in the first sub that Demi commanded (where a tragic training accident happened). Bruni (David Duchovny) is in charge of the testing secret equipment that could change the world, but Demi and his crew start to worry if the radical KGB agents aboard (including Bruni) have a grander mission planned fueled by their own paranoia of the United States of America. However, Demi has many secrets including brain damage that he has managed to hide from the Navy at large because it could cost his career despite his father being a military legend. Bruni and Demi are at odds soon enough while his executive officer Alex is questioning the mission from the start.

PHANTOM wisely decides not to have the characters speak in Russian accents even though they could have cast European actors for the parts. It is inspired by a true incident of a missing Soviet submarine years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The script provides a good story and great character development, but Todd Robinson's direction and the editing of the film doesn't quite create the suspense other submarine movies like Crimson Tide and The Hunt For Red October did. The production design is spot on with a good cast of actors, but PHANTOM fails to be more than just an entertaining rental due to the direction which fails to ramp the tension up is where the movie falls flat in the moments where more suspense should have been delivered. Don't get me wrong it was a good 90 minute distraction, but I don't think I will remember this as a movie I will want to see again. PHANTOM is good as a one view rental or catch it on cable type of movie and nothing more.

this movie review is (c)3-5-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com