Phantoms (1998)
A movie review by Michael J. Legeros
Copyright 1998 by Michael J. Legeros
(Dimension) Directed by Joe Chappelle Written by Dean Koontz, based on his book Cast Peter O'Toole, Joanna Going, Rose McGowan, Ben Affleck, Liev Schreiber, Clifton Powell MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence and profanity) Running Time 95 minutes Reviewed at The Imperial, Cary, NC (21JAN98)
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PHANTOMS is the new Dean Koontz crap-fest, about a remote Colorado town where some 700 people have disappeared, save for a few things left behind: a body here, a body part there, a conspicuous pile of "undigestibles" (buttons, watches, pacemakers, etc.) over in the corner. Two sisters (Joanna Going and Rose McGowan) make the grim discovery, after arriving in the empty town. One's a doctor, so she suspects an epidemic and they both begin poking around, instead of immediately heading for the hills. (They'd have to hoof it, though, as neither theirs nor any other car around will start.) As night falls, they're joined by the local law (Ben Affleck presiding) and they continue to poke around, though now accompanied by periodic gunfire. (They shoot at stuff.) Later that evening, they're joined by a tabloid-employed, Army- escorted expert on mass disappearances who happens to look exactly like Peter O'Toole. And they continue to poke around. And more gunfire happens. And, soon, we begin to learn exactly who or what is menacing the town and causing these actors to take themselves so seriously.
Despite dim dialogue and even lousier lighting, the first half of PHANTOMS *does* pull off a few well-wrought frights. (My neck hairs might've risen to the occasion, had I not been walking to and fro, asking the management of the Cary Imperial about an audio problem that, to these ears, sounded like a speaker with a blood- soaked blanket thrown over it.) Things get scary in a different way in the second hour, with cruddy CGI effects and increasingly insipid plotting. (I liked the sheriff's snap conclusions about the invading menace. He's seen his share of "Star Trek" episodes.) You'll yawn, you'll wince, but if you walk out early, you'll miss Liev Schreiber's return. (He first appears as an intense deputy. In later scenes, he's back, hamming it up as "one of them.") Oh, and at the end, there *is* one huge, helluva hearty laugh to be had, at O'Toole, standing in the snow and delivering a monologue to... an open manhole. Friends, now *that's* entertainment. Directed by Joe Chappelle (HALLOWEEN 6) and scripted by Koontz, from his 1983 novel. (Rated "R"/95 min.)
Grade: D-
-- Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell
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