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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8112
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Year: 1996
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English, German, Hungarian
- Subtitles: 15 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Director:
- Simon Wincer
(Free Willy, Quigley Down Under, Lonesome Dove)
Producers:
- Robert Evans and Alan Ladd, Jr.
Screenplay:
- Jeffrey Boam (based on the characters created by Lee Falk)
Music:
- David Newman
Cast:
- The Phantom: Billy Zane
Xander Drax: Treat Williams
Diana Palmer: Kristy Swanson
Sala: Catherine Zeta Jones
Quill: James Remar
The Phantom’s Father: Patrick McGoohan
Jimmy Wells: John Tenney
Lily Palmer: Samantha Eggar
Morgan: Casey Siemaszko
The Phantomis the motion picture version of a comic strip charactercreated by Lee Falk and brought to the screen by Jeffrey Boam.
The story begins as an expedition lands on the island of Bengalla, seeking thelegendary skulls of Touganda. There are three skulls in total, and as soon asthe first two are brought together they indicate the position of the third.When all three are in place, they are believed to harness an energy force ofincalculable power – and with rumours abound of a fourth skull, it could allspell disaster for mankind, which is exactly what ruthless tycoon Xander Drax(Treat Williams) has in mind… unless one man can prevent it,namely The Phantom.
Billy Zane equips himself well as the eponymous hero, sending thegenre up as well as George Clooney did inBatman And Robinwith a number of one-liners, also doubling up as Kit, a man who knew Diana atcollege. Kristy Swanson, rarely gets to play anything other than thetoken bimbo-girlfriend role and things are no different here as Diana Palmer,apart from a couple of action scenes. In similar fashion to Superman, Dianasees Kit and The Phantom as two separate people.
The rest of the main cast is rounded out with typical characters such as TreatWilliams doing a good turn as the bad guy intent on bringing the skullstogether and using them for evil, Catherine Zeta Jones as the gangster’smoll, so to speak, and a cameo from former prisoner Patrick McGoohanas the Phantom’s father.
The film itself can best be described as average. It won’t make anyone’s topten list, but it’ll serve as an emtertaining actioner, with sumptuous setsand locations. One feels though that as the plot revolves around three skullswhich have to be brought together to create chaos, this smacks of 1984’sIndiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom when Harrison Ford went on thetrail of three eggs.
One thing to look out for in the film is a scene early on while Diana and ThePhantom are about to leap from red plane, as it looks like director SimonWincer was still trying to alter his camera’s zoom lens (!)
The picture quality is very good indeed throughout the most part bringinggreat life to the action sequences, the dark night-time scenes, and copeswell with the colours ranging from the lush green forest to the garish purplesuit donned by our hero. The widescreen framing is essential for this filmwhich was shot in Panavision and uses the frame to good effect. Whereas thePAL Laserdisc suffered from occasional speckles throughout the film, plus oneat the start which goes across the middle of the screen in a straight line,I didn’t notice any such bother here with the anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreentransfer.The average bitrate is 7.31Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound quality is excellent, in being quiet when it needs to, in theambience, in its rousing background score, excellent split-rear stereo effects,its beefy explosions and the best effects come first when the two of theskulls are brought together, and later when all three are in place.Dolby Digital 5.1 is available in English and German, while the Hungariansonly get Dolby Surround.
There 20 chapters to the film, with subtitles in 15 languages:English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic,Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and Turkish. The menus are static and silent and the onlyextra is a 73-second Theatrical Trailer in non-anamorphic 16:9.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.