The Phantom - FILM

A bad Bill Zane film? HOW CAN THAT BE?

What do we have here? Oh...Oh...God.

Okay.

Maybe that isn't such a tough thing to pull off.

All kidding aside, Zane can be an enthusiastic and funny performer (See DEMON KNIGHT) when used correctly. Other times, he's a blandy mcbland, especially when he's surrounded by a film as lame as this one. It's a big budget re-imagining of the 50's comic strip hero THE PHANTOM. The big budget production by the guy that made FREE WILLY seems to lazily try to re-live the serial thrills of the 40's and confuses it with being dull. The super heoroics are slow and calculated as every stuntman anticipates every punch with a second pause. The Phantom, who's supposed to be an daring acrobat, moves as if he's terrified of ripping his suit. It's nice to see Treat Williams hamming it up as a bad guy, but he's given so very little to do. There's some funny ideas peppered around in the end (Shark moat, man hit by cannonball, The Phatom uses guns to disarm a dozen people) but it comes to little too late. Forget it.

Not even Bruce Campbell could have saved this.