Review of Phantoms (1998) by Joseph C — 29 Jun 2010
Two sisters get to a small mountain town in Colorado and are confronted to a "Twilight Zone" situation ("Where is everybody?") that quickly turns into an "X Files" scenario (some spooky force gored and abducted them) and is resolved thanks to the help of a tabloid scientist (Peter O'Toole) with inside knowledge on a Lovecraftian chtonic Blob-like being that gets dealt with a la "Aliens", and the movie closes with the final scene from Joe Dante's "The Howling.".
"Phantoms" suffers from too many recycled one-liners ("Now would be a good time", etc.), an invasion of bad language as soon as O'Toole and Affleck start locking horns and a rather bland cast of characters. But at least the monster has the good taste to kill all the people who do not look like top models and I quite enjoyed the theological bit about how he constructed his self-image.
(P.S. Contrary to what Ebert writes, the best line of the film, "I'm leaning towards other", is not delivered by O'Toole but by Affleck.).
This review of Phantoms (1998) was written by Joseph C on 29 Jun 2010.
Phantoms has generally received mixed reviews.
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