Phantoms | | Cast : | Peter O'Toole | | Director : | Joe Chappelle | | Studio : | Dimension Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 23, 1998 | | DVD Released Date : | August 03, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | October 20, 2004 | | Summary | awful...how could Dean Koontz let this happen to his book? | Content
 | When I rented this movie, I thought "Cool, I get to see the book in a movie!" However, this is a movie loosely based on the book. In fact, most of the characters from the book aren't even in here, and the ones that are generally die only minutes after coming on the scene. Aside from being NOTHING like the book, this movie is very stupid. The "monster" is dumb looking (when it actually shows it), a number of the characters act flat and emotionless, and some parts of the movie are just plain idiotic. For example, when Timothy Flyte tries to sell out the good guys to the monster so it will let him live. Stupid. When the monster turns into a kid and tries to trick Ben Affleck. Stupid, although we do see some genius from Affleck's character here. Perhaps 1 star is too harsh, but this movie has angered me in all its crappiness, and I personally don't feel it deserves any higher than that. I would normally tell you to rent it for yourself and get your own opinion, but no, not this time. This movie is not the worth the 5 bucks you'd be surrendering to blockbuster to watch it. Leave this one alone, Koontz fans. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 30, 2004 | | Summary | Good Adaptation | Content
| I think this is a good adaptation of Dean Koontz's book. As for scary, anyone that thinks "The Village", "Final Destination", "I Saw What You Did Last Summer", or "Blair Witch Project" are scary but think that "Phantoms" is bad, you just don't have a clue. The suspense slowly builds with no clear goal of how to destroy the creature. Excellent music helps build the suspense. If anything is lacking in the movie, it is the creature.
The creature is not quite as good as it could have been with a larger budget. My guess is they didn't want to spend alot of money on CGI. It is still well done and the acting is definitely good. The directing, camera work, and sets are good too. The camera work reminded me of some of Hitchcock's work. All-in-all certainly worth more than the five dollars and ninety-nine cents I paid for the DVD. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 27, 2004 | | Summary | Avoid at all cost!!! | Content
| "Phantoms" is easily one of the worse movies I have ever seen. Dean Koontz didn't do himself any credit by writing the lackluster script (based on his less-than-steller novel). The movie is about a menevolent force that has taken over a small northern California town. It stars Ben Affleck, Peter O'Toole, and Rose McGowen, and this is a low point in all of their careers. The script is bad, the characters are worse than one dimensional; they are just there. The pace is almost non-existant. The only good thing in this movie is Liev Scriber's bad guy, but even that isn't very good. When I saw this movie in the theater I remember the best part of the movie was the couple about three isles down from me making out. At least they were enjoyint the film. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2004 | | Summary | And I thought Stephen King movies sucked! | Content
| How such a truly great and creepy horror novel got turned into this p.o.s. movie I'll never know. The first 10 minutes of the movie is very close to the book, but after that takes a huge dump. There is so much story and charcter development left out the movie that I don't know how anyone could really understand or follow it. The "monster" was timid at best compared to the book. Ben Affeck? Who the hell cast him? I love Deans book, but even he probably had a stroke after viewing this turkey. 2 stars for at least being mildly entertaining. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 05, 2004 | | Summary | Pathetic | Content
| I won't get into how amazing the novel was or how shocked I was at the theater upon seeing this wreck of a movie (or how I highly recommend the novel.) Instead, consider Ben Affleck. If he's starring as the sheriff in a serious horror movie, you know something's... wrong. I did enjoy the first half of the movie, which builds on ambience and scares you through the unknown horror around every corner. Then the movie barrel-rolls and plummets head-first into the rocks. It rips shreds from "John Carpenter's The Thing" to "Alien" and everything in between. The ending is overly simplified and lacks any of the terror from the novel (and in addition is far less epic.) A warning to anyone who's read the book and yet to see this adaptation; don't waste your time. For everyone else, again I recommend the excellent novel, or if you're still in the mood for a good horror movie, try one of the thousands of better ones out there. |
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