Old-fashioned with purple tights

 THE PHANTOM (1996)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I used to read the Phantom comics back in my native Uruguay every weekend. My grandfather was also a fan and read the comic in our newspaper, always mentioning this hero with extreme delight. I was always excited by this masked hero and his jungle exploits, and what kid wouldn't be. Watching 1996's "The Phantom" put me right back in the mindframe of an excited 6 year-old and what is most exciting about "The Phantom" isn't just its rousing titular hero - it is that is unashamed in showing us dastardly villains, some pirates in a lair that could easily be right out of "The Goonies" and a few exotic dames (including an early role for Catherine Zeta-Jones) as an extra bonus. "The Phantom" is just pure old-fashioned fun with its old-fashioned heart in the right place.

Billy Zane is our masked, purple-tights hero, the Phantom aka Kit Walker who lives in his fortress of solitude somewhere in Bengalla. There is also Xander Trax (Treat Williams who is delightfully evil, reminding one of Timothy Dalton's similarly devious role in "The Rocketeer"), a tycoon who believes any and anyone can be bought. Well, of course, welcome to woeful capitalism in the years following the Great Depression. He wants possession of three Phantom skulls that when combined, well, you know with great power comes great villainy. It later turns out that three skulls are not enough but why carp over cracked skulls mythology. The Phantom himself knows more than Trax about that power which largely emits deadly lasers. Why do these unimaginative powerful villains always think of artifacts in terms of advanced weaponry and nothing else? 

That's about the only real question this movie never answers. But I don't go to see pulpy adventure tales like "The Phantom" for philosophical questions - I go for escapist fun and adventure in serial-esque fashion. From director Simon Wincer, he acquits himself beautifully with some rousing action scenes including the Phantom running from bad guys by springing on top of taxis to finally setting afoot at the local zoo where he pets a tiger. There is also a terrific elevator scene that is almost on par with the claustrophobic thrills of the first "Die Hard" movie. Need I forget to mention a truck holding a child rescued by the Phantom as they are dangling on top of a collapsing rope bridge? How about a seaplane where the Phantom rescues his ex-girlfriend, Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson), as they are ready to jump off onto his white horse named Hero? Of course, evading villains no matter what mode of transportation is never enough when they just happen to find you. Yep, it is that kind of movie.

"The Phantom" is smoothly directed by Simon Wincer with just enough finesse to make one giddy with the movie's many thrilling action setpieces. There is also sufficiently sly humor by the late screenwriter Jeffrey Boam ("Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Lethal Weapon 2") to make this more than a worthwhile pulp effort. Pulpy all the way, in production design and in its authentic 1930's flavor with a hero who has an insatiable appetite for getting into trouble and two dames who know how to fight back, "The Phantom" is not a great movie but it is a superbly fun time at the movies. You just might pinch yourself at the end.