THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606110498
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 59 lines
NOT MANY PEOPLE are going to take seriously a movie in which a man runs around in purple skivvies atop a white horse named Hero, followed by his pet wolf, Devil. In addition to his purple underwear, he wears a hood, a mask and a set of pistols strapped to his waist.
The message should be clear, but there will still be those who insist on taking ``The Phantom'' seriously. If so, they will miss most of the fun. Call it silly, if you want, but what do you expect from a movie based on a comic strip? ``The Phantom'' doesn't deserve to go the route of ``The Shadow,'' last year's flop version of a classic cartoon. It's much more fun.
Billy Zane, perhaps with the help of his mask, keeps a straight face (and square jaw) at all times. You won't catch him winking at the camera. He's seriously out to fight ``piracy, cruelty and evil.''
The film has mad dashes through the jungle, a truck hanging from a rickety bridge, fisticuffs, a leap from airplane to horseback and, of course, the missing skull of Touganda. It's Saturday afternoon serial time all over again, with a fast-paced style that will remind you more of ``Raiders of the Lost Ark'' than of ``Superman.'' ``Phantom'' isn't in the same class as ``Ark,'' but it doesn't really try to be; it only cost $45 million to make, which is small-time compared to this summer's rash of $80 million actioners.
Most pleasingly, though, most of the action scenes are real stunts - performed by humans - and not high-tech tricks. The old-fashioned look is perfectly in keeping with the 1938 setting. The distancing of time allows much of the over-the-top emoting.
Treat Williams is the arch-villain Xander Drax. He gets particularly petulant if you ask him to spell his name. Kristy Swanson, looking as sweetly pretty as a marshmallow confection, is Diana Palmer, the New York socialite who is Kit Walker's sweetie (Kit is the Phantom when the Phantom doesn't wear the purple suit). Catherine Zeta Jones is the evil Sala, a delightfully bad woman who says things like ``Oooooh. I like a man with fast hands.'' Patrick McGoohan is the ghost of the Phantom's dad. (Sorta like Hamlet, you know).
Paramount has made a mistake by marketing this too directly at children. They'll like it, but so, too, will anyone who is in the mood for purple action. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ANDREW COOPER
Billy Zane plays the title character with straight face and square
jaw.
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Phantom''
Cast: Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, Catherine Zeta
Jones
Director: Simon Wincer
MPAA rating: PG (sexual innuendoes, cartoonish violence)
Mal's rating: Three stars
Locations: Area theaters by CNB