Phantom

In writer-director Todd Robinson's waterlogged thriller of Cold War brinksmanship, Ed Harris plays a Russian submarine captain with an unexpected chance to save the world. All that stands in his way is a fellow Russian played by David Duchovny. Weird, right? The true events from which Phantom jumps off are fewer than its opening titles imply. It would be fine to credit Robinson with an imaginative fabrication, had he used more imagination. But for all its suspense-stoking theatrics, his movie has the lethargy of a lazy mash-up, like every grave-situation-on-a-submarine film of the past 20 years, plus maybe a couple of Star Trek episodes, rolled into one unabashedly corny and somewhat budget-challenged chamber drama. Sometimes it is solid in a no-nonsense way, like some workmanlike B-movie from a bygone Hollywood. Most times, it's stilted as hell. Harris maintains his dignity, and he has a nice manly rapport with his loyal first officer, played by William Fichtner.