Parents' Guide to Phantom

This movie is well executed, so while it may not seem especially original, it's still a decent way to spend a couple of hours. There are several standard components of a submarine movie: the captain with a stopwatch to time drills and approaching torpedoes, the dive that goes too deep, the threat of slow asphyxiation, and the isolation that comes from making tough decisions deep below the surface, unable to radio command for a second opinion. Phantom has all of those cliches and a few more classic sub tropes, and yet it still manages to tell a decent tale.

Harris and Fichtner stand out as men just trying to do the right thing -- in this case, preventing nuclear war. Duchovny is less credible as a hardline KGB agent who's intent on carrying out his mission; he often seems close to smirking when he needs to take himself seriously. (By contrast, the film as a whole -- supposedly based on actual events -- takes itself seriously even when it's treading ground that's been covered many times before in other undersea films.)