I happened to stumble upon the 1987 movie "The Phantom Empire" by random chance here in 2023, and I didn't really take much notice of it. Well, until I saw that Jeffrey Combs was listed on the cover, and then of course I had to sit down and watch the movie.
Honestly, I harbored no expectations at all to the movie, as the movie's cover looked like some really, really low budget stuff. But with Jeffrey Combs on the cast list, I had to check it out. And I am amazed with how utterly lousy and rubbish "The Phantom Empire" turned out to be. There was just so much cheese in the 83 minutes that the movie ran for, and not in a good or enjoyable manner. So writers Fred Olen Ray and T. L. Lankford didn't exactly manage to entertain me with this 1987 movie.
Something interesting about "The Phantom Empire", was the fact that Andrew Paris (played by Jeffrey Combs) said that he studied at the Miskatonic University, which effectively places "The Phantom Empire" in the H. P. Lovecraft universe, for better or worse.
There were so many things wrong with the movie. First of all, I was amazed with the sheer amount of light sources naturally available so deep inside a mountain. Sure, I get it because it is for the audience to see what is going on, but come on, it was just laughable. Then there were suddenly some primal Amazon woman showing up, uhm, okay, sure why not? Then there was a robot shooting lasers from its eyes. And get this Professor Strock said that the robots were indigineous to the cavern environment. Seriously, what? And let's not forget the insanely laughable subterranean creatures, which was painstakingly obviously just horribly fake latex masks on people in equally laughable costumes.
I am surprised that Jeffrey Combs actually did a movie such as "The Phantom Empire".
But I can now check the movie off of the watched-movies-list now. But I can honestly say that I am never returning to watch it a second time.
My rating of director Fred Olen Ray's 1987 movie "The Phantom Empire" lands on a two out of ten stars. The movie is deserving a one out of ten stars rating actually, but the fact that Jeffrey Combs is there pulls it up to a two star rating.
Honestly, I harbored no expectations at all to the movie, as the movie's cover looked like some really, really low budget stuff. But with Jeffrey Combs on the cast list, I had to check it out. And I am amazed with how utterly lousy and rubbish "The Phantom Empire" turned out to be. There was just so much cheese in the 83 minutes that the movie ran for, and not in a good or enjoyable manner. So writers Fred Olen Ray and T. L. Lankford didn't exactly manage to entertain me with this 1987 movie.
Something interesting about "The Phantom Empire", was the fact that Andrew Paris (played by Jeffrey Combs) said that he studied at the Miskatonic University, which effectively places "The Phantom Empire" in the H. P. Lovecraft universe, for better or worse.
There were so many things wrong with the movie. First of all, I was amazed with the sheer amount of light sources naturally available so deep inside a mountain. Sure, I get it because it is for the audience to see what is going on, but come on, it was just laughable. Then there were suddenly some primal Amazon woman showing up, uhm, okay, sure why not? Then there was a robot shooting lasers from its eyes. And get this Professor Strock said that the robots were indigineous to the cavern environment. Seriously, what? And let's not forget the insanely laughable subterranean creatures, which was painstakingly obviously just horribly fake latex masks on people in equally laughable costumes.
I am surprised that Jeffrey Combs actually did a movie such as "The Phantom Empire".
But I can now check the movie off of the watched-movies-list now. But I can honestly say that I am never returning to watch it a second time.
My rating of director Fred Olen Ray's 1987 movie "The Phantom Empire" lands on a two out of ten stars. The movie is deserving a one out of ten stars rating actually, but the fact that Jeffrey Combs is there pulls it up to a two star rating.