Granted, it's always a bit jarring when a film about, say, German soldiers in World War II has all the actors speaking English with German accents - but it's even more unsettling when a bunch of 'Soviet' sailors are talking about 'the Americans,' and yet they all sound like they're from Jersey or Chicago or Cali. Whether it's William Fichtner as Demi's fiercely loyal right-hand man, Alex, or David Duchovny as Bruni, a 'technician' who clearly has ulterior motives joining Demi's crew at the last moment, everybody just speaks 'American.' Turns out writer-director Todd Robinson has made the bold and somewhat goofy choice to have all his actors talk in their normal voices, as if they're doing a table read and not in full costume with the cameras rolling. (How's that for an unoriginal twist?) But even though Demi's wearing a Soviet uniform, in charge of a Soviet ship and living in, well, the Soviet Union, I spent the first few minutes of the film wondering if Demi was actually an American, given that he was speaking perfect English without a trace of an accent.

Nearing the end of his career, Demi has never escaped the shadow of his father, a legend in Soviet military lore. Harris plays Demi, a craggy-faced, world-weary Soviet sub commander who battles epilepsy, drinks too much and is plagued by flashbacks that seem right out of a horror movie. The sub will be stripped of some key elements and then sold to the Chinese - but first there's one last mission. Inspired by true events, as they say, but filled with speculative fiction, 'Phantom' takes place almost entirely aboard a nearly obsolete Soviet submarine in 1968.

Phantom movie cast