Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

DigitalRevenantX7 Good friends & rival race car drivers J. J. Sawyer & Cutter have their friendship ended when Cutter's mechanic's sabotage of Sawyer's race car during a race backfires, resulting in Cutter's death. Years later, Sawyer, now a support truck driver & race car transport arrives in his old town to have his truck repaired. He meets up with his old girlfriend Tammy & her daughter Jesse (who is actually Sawyer's daughter but he doesn't know this or she). At the same time, Cutter's race car has been restored by the mechanic who committed the sabotage, but Cutter's ghost returns to possess the car, the now-possessed vehicle driving off & killing anyone it crosses. Fuelled by revenge, the car heads off to kill Sawyer & his family, prompting them to try to escape.I've always been a sucker for killer car films. The 1977 classic THE CAR was the very best of this subgenre, with a mean & awesome-looking black Lincoln terrorising the population of a small town. Of course this type of film works better as a supernatural action thriller than a straight horror film, since the premise is a little on the hokey side. You can also count in John Carpenter's adaptation of Stephen King's novel CHRISTINE as another classic killer car film, although not quite up to The Car's standard.Phantom Racer is an attempt at making a killer car film for the 21st Century, although as a DTV feature. Sure enough, it works on a basic level & has some decent visuals, although for a film that's supposed to be rated PG-13 in the USA (& rated MA15+ in Australia, which is more realistic) it is quite gory in the kills department. In the regard of a horror film, Phantom Racer is lacking due to a premise that is lacking in the scares department.However as a supernatural thriller, the film is passable enough. Greg Evigan & Nicole Eggert both share an affinity for this type of film & they play it well enough. The scenes of them bonding are reasonable for this type of film & do have add an interesting side to the proceedings. The scenes with the possessed race car taking out a sheriff & his deputy, crushing the deputy's head under its wheel are the closest the film gets to disquieting the viewer. On the other end of the scale, the film's premise (as demonstrated superbly in The Car) tends to rely more on action – the splatter effects in Phantom Racer are cheap & don't really fit the film that well.

TheLittleSongbird I have seen far worse movies than Phantom Racer, even though I do think the movie could've been much better. It does have redeeming values certainly. A couple of the attacks are actually gory and quite fun. But it was the three leads that really elevated. Greg Egvian still has a lot of charisma, Nicole Eggbert shows good chemistry with him and I do think she is better than she was in Baywatch and Brenna O'Brien despite her rather clichéd role has a couple of amusing wise-cracks. The film looks decent too, nothing extraordinary to see but much more than the usual hackneyed editing and fake effects I've seen in too many movies of late. However, the characters are never developed sufficiently enough, they are stereotypical(the sheriff, the teen) and some like the sheriff are so annoying it is difficult to identify with them. Even after someone dies they don't act in ways you'd associate someone to react in those circumstances. The script is very formulaic as well, there are a lot of car chases, action scenes and attempts to destroy the thing but it all amounts to little and none of it is particularly exciting. The dialogue is trite, especially in the "finding out who your dad is" subplot, which never did ring true to me due to how forced everything was. The story, not helped by the lame climax and the evil presence being far too obvious from the get go, never really grabbed me and came across as silly in places such as the people cruising down the road and somehow the car can kill people in really wild ways yet can come away unscathed with no explanation as to how. Apart from a couple of good ones, a lot of the action and killings while inventive on paper look very average on screen. In conclusion, could have been far worse mainly because I liked the leads but it was too silly and formulaic with characters I didn't care for for me to really sink my teeth into it. 5/10 Bethany Cox

manjodude This movie reminds me of the novel Christine by Stephen King, where a haunted car goes on a killing spree. That book gave me the chills from start to end, but this movie pales so, so much in comparison. The story showed lot of promise at least in terms of thrilling car chases and blood-curdling violence between man & metal but the execution was disappointing. Very average action and a lame climax. Maybe the budget of the movie was an issue? Can't say much about the performances too, decent though. At least one good aspect are the initial murders committed by the car, which's quite wild & gory. Verdict: Naaah. Dump this ghost ride!

Scarecrow-88 Following in the footsteps of such "killer car" features as Christine and The Car is Phantom Racer, about the vengeful ghost of a dead race car driver who returns to get revenge on the one he holds responsible for his demise.I primarily watched this because Greg Evigan was in the starring role as a broken down, burn out, JJ Sawyer, returning home after a 17 year absence due to the race car crash concerning a fellow hot rodder, Cutter(Adam Battrick), with a bright future, blaming himself all these years for it occurring. Confronting an old gear-head, Cliff(Chad Willett), JJ is told that the crash wasn't his fault after all, fueling his obvious rage..in fact, Cliff and Cutter had sabotaged his car so that they could win due to the promise of sponsorships among other perks if JJ were out of the way.Nicole Eggert also was a sight for sore eyes, co-starring as JJ's former flame, Tammy, soon breaking the news, albeit reluctantly, that he has a daughter, Jesse(Brenna O'Brien). All three will have to eventually face Cutter and his haunted car, not going away until there is a true victor.The car itself seems to have the ability to kill people in a variety of ways, such as the driver's side seat belt breaking into the chest of an unfortunate victim who gets behind the wheel, another victim(..reaching into the trunk in the hopes of finding a six-pack)losing an arm and the lower half of his body, a head taken off by a window, and a deputy's face chopped to pieces by windshield wipers! It can also withstand heavy damage(..including a fire set off by gasoline) and survive a dive into a lake.Despite the incredibly laughable plot, Evigan comes away from Phantom Racer relatively unscathed, if just on his charisma alone. He has good chemistry with Eggert, along with O'Brien who lands the role of wise-cracking daughter who contributes to their situation when innovative methods for stopping the possessed car begin to run out. O'Brien even gets trapped in the car at one point. The last half of the movie consists of one big chase as the trio attempt to evade their pursuer. Earns it's place in the genre with enough over-the-top violence to maintain interest. How the car remains intact, without a hint of damage on it's exterior after being set on fire, rammed by a truck, and lifted up in the air by a forklift tests credibility, but the plot is so corny, that will probably fall to the wayside. Evigan does a credible job presenting us with an emotionally-drained, wore-out has-been who could've been a star yet suffered years with guilt over the death of a friend he thought he was responsible for.