There’s a built-in weakness with the PHANTASM series. A big part of the PHANTASM appeal is the reveal of the crazy fuckin weird ass shit (or CFWAS) that’s goin down, and not really being able to comprehend it all. So in the course of each sequel they end up having to do two things that are sort of problematic:

1. explain more things, making it less mysterious and
2. pile on more CFWAS, stretching the credibility more and more to where it’s not quite as easy to swallow.

So you got those things, but otherwise this is a very enjoyable and unexpectedly adventurous sequel. It picks up right where part 2 left off, except suddenly James LeGros has morphed back into A. Michael Baldwin, the original star of PHANTASM. And now I sort of get it, because he does not look like a movie hero, he looks like some dude. But the same some dude from the original, so it’s good to have him back.

So Reggie and Michael continue their driving around from ghost town to ghost town, picking off evil dwarves with weapons like the four-barrelled-shotgun I forgot to mention Reggie had in the last one. But then Michael is hospitalized by a car accident and the ghost of Michael’s dead brother Jody shows up (also played by the original actor, also looking like just some dude) and then he morphs into one of the silver balls but helps Michael to understand some things about what’s going on (for example, after the Tall Man shrinks bodies down into dwarves he removes their tiny brains and puts them inside the silver balls). And the Tall Man convinces Michael to walk into the light with him and he disappears, so Reggie is on his own. (more…)

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PHANTASM OBLIVION

get it, OBLIVION, and it’s part 4
If there are any Romans out there I think you’ll get the joke. Little numeral humor there on the part of the Phantasmers

I hate to be a tattle tale but PHANTASM part 4 here is a total fuckin cheater. If you saw part 3 you may remember the ending: Reggie is pinned against a wall by a swarm of metal balls. He tells the little HOME ALONE kid Tim to leave, that they’ve lost. But the kid won’t leave. Then I guess a dwarf might’ve jumped out and grabbed him or something, I don’t remember for sure. But the point is he was there.

When part 4 picks up right there, suddenly there is no kid. He’s not shown, he’s not mentioned. Reggie doesn’t look for him, say anything about him, mourn him if he’s dead. I guess the kid probaly had acne scars and a mustache by this time and it would’ve been hard to pass him off as the same kid in the same time period. So they just erased him.

I’m sure there are some people who like part 4 better than part 3, because it’s a little less goofy. No nunchakas, flipping pink hearses or throat-slitting pink frisbees. This is the one that realizes nobody is watching these movies who’s not kind of a nerd, and they just say “fuck it” and just throw ten tons of PHANTASM nerdery onto the screen. What will happen to Mike, but who is the Tall Man anyway, and where do the balls come from, and whatever happened to all those deleted scenes from part one, and as a side note could we please have some time travel to complicate this fucker? Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of good stuff in here, but by now the plot has gotten so complicated and incoherent that it seems kind of weird to have to sum it all up and then continue and try to add to it. (more…)

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