The Phantom

Though taken, almost literally, from the comic strip, this wonderful film comes across more as a pulp magazine adventure, a delightful period piece with a noble hero, spunky heroine, great primary and secondary villains, and some breathtaking stunts and location shots. Treat Williams makes a marvelous villain, and James Remar, an underrated actor, plays his henchman, an Indiana Jones gone wrong. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the villainess, and Billy Zane seems to have been born to play The Phantom. Nice cameos by Patrick McGoohan and a New York cabbie. I said it once, but it's worth repeating: fabulous stunts. Well directed, well paced, a triumph of adventure film-making.