The Phantom Empire

On the disc this was on, before the movie started there was a word (actually more than that) from the director. We apparently get him in his home with his wife (I did not check if this is factually correct), just to get a side character from the movie invading - or is it from the movie? If you find this funny, you're in for a treat with the movie itself (though do not expect nearly as much nudity as you get to see in this short).

You have to actually shut your brain off, not care about the movies actual intro (after we get to see quite a decent effect for a low budget movie), that edits the opening credits with a detective style throwback ... it tries to be funny but does not really succeed. What it does though from time to time (maybe) - it surprises you with some neat choices. Like making the female assistant be more macho than the detective himself. A nice touch, if you care enough. Otherwise very low production values but a nice throwback to claymation towards the end - does it make sense? No not at all - but if you are looking for that, you are way wrong here

The Phantom Empire (1988) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a young lady whose father disappeared in caves looking for some diamonds but was killed by something in the cave. The young lady hires a team to find her father and the diamonds but will they suffer the same fate as the father?

This movie is directed by Fred Olen Ray (Spidora) and stars Jeffrey Combs (The Frightners), Ross Hagen (Wonder Women), Dawn Wildsmith (Surf Nazis Must Die), Sybil Danning (Halloween), Suzy Stokey (Star Slammer) and Robert Quarry (Count Yorga, Vampire).

The settings for this movie are very well selected and the cave scenes are well shot and delivered. The cast is awesome and I loved both Combs and Danning in this. The movie starts with a great kill and decapitation and then takes some time to get going again. The special effects are inconsistent with the robot being cool, dinosaur sequence being fun but dated and the futuristic cars being cool. The women are gorgeous and there's some great female fight scenes in this with of course, a few flashes of nudity. The writing is nothing special but the concept keeps your attention from beginning to end.

Overall, this is an average movie that's still worth a watch. I would score this a 5-5.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Think of movies starring Doug McClure like 'The land that time forgot' but with acting, dialogue and special effects that are 100 times worse and you have 'The Phantom Empire'. The only plus points, there are 3, is Jeffrey Combs and Michelle Bauer going topless. Should really be a 1 star movie, but it was so terrible it made me laugh, so have given an extra 2 stars.

This is hilarious. A classic camp movie, it's just awful in every way. The acting is half a step above terrible, the soundtrack is horrendous, and the directing is barely mediocre. Yet it was still fun, for me at least. The plot alone was enough to watch it. It should have been called "Attack of the Amazon Women from Outer Space Who Have Robots and Who Fight Underground Cannibals and Capture Normal People." Absolutely hilarious. Enjoyable if you're a fan of campy films, but still just a 3 out of 10.

Rent this picture only if you're trying to see everything Fred Ray ever made. Ms. Danning struts around in a black leather outfit with big shoulders and a cutout for her cleavage. Poor stop-frame dinosaur animation. No character development. Trite story. Skinny "cave bunnies," no titillation value. Unconvincing, pathetic troglodyte zombies.