Submarine movies are a bit like New Years Eve parties – at the end of the day, though you’ve endured a lot of them, there’s really only a couple that standout as being memorable or embodying any sort of fun.

For me, it gets no better than “The Hunt for Red October”. The feature film adaptation of Tom Clancy’s best-selling novel is one of my favourite films; though not a complete xerox of the source material, it’s a terrifically engaging, amazingly-performed spy thriller that features some of the most memorable, and most visually spectacular images from a film of it’s type. Of all the Jack Ryan movies, it remains my favourite.

But for every “Red October” there’s a “K-19 : The Widowmaker”.

Where will “Phantom” rank?

It features a bravura cast, including David Duchovny, Ed Harris, William Fichtner, Lance Henriksen, Sean Patrick Flanery, and Jason Beghe, but it’s direction is credited to Todd Robinson, the “Lonely Hearts” helmer who, in my opinion, has failed to really impress in any sense or way. This could be his breakout from boreville, and I hope it is, because as I said, I love a good submarine movie (and it’s been over 20 years since “Red October”), but the jury will be out until this beast sinks or swims upon it’s bow on March 1, 2013.