Warren (Sebastian Roché) likes to drink and gamble. Unfortunately he can't stop doing either one and owes loan shark Roman (Gbenga Akinnagbe) a tidy sum. Warren has taught his two sons to perform Shakespeare and steal. Samuel (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) the younger son recites Shakespeare etc. as a street performer, while his older brother Beckett (Luke Kleintank) lifts wallets. When it becomes crunch time, Beckett hooks up with Little Larry (Jordan Dunn) on a money making scheme and also hooks up with his mom (Rebecca Romijn) to give the film eye candy and attempt to fill it out to 90 minutes. Samuel escapes reality by reading the comic book "Phantom Halo" to the dismay of his father.
The film held my interest, although there were a few slow parts. It has some dark comedy elements. I had to scratch my head at the ending. I didn't think the writer brought it home properly.
Guide: F-bomb, sex, no nudity.
Phantom Halo
2014
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Phantom Halo
2014
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Plot summary
Two brothers barely scrape by as their father continues to gamble and drink away the money they do bring home. They hatch a plan for a robbery but at what price?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
December 02, 2017 at 09:52 AM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
STUCK IN THE MUD
Should be 3 different movies
Too many ideas and stories happening in this movie.
First story - there are the two brothers - street performers - one recites Shakespere while the other is picking the pockets of the pedestrians listening to the recitation. All their efforts to steal money is absorbed and spent by the wicked alcoholic gambling addicted father. His sons want to help him but the father wants to control them for his own purposes.
Second story - there is the father full of false ideals for his children. But his gambling/alcoholic addiction has and is destroying his two sons. The father has borrowed so much money the mob wants payment. All three think the mother (who left years ago) will come back. Never happens!
Third story - one son has allied himself with a friend who has designed the perfect counterfeit money! They go on a spending and gambling spree and this alerts the mob and they want revenge. Unknown to the counterfeit whiz kid, his friend is in an affair with the whiz kid's mother!
All three of these ideas are mixed into this movie and you never feel the characters & plot reach their full potential. As soon as you get into one element of this plot another plot jumps in. I hope this review makes sense because the movie had a hard time sticking to one plot! As I'm having a hard time writing this review.
A Shakesparean movie. But in the end it looks like an accumulation of unfinished ideas.
"At your age, I was better !"
Occasionally you come across a movie you've never heard about, with a
well known actor starring in it. Like "Phantom Halo" for instance with
Thomas "The Maze Runner" Brodie-Sangster. In hindsight it seemed as if
they wanted to cram different stories in one film. One of those stories
was portrayed in a successful way. The storyline which covered the
criminal element, lamentably ended in a fiasco. The use of centuries
old literature written by Shakespeare, won't turn it into a classical
drama. Even though this was the most successful part.
Samuel (Brodie-Sangster) and Beckett (Luke Kleintank) are two brothers
whose daily task consists of hiding the little bit of money they own
for their father Warren (Sebastian Roché). The latter is a gambling
alcoholic who apparently quoted Shakespeare somewhere on a stage in the
past. And that's what Samuel has to do at street corners. He holds a
Shakespearean monologue, while his brother deprives the bystanders of
their wallets and other valuables. When it turns out that Warren owes a
rather large amount of money to a loan shark, Beckett tries to solve
this problem with help of his old friend Little Larry (Jordan Dunn).
And as this second fact evolves, the level of this film goes downwards
and culminates in a horrible, clumsy denouement. The moment Ms. Rose
(Rebecca Romijn), the breathtaking handsome mother of Little Larry,
opposes Donny, I expected the worst already. This fragment felt so
amateurish and implausible. And indeed, the follow-up was nothing to
write home about.
To think that the run up to this ending was so much better. The
portrayed family drama was fascinating to watch. Especially the
brilliant interaction between father and sons. The way Samuel and
Beckett try to make ends meet and how they are instructed by their
father to scrape together the much needed cash, which Warren spends at
the gambling table after wards. But unfortunately this is ruined by
irritating futilities and stupidities. At some point you even forget
where the title of the movie is related to and the cartoon character
"Phantom Halo" seems to be nothing more than a fait diverse. Out of
nowhere a fingertip-chopping Chinese girl appears (after which I was
wondering what the punishment would be when stealing her fathers car).
And although Little Larry was repeatedly warned by Donny not to deceive
him, after a while he's unabashedly driving around together with
Beckett with a glitzy Bentley. That was a bit shortsighted, not to say
plain stupid. The brief affair with Ms. Rose was totally irrelevant.
And apparently they tried to finish it in a Tarantino way. But this
attempt looks amateurish and rather fake.
Briefly and concisely: this movie is an accumulation of unfinished
ideas.
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