The Phantom of the Opera
by Dwight H. Little
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alex Hyde-White, Bill Nighy, Jill Schoelen, Robert Englund, Stephanie LawrenceDirector: Dwight H. Little
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Phantom of the Opera
Movie Review: Gorehound remake of Classic story.
Summary: 2 Stars
Genuine curio piece for Horror buffs updates story with added perversion and explicit violence. It seemed a good idea to cast one of the few actual Horror actors in the lead role, in this case Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Englund. His performance is what makes the film interesting ranging from the effective to the hammy and often times reflecting on his earlier screen creation.
The film is burdened by unneccesary additions to the original story, namely the Phantom having to use pieces of human flesh sewn together to create a mask(underneath he looks alot like Freddy Kruger) and a ridiculous tie to Jack the Ripper, which makes the film fall flat.
It's the level of gore and the inconsistent plot that makes the film hard to take seriously, that combined with uninteresting performances by a boring cast including the heroine of The Stepfather, Jill Schoelen, who unfortunately does not have a gratutious shower scene like that earlier film, leaving the audience to focus on her acting, which isn't that great.
Very little is inspired in this movie from either the Gaston Leroux novel or earlier film versions, even leaving out the chandelier scene!
The final "twist" is about as lame as it gets,and pretty forced, trying to meld a Faustian theme of the Phantom having sold his soul and obtaining eternal life into the present day. It dosen't work because the romantic elements, so crucial to this story, are completely absent as the filmmakers played it trendy and made a Slasher movie out of a classic.
Obviously if your a film fan, get the definitive version with Lon Chaney Sr. from 1925. That one still packs a wallop. Hell, even get the Claude Rains version from 1943.
That at least kept the chandelier scene in.
Summary of The Phantom of the Opera
In this house of music, evil strikes the final chord! Horror legend Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) assumes the classic role of the Phantom in this shocking, nerve-jangling retelling of Gaston Leroux?'s timeless tale of music, madness and murder! An aspiring opera singer finds herself transported back to Victorian-era London ?- and into the arms of a reclusive, disfigured maestro determined to make her a star. The silver-throated Christine (Jill Schoelen) enjoys success through the arrangements of her new lover (Englund)?...until she realizes that he has been committing unspeakably grisly murders in her honor and won?'t stop until he?'s completed his masterpiece?...in blood!Trading tragic romance for Faustian malevolence, the 1989 version of The Phantom of the Opera is a surprisingly good example of '80s horror. It was dismissed as gory trash by most critics (no doubt because Kevin Yagher's gruesome makeup effects are effectively revolting), but horror buffs will be more forgiving of this lush production, which ranks well above average for horror films of its time. Set in Victorian London and shot mostly in Budapest, Hungary (for period architecture), the film reunites director Dwight Little (Halloween 4) with "Freddie Krueger" himself, Robert Englund, who had worked together on the Nightmare on Elm Street-based TV series Freddie's Nightmares. It's a good pairing, as Englund does some of his finest work as the Phantom, seen here as a horribly disfigured composer who patches his scarred and mangled face with stitched-on flesh, and makes a deal with the devil to be immortalized through his music. His muse, as always, is the lovely diva-to-be Christine, and the casting of Jill Schoelen gives the film added cachet among genre fans (who will recognize her from the 1987 cult hit The Stepfather). While bearing little resemblance to Lon Chaney's 1925 classic, this Phantom is actually more loyal to Gaston Leroux's original novel, and therefore deserves as much acknowledgement as any other version of the story. Certainly not a classic, but well worth a look. --Jeff Shannon
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