The Phantom of the Opera
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Movie Reviews of The Phantom of the Opera
Movie Review: Amazing!!!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen the phantom of the opera musical, and I loved it! But after seeing this film, I love it just as much as the novel, and musical! I suggest that all phantom "phans" see this film. Robert Englund,(aka freddy krueger), is a genius, who played Erik so well! I was impressed with his acting the most! This is one of my favorite movies...
I do warn viewers that this movie contains graphic violence, stay away if you're not a fan of that level of violence. It's pretty rough.
Movie Review: Freddy's got a new gig
Summary: 5 Stars
I really liked this movie. It is a nice change to the orginal Phantom of the Opera and a gory one at that. The acting was very good and the story line solid. Don't get me wrong, I do like the orginal and the remake of the orginal that was a big Hollywood hit. But this one puts a different edge on the story and it makes it a little different and interesting also. I do recommend it to any horror fan that likes the story of The Phantom of the Opera.Movie Review: The Little Phantom That Could
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the little phantom that could. I saw this film when it first came out in 1989. The trailer blew me away. I think they spent more money on that trailer than the actual production itself. It was so spell binding! I begged my mother to take me. Being a phantom fan herself of the Lon Chaney version, she agreed. When we got to the theater, the lines were long and the auditorium was packed! After all this was the newest film version to date. It was important. I already read the book by Gaston Leroux. I also couldn't wait to see Robert England in the title role.
Say what you will about this gory retelling: it's another Nightmare on Elm Street. That's what my mother said. The film itself has some great points:
This is the first time we see Robert England so much more than a disfigured child killer. Finally he is aloud to cut away from his type cast role and show the audience what he can really do. In a word: Brilliant. England is a truly brilliant actor. You can see he tried very hard not to sound or act like Freddy. He pulled it off. He was wonderful in the scene where he is tutoring Christine in her chamber roaming through all her mirrors. I loved the scene where England and Christine are in his underground layer and how England says his masterpiece Don Juan Triumphant is incomplete; perhaps Christine will prefer to hear Mozart. He is excellent at the end of the film when he as the Phantom pretends to be a New York yuppie and main backer of his own work. It makes you wonder how the Phantom in the novel would act in the modern day. The film brings up a good point: Could plastic surgery save him, even if he has to do it himself with his own scalpel?
This adaptation pays much more homage to the novel than any of the others to date except the Lon Chaney version:
The Phantom truly has a death's head much like a skeleton head. We see this in the scene where he removes the skin from his face and his wig and his teeth and his nose.
It has the ballroom scene where the Phantom dresses like red death.
It has the killing of Joseph the rope guy, only much more graphic.
It has the rat man who is in the novel scaring the rats away. We didn't see him the Webber version.
Most important, this film has one scene not seen in any other version before it. It has the scene where Christine tries to escape the Phantom's layer only to find her back where she started.
It's too bad this version doesn't have the famous chandelier scene. It would have been much better if it did.
It was a bold decision to have the Phantom cover his face with sewn pieces of skin rather than a mask, but it works. It makes sense for the Phantom to skin his victims and wear the skin yet he has to keep doing it because the skin rots on his face after awhile and then needs replacing with fresh skin.
This film shows Robert England is a true actor and his talents have been wasted over the years mostly playing the same character of Freddy over and over again. Behold! He can play more than one role!
So, there you have it or there you skin it. As the Phantom says "you can never leave here," to Christine, you cannot ignore this film. You can choose love or music or Robert England or Michael Crawford. Just never forget this is a Phantom movie.
One more thing: In the novel, Christine and the Phantom both disappear without a trace. Christine does not simply die like in the Webber version. That's probably why the screen writers decided she should be brought back through a time warp to where she began and the Phantom goes through the same time warp to be with her in the present day. It gives an explanation of how she disappears in the first place. The Phantom goes through the time portal to be with her again.
Movie Review: Lost Gem of a Gothic Horror Film Must See
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a big fan of moody horror films and this one is such a refreshing surprise, can't believe I missed it in theatrical release. Dwight Little director of Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick uses style and technique with fantastic Sets to create a time-period Gothic horror film both true to Gaston Leroux and upping the ante of the original horror film Phantom of the Opera. Robert Englund is restrained and delivers one of his best overall performances since his appearance in V the original Mini-series. Bill Nighy of Underworld fame delivers a solid performance, interesting to see him over ten years younger. The weakest but somehow adequate performance comes from Jill Schoelen who was in the early-nineties a bit of a scream queen. The script and directing hold this film together from start to finish moody sets, great locations, excellent special effects both visually and from Kevin Yagher make-up FX studio. The most Wonderful thing about period films they never lose their charm as time passes since they aren't set in modern times for this reason I had a room full of 30-40yr olds glued to the set munching my nachos, on DVD night under a full moon...haha it was really poker night but everyone got caught up in the film we had to start it over, to watch it with full attention. Don't miss this gem a true sleeper hit, not your average slasher horror fare, a stab above the rest.Movie Review: Love or Music, As Long As It's The Phantom, It'll Last.
Summary: 4 Stars
I am, and always will be, a faithful fan of the original novel by the ever-talented Gaston Leroux, and was therefore weary of quite of a few things when I got this movie in the mail. First being the dark coloring of Christine in the form of the actress [Jill Schoelen] and then to see that Freddy Kreuger himself would be playing my beloved Erik...[?!] Ah, well, I'm an excepting sort, and I'll give anything a shot once, and I'm glad I did try this version of my favorite love story out as well.
Everything was great, from the music to the performances. [I thought the cameo from whatserface from Saturday Night Live as the American Meg was hilarious and laughed my way through the first ten minutes of the movie, even the bloody book scene.] I had no protests at all, until the last five or ten minutes. I think they were badly written, for one - they took a perfectly good storyline and turned it into every other '80's horror movie ever made. I was disappointed, but you can't expect to love everything about a movie, can you?
Anyway, all in all, it was Phantom done at least mostly right, and I was happy at the utter lack of Raoul, though it was strange to hear Christine call, "Richard!" every time she saw her lover. I kept imagining a middle-aged man, like one from the 2004 movie, kissing her instead. It was rather disturbing.