The Phantom of the Opera | | Cast : | Robert Englund, Jill Schoelen | | Director : | Dwight H. Little | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 04, 1989 | | DVD Released Date : | December 07, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | "Love. Music. They Are Forever." Surprisingly Dark Take On The Classic Novel By Leroux. Not Based On The Lloyd-Webber Musical. | Content
 | After seeing this film for sale at TARGET, I swore I'd never see this bloody take on the story by Gaston Leroux, thinking that it was a disrespectful version of Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber's popular musical (and with good reason). However, when I saw this version at BLOCKBUSTER a few days ago, I thought, "What the hell. How bad can it be?" Read on.
This 1989 film, whose full title is "Gaston Leroux's The Phantom Of The Opera," stars "Freddie Krueger" himself as the disfigured, murderous recluse who haunts the London Opera House. I was hooked 48 seconds into the film. Those more familiar with the enormously popular musical version by Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber (see my review of the 1925/2004 movie versions, as well as the original novel) might not like this darker version of the tale, which is partly based on Goethe's "Faust." The fact that this movie tanked at the box office is because 1989 was also the year in which Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber came out with his smash hit musical version of the story (1986 was when it officially opened in London) and thus was dismissed as gory trash by the masses. Gory trash it is not. True, it IS violent and bloody, which is why the young and those who cannot stomach this level of violence should stay away from this movie version and stick with the ones they like best (namely, the original 1925 classic starring Lon Chaney, aka "The Man Of A Thousand Faces" and the 2004 smash hit movie musical, produced and co-written for the screen by Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber himself). The film's "R" rating is too harsh, as there are other movies which contain excessive, even gratuitous, amounts of blood and gore that are worse than this film ("Hannibal," for example, has a really gruesome scene; I haven't seen it, though I certainly can stomach it, but there are some who can't take it-this is just a word of caution to them) and only an instance of nudity (it's when the prostitute is lying naked on her stomach, in bed alone and turns over full frontal after finding 2-3 coins under her pillow, it's covered by the darkness, though you only see her nipples for an instant). So this film is nothing to worry about. The acting, cinematography and everything else was excellent. I was expecting to see Christine naked, for some reason. What the heck. MGM should've done a sequel, as was planned, but for some reason, these plans never came to fulfillment. All in all, great adaptation. Rated PG-13 for violence.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 18, 2005 | | Summary | Suprisingly, A Very Good Movie | Content
| Originally, I did not want to buy this movie. The thought of Freddy Kruegger playing this part seems horrific to me. However, I was very surprised. This movie has a plot. The music is good. It has a nice flow from one scene to the next. The explaination on how he became the Phantom is interesting. The special effects is good also. The violence is more than what I care for, but this phantom actually has some heart. One of my favorite scence is that the phantom plays a violin in the cemetary. This is from the original novel(it may not be exactly from the book). Robert Englund did a fine job. This is my third favorite version of "The Phantom of the Opera." Oh, try not to think about the ALW's version when you see this movie or any other version of the phantom of the opera. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2005 | | Summary | Good old' robert..... | Content
| Being a huge Elm Street fan,I was excited when I saw this movie for 8.66 at wal-mart. It's not the best movie I've seen..Parts were extremely cheap and just not needed in the movie but it still had a somewhat interesting concept. But Robert Englund still does a pretty good job of being the bad guy from hell, so I gave it 3 stars. It's good movie for a laugh, and maybe a little digust if you don't like seening people sewing skin together.... |
| Rating | | | Date | June 25, 2005 | | Summary | Interesting, but not exactly up to snuff... | Content
| I"ve known the story of POTA since i was 6 years old and genuinely liked it, But it wasn't until i saw teh ALW version back in December that i became obsessed. After i saw it, i went out and bought every other version of Phantom that i could get my hands on, Claude Rains was a bit pathetic (but i guess it was because he was so old), Lon Chaney was good (he REALLY looked like a Phantom) and we all know what a sensation Gerard Butler is (and INCREDIBLY sexy!) so what can i say about Robert Englund? Well teh guy WAS Freddy so i guess i should have expected some grisly stuff. For those who wish to know, there are parts in the movie that may gross you out,( i.e, when the Phantom sews skin from his murdered victims onto his own face so that he may look normal, or if that isn't enough, when he skins Joseph Buquet alive and puts him in Carlotta's closet to scare her) Anyways, if none of that doesn't bother you, then, like me, you'll at least have an interest in the movie. The main song for the picture is darkly gothic and possess a macabre charm that seems appropriate for the Phantom, and Christine is young and innocent, but lacks some charisma, all in all, the film is satisfying though a little gross. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 21, 2005 | | Summary | The Freddy of the Opera | Content
| This version of the classic story is completely far off from the original idea of the tragic romance, yet it may still entertain horror fans on some level. Basically what these filmmakers have done is taken the original story and warped it into a slasher movie. But not just a typical slasher movie. One with class. Sound strange? It is.
Robert Englund, best known as Freddy Krueger, stars as the Phantom of the opera. He pines after Christine, a young opera singer, and kills anyone that interferres with her success. The major difference here is that the Phantom does not wear a mask per se, he skins his victims to make a facial "mask" in order to hide his disfigurement.
This movie is definitely not for everyone, and if the premise sounded way too strange or wrong, then you probably won't like this. I thought I wasn't going to actually, based on multiple horrendous reviews I read of it. I just gave it a shot out of curiosity and I didn't think it as bad as they said. The only complaint I may have is that Englund's disfigured half looks too much like Freddy, even though he had the same makeup artist for both characters. It's worth a shot if you're curious... |
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