I exaggerate. Its one redeeming quality is the guy who plays Raoul. He's very good, very charismatic. Raoul, and Christine...
Its TWO redeeming qualities are Raoul and Christine, or more to the point, Christine's legs, which are cute. They would be more than cute, but she was underage at the time.
The Phantom himself, get this, could not sing. By this I mean he wasn't very good. The score had to be dropped an octave at certain points to accomodate his low voice: if you're going to immortalize Phantom of the Opera on film, for Pete's sake get someone who can sing the part!
There's a not-half-bad sword fight that ends SO RIDICULOUSLY that you want to just walk out on the movie right then and there.
The swordfight was stuck in (no pun intended) at the scene where Christine visits her father's grave. In the stage production it's when the Phantom starts shooting cheesy looking fireballs at Christine and Raoul. The swordfight replaced that. It's not a great swordfight, but not an awful one either (my standards are low). It's just that the ending of the swordfight is utterly unforgivable. I mean, it's "I'm a-fixin' to walk out on this movie" bad.
Sort of. But that's like saying Dr. No was a sequel to Casino Royale.
Which is to say, the Scarlet Pimpernel was a series of books turned into movies. The first novel was also turned into a musical. They used the same source material.
Same with Phantom, by the way. It was a novel turned into many movies, then later into a musical, and now the musical has been made into a movie...
Wait a minute, you were messing with me, weren't you? George Aargh!
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Steve!
So you are reccommending that I put this movie on my list of "flix not to see", then, right?
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Raf
It's not even good enough to be on THAT list.
I exaggerate. Its one redeeming quality is the guy who plays Raoul. He's very good, very charismatic. Raoul, and Christine...
Its TWO redeeming qualities are Raoul and Christine, or more to the point, Christine's legs, which are cute. They would be more than cute, but she was underage at the time.
The Phantom himself, get this, could not sing. By this I mean he wasn't very good. The score had to be dropped an octave at certain points to accomodate his low voice: if you're going to immortalize Phantom of the Opera on film, for Pete's sake get someone who can sing the part!
There's a not-half-bad sword fight that ends SO RIDICULOUSLY that you want to just walk out on the movie right then and there.
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WordWolf
Casting "the Phantom" with a guy who can't sing should be considered
a criminal act.
The least they could do was overdub him with a real singer.
I'll probably have to skip it just to keep from getting traumatic
flashbacks of the horrible swordfight you mentioned.
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Raf
Oh my, I almost forgot!
WordWolf and I (and three others) saw the stage production once from the front row! You could actually see the Phantom spit as he sang (ewwww).
But there was no swordfight.
The Scarlet Pimpernel had a swordfight. Dang cool one, too.
Now THAT musical should be made into a movie.
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WordWolf
I don't even want to know where they stuck the
swordfight.
I didn't spot the guy spitting, but from the front row,
I felt the heat wash over me when the Phantom
disappeared in a "flash" of light.
I suppose they left that out of the movie.
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Raf
The swordfight was stuck in (no pun intended) at the scene where Christine visits her father's grave. In the stage production it's when the Phantom starts shooting cheesy looking fireballs at Christine and Raoul. The swordfight replaced that. It's not a great swordfight, but not an awful one either (my standards are low). It's just that the ending of the swordfight is utterly unforgivable. I mean, it's "I'm a-fixin' to walk out on this movie" bad.
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George Aar
Raf,
Re: "Now THAT musical should be made into a movie."
Wasn't the Musical made from the Movie? ("The Scarlet Pimpernel" with Leslie Howard in the lead).
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Raf
Sort of. But that's like saying Dr. No was a sequel to Casino Royale.
Which is to say, the Scarlet Pimpernel was a series of books turned into movies. The first novel was also turned into a musical. They used the same source material.
Same with Phantom, by the way. It was a novel turned into many movies, then later into a musical, and now the musical has been made into a movie...
Wait a minute, you were messing with me, weren't you? George Aargh!
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2life
I LOVED the stage production of Phanthom--was very excieted to see this movie...and.....it was just boring...incredibly boring...
now I don't know what I expected.....but something more than this!
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