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Victor/Victoria

Victor/Victoria

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh Please this is just GREAT ART! Done Well!
Review: As for the gay theme of the DVD hey thats part of what makes it great. The DVD is sharp clear crisp and the sound is killer good. The story is sweet and in all ways beautiful, romantic, heart touching and lovely. Yes there is a gay theme throughout the movie hey its about a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman in Gay Pari'.

This movie does not attempt to preach, it just has fun in that uniquely awesome inspired playful way all good gay men have that leaves the room howling with torrents of laughter. The movie is a playful romp through 1930's Paris night life when it was taudry, common and the most fun you could have for so little money. The movie is not over the top with Gay characters that was and is the nature of this part of show business. Leave your prejudices at the door and let the movie be itself you will enjoy it even more that way. Victor Victoria is just a playful imaginative whimsical what if delight not a documentary on gay issues. Victor Victoria is a fun peek inside the very best of the gay show club life of this time period that might leave you with a better understanding of the universality of what it means to truly love another.

If you can't find it in yourself to love this movie you are cheating yourself of a purely awesome humorous and human growth experience. I'd buy Victor Victoria sooner rather than later just because its that good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loved it at the theatre in 1982...
Review: ...and on VHS (which I've viewed so many times that the tape is wearing out and beginning to drop the audio!). My DVD copy is now on order and I can't wait to see it in the perfection that this format will offer!

All of the other "five-star" responses, pretty much sum up "Victor/Victoria" for me, too. It's simply a wonderful, wonderful film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I hate musicals, but...
Review: Great wit, wonderful set design, very good acting - What can one say bad about the film? Perhaps the plethora of homosexuals was a bit over the top, as was the part of the private investigator, but these are nit-picks hardly noticed against the backround of most modern releases. While I dislike musicals intensely, this one is different, most obviously in the setting for the music. Unlike the incongruous breaking out in song in the middle of conversation, this movie's music occurs within the framework of nightclub acts. This adds to the credibility of a plot that could have spun out of control, much as S.O.B. did (unfortunately). What really sets this movie apart from the crowd of box-office hits that plague us is the incredible wit of the dialogue. The writing is truly wonderful! And Preston is perfect for his character, his repartee style as sharp as the lines Blake Edwards puts in his mouth.
It is my tendency to pick apart films on the issue of credibility, allowing as we should for the genre of the film. H.G.Wells once said that good science fiction depended on introducing one and only one fantastic idea, and then developing a plot whose events would follow reasonably from that one idea. Bad science fiction, he said, introduces several such incredible inventions and ideas, creating a plot too fantastic for the reader to immerse him/herself in. So too with movies. Good comedy, science fiction, drama, even action plots, should have one premise that might stretch the limit of credibility, and then develop the plot reasonably from there. Most modern box-office hits fail to do this, and in the process of feeding us one fantasy after another to stimulate our interest and attract our dollars, dulls our minds. Victor / Victoria is good writing because it starts with its one major premise - an unsuccessful, though talented singer achieving fame and fortune by altering her sexual image - and lets the plot play itself out. There are a few minor stretches beside the main premise, but without fantastic physical feats, explosions, car chases, and CG effects, Edwards has created a script that pulls - rather than pushes - you in to the plot. The weakest part of the plot is the fact that Andrew's character attains success not just by cross-dressing, but also by substantially altering her act. We are supposed to ignore the fact that she has changed from simply singing to singing with well choreographed movement. However, this is not a serious flaw, because in the real Hollywood (and Broadway), very good talent is habitually unsuccessful, while the fantastic and ridiculous is placed on an altar. (Does anyone really think Schwarzenegger can act?)
Did I say acting? Perhaps I saved the best for last. Andrews playing herself is perfect here, Garner is fantastic, and Leslie Ann Warren adapted to her character's personality so completely that I hardly realized it was her. And, at the risk of repetition, Preston is perfection itself. The set design was almost excessive in the distraction it caused, for you could not help noticing how artfully it was designed and lit. Finally, Henry Mancini wrote the music. The DVD commentary added substantially to the production, making the entire package a 5-star offering, a rating I rarely give.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Julie Andrews vuelve ha encontrarse a ella misma.
Review: Julie Andrews vuelve ha encontrase con uno de sus mejores personajes, dandole otra vez vida, en esta deliciosa comedia musical .La obra esta actualisada para los tiempos que corren,
y quizas por eso sigue siendo fresca y emotiva a la vez.
El DvD tiene un sonido 5.1 estupendo y la imagen esta llena de contraste con unos colores bien definidos.
Tienes que pensar que por la voz de Julie han pasado 20 aƱos pero como esta divina se le puede perdonar.
!Que lo disfruteis!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An entertaining movie.
Review: This is an entertaining movie with Julie Andrews and James Garner. It has some really comic moments, and the ensemble cast is appealing. Hearing Andrews sing is always worth the price. This is not Sound of Music, though, and the subject matter is for the mature minded.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Viva Victor/Victoria
Review: VICTOR/VICTORIA is an interesting mix: a big movie musical with a cozy feel, broad slapstick with a message, a sexual farce so widely palatable and unobjectionable that it borders on family entertainment. And it works on every level. The script is funny and smart, the music memorable, the cinematography lush and warm, the physical comedy perfectly choreographed. There are no standout performances here: everyone from Julie Andrews to the bit players are uniformly superb.

The commentary by Ms. Andrews and Blake Edwards is largely self-congratulatory, and there are frequent long lapses where they seem to forget what they're supposed to be doing and merely sit silently watching the movie. It all seems too off-the-cuff. They might have previewed the film and given a little thought to what they were going to say before the recorder was turned on. But this is quibbling. There are plenty of DVD packages out there with more and better bells and whistles than VICTOR/VICTORIA, but when it comes right down to it the movie's the thing, and there are few that are finer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Delightful gender confusion
Review: This is a delightful investigation of gender roles and taboos that never gets vulgar or heavy. The struggling singer Victoria gets her break as the elegant but camp Victor who wows the Parisian audiences. A straight guy falls in love with her/him and while the plot unravels, the viewer is challenged to reassess their own attitudes to the male and female. The acting is brilliant and the musical numbers are great too - my favorite is the song about the Matador (a rat-tat-tat-ador). In a way, last year's "Moulin Rouge" reminded me a bit of Victor/Victoria, because it has the same setting and is equally delightful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Julie Andrews has vocal range
Review: Basic story is of (Julie Andrews) a starving out of work female singer that has to pose as a man pretending to be a woman in order to get work. She meets a promoter (James Garner) who is at odds as to his/her gender. After a sneak peek he knows the difference but what about his big time gangster buddies?
This is more than a remake movie as it has a lot of Blake Edward's in it, and many top actors and singers. However that is a character (Blake Edwards as Charles Bovin, Private Investigator hired by Labisse) that distracts from the movie by using too many slapstick scenes that do not fit the story. Over looking this distraction you find singing ranges that very few people can match in Julie Andrews. Leslie Ann Warren is like a shiny toy. There are way too many great actors to mention in this review.
You will like the story. You will like the singing. You will want to watch this over and again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: NOW THIS IS FUNNY
Review: For the mature audience. Super funny. Andrews and Garner in rare form. Wonderful! Yes, get this one. The gay community never had it so good. This is a love story involving gays without being distasteful or incorrect. No one gets hurt in this one. Just good fun. The star is really Robert Preston. Just GREAT!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mary Poppins meets the Pink Panther
Review: I originally saw Victor/Victoria on the big screen. It is a classic combination of a Julie Andrews musical and a Blake Edwards comedy. They are both at their best. It is a bit like Mary Poppins meets The Pink Panther (meets The Birdcage). I remember it is the only film that I actually fell out of my seat because I was laughing so hard.
Watching it again on DVD I am extremely impressed with the quality of the transfer. The colors are richly preserved, the picture is in it's original Widescreen format and the soundtrack is in 5.1 surround. But the most wonderful thing is the ability to listen to two of cinema's greats, Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards, giving us their insights in a feature length commentary.
Their recollections and anecdotes enhance the experience of a film that I have watched over and over.


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