Rating: 
Summary: Beauty and the Phantom
Review: What a disappointment! I first saw SUSPIRIA in the seventies and it knocked me out. It was simply one of the best horror films I had ever seen! I became an Argento fan and have seen and collected as many of his films as I could.The idea of a truely horrific PHANTOM really interested me, but this seemed a shambles. Most of the problems are noted in an earlier review, but I would like to add that to develop this idea of the Phantom as a bestial creature who actually says, "I am a rat," and as also a tormented human being in love with Christine would take excellent writers--an ingredient which Argento almost always lacks. Some motivation for his obsession with Christine (since he's no longer a composer, wanting his unpublished opera performed) other than as lust, really needs to be filled in. Christine's whorish behavior need to be explained also--I'm not asking for Tenessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill, but there's nothing to hold onto here, which makes the violent episodes seem gratuitous. One doesn't look to politically correct attitudes in horror (what a waste!), but, that said, Argento's attacks on women, fat people and sexual devients here seems particularly mean spirited. There are, as always, some dazzling visuals and the film is worth collecting for hard core Argento fans like me--others would be advised to be cautious.
Rating:
Summary: A disgrace to Phantom
Review: One thing I can say about this film is that it is filled withevery type of deviant behavior one can imagine. This film bordersbetween X and NC-17. Oh and great job with the camera shots, I especially like the scenes where he uses one camera. The voice overs do not match at all.
Rating:
Summary: Phantom Insult!
Review: I bought this DVD hoping that it would reflect on the story of the oringinal Phantom of the Opera written by Gaston Leroux or on Andrew Lloyd Webber's version but I was utterly disapointed! I must say that some scenes were "interesting" but the storyline was really bad. I think that if this Movie had any more nudity of sexual scenes it would have been rated as a porno. Seriously, I found this movie as a disgrace to Leroux's story and a disgusting way of portraying Christine Daae's character as the Phantom's whore. The Phantom character wasn't even deformed, classy, or a musical genius, just some guy raised by rats in the celler of the Paris Opera House. If I could I would give this DVD/Movie a big fat ZERO it isn't even worth one star let alone $18.98!
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: Argento's phantom is a long-haired handsome killer (Julian Sands) brought up by rats in the Paris sewers in a prologue lifted straight from the opening penguin baby scenes of Batman Returns. The basic story is the same as in the other versions in that he kidnaps a young opera singer (Asia Argento) and murders people so that she can sing in Romeo and Juliet at the Paris opera. Unfortunately, storytelling was never really Argento's strong point and here the need for a proper narrative defeats him entirely. The relationship between Sands and Asia is dealt with in a hurried 2m scene near the beginning and therefore most of the running time is padded out with irrelevant murders and other scenes of depravity which are occasionally interesting in themselves but don't advance the narrative and could easily have been removed without anyone noticing. A few scenes are also really weird and out of kilter particularly a scene set in a bathhouse brothel featuring lots of naked, fat people and a long scene in which the rat catcher and his dwarf sidekick whiz through the underground caverns on a motorised rat killing machine which then crashes and decapitates the dwarf. And what about the wacko hallucinations the phantom has sitting on the obviously fake roof of the opera ? Visually it looks splendid and the Hungarian operahouse locations also look authentic and great. Lovely photography which is in tune with the depraved nature of the subject matter by its use of a soupy yellow haze. Several very gory scenes (body ripped in half, tongue pulled out, hand eaten by rats) but even these lack any real flair and have negligible suspense compared to Argento's traditonally tour-de-force murders. There's even an anti-climatic ending in which the phantom is merely shot by the police. Must be seen as a major disappointment. The DVD extras are also feeble - the behind-the-scenes documentary suddenly cuts out after 10m just when it is getting interesting and the Sands interview is pathetic.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of Synch Sound - see Video Watchdog 57
Review: The magazine Video Watchdog has an article about the sound being out of synch on the 5:1 track for about 40mins of the movie (noted on some review comments below). Correct sound in 2:0 track.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Argento
Review: I feel somewhat like I'm cheating, since I haven't actually viewed the DVD, but I figured that, since the rental version is, for some reason, not considered by Amazon.com to be the same movie, I'd put my review in a place where more people will read it. That said, this movie is utterly detestable. Let me just say that the minute you decide to make the Phantom look like a normal person with the exception of looking like a homeless man, you're asking for trouble. And when you have the Phantom have sex with Christine, you're asking for even more trouble. (Don't get me wrong, I find Asia Argento as attractive as any other heterosexual male, but does the film really need it?) The rat catchers were surprisingly not the worst thing about this movie, despite the fact that they were an extremely annoyingly unfunny aspect of the film. If only Argento could have made this in either the late seventies or early eighties. As it is, it's not even as good as Terror at the Opera, a film which had, up until now, been the only Argento-directed film I actually disliked.
Rating:
Summary: It IS in Widescreen !
Review: Whatever you think of the actual movie, the DVD IS in widescreen...you just have to change some settings on your player to see it that way. For some reason, the disc was manufactured in a way that won't play the WS side automatically...instead it stretches it out for 16x9 making it look full-frame on both sides. But, if you go into your DVD player set-up features, choose LBX or 4x3 and all will work fine. On my player (Panasonic), I had to change the settings in two separate areas to finally get the WS side to play correctly. It's there, though, so go get it. The movie itself is substandard Argento, but still entertaining in a weird sort of way....much more watchable than Trauma or Stendhal. And I couldn't believe the amount of nudity in the "unrated" DVD...something not usual for Argento. The DVD image is OK, but there is some artifacting going on in the background, but it's not the worst I've seen. Overall, it's a must purchase for Argento fans...flaws and all.
Rating:
Summary: Warning - not widescreen!
Review: The viewer from Oakland is correct. I have so far tried two DVDS of this, and on each disc the supposedly widescreen side turned out to be full-frame with nothing but a slightly stretched look to suggest it started out as anamorphic. I have no interest in watching a Dario Argento film in anything but the correct ratio - let's face it, we don't watch his films for the dialogue.
Rating:
Summary: A huge misstep.
Review: Dario Argento in the '90s is lapsing more and more into plotting and drama (not his strongest suits) and steering away from the kinetic imagery and bizarre dreamscapes that he excels at. His take on Phantom of the Opera is so full of holes, lapses in character logic and acting atrocities that it's barely recognizable as an Argento film, other than his trademark gory murders, which are even more forced than ever on this film (the tongue scene, especially -- once the actress stuck her tongue out ready for the shot, I fell backwards laughing). The most grievous wound in this movie's side is the casting of Asia Argento -- her youth and everygirl appeal livened up Trauma and her intensity and strength rescued The Stendhal Syndrome, but here, playing Christine Daae, she falls completely short. The one thing Asia lacks is highbrow presence, and she's never been great at playing the fragile victim. So here, stuck with a role where she basically has to scream and cry and be a complete puppet to the male characters, Asia looks positively embarrassed, especially during those ridiculous opera scenes. While in the past she's managed to raise the standards of acting in her father's films, in this one she sinks like a rock. The overall sound design of the film is off-kilter -- dialogue is frequently in poor sync with the image (a common Argento problem -- too much ADR?). Most of the time there's no sense of real ambience; you almost never buy that characters are really talking in certain spaces; they always sound like they're talking in a studio. Some plus sides: Julian Sands is a visually interesting phantom (though the script can't seem to decide what the real love/hate relationship between Christine and the Phantom is, resulting in a central relationship with no emotional impact whatsoever); the Ennio Morricone score fits the setting and mood; and moments of humour (the rat exterminator's machine is hilarious) help redeem the film somewhat. The DVD bonus material is abundant, though as with quite a few "behind the scenes" sections that I've seen, there lacks a strong directorial hand in the editing -- the behind-the-scenes footage is just pieced together, with no sense of direction or coherence. It *is* amusing to watch Asia's interaction with Dario on set, if only we'd gotten more of it. The Fangoria article and filmographies are a great touch, but the Julian Sands article makes Sands come across as one of the most inarticulate human beings on earth. For die-hard Argento fans only.
Rating:
Summary: has Dario lost his mojo?
Review: After the dissappointments of Two Evil Eyes, Trauma, and The Stendahl Syndrome, Dario Argento has returned to form (well, sort-of) with The Phantom of the Opera. The script is by Roman Polanski collaborator Gerard Brach, and the film is gorgeously shot by Ronnie (Opera) Taylor. The murder scenes are pretty cool (the chandelier scene is awesome), but Dario needs to go more balls-out like he did with Opera and Suspiria. Not bad, but knowing Dario's work, it could be alot better.
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