Evita

Rating:
Summary: Very underrated-Amazing cinematography-art direction-editing
Review: I have never liked musicals. I'm a fan of Pink Floyd, The Who, Kiss and such but I watched this because Alan Parker directed it and I'm a fan of his film "Pink Floyd: The Wall." This is awsome. It's basically one big, long music video with a pop/rock score which I suprisingly admit is really good. The cinematography and art direction are visually awsome. The editing is also incredible. The "Lady's Got Potential" scene is one of my favorites where they play rock'n'roll music and cut all around to these scenes of war and chaos in the streets. It's cool how they show her with the Pope and they're playing rock'n'roll music; the combination is rare. I'll put this move on and crank up the volume. I have a new respect for musicals now. (Just the contemorary pop/rock ones like this.)

Rating:
Summary: Great Songs, Great Film, Some Departure From History
Review: This film is extremely entertaining, Madonna with her re-trained voice sang beautifully, and the music was perfect for her. Antonio Banderas was a complete surprise with his performance (and he had the appropriate accent, unlike the famous "Che" of stage-performance days). The story, however, departs significantly from real history in omitting the overwhelming majority of the Perons' unsavory aspects. They essentially were dictators, constantly fearing rebellion by unions and/or the military, while they looted the Argentine nation and feathered their own wealth. They ran a police state wherein a mere expression of "disrespect" for Evita -- such as laughing at the wrong time, when she spoke -- would lead to a three-year prison sentence. Others received worse treatment, being evicted from the country or imprisoned within a system that freely used torture.

Read some real history about the Perons, before you proclaim Evita a saint -- but at the same time, enjoy the film, so long as you realize that it is highly over-romanticized.

Rating:
Summary: Two good songs aren't worth enduring two hours of noise.
Review: This was a truly dreadful musical. It shouldn't be surprising it was a flop. The one surprising thing I discovered was that Banderas can both act and sing. Or perhaps he wasn't acting, he was just being himself. In any event, he would do better to act as he did in this movie, rather than the usual cartoon like characters he plays. There was far too much of Madonna's off-key wailing for my liking. It's a pity my DVD doesn't have a button to filter her out. The musical might have been watchable if it had one.

Rating:
Summary: Great acting
Review: I love this movie because its very funny. Che is very sexy and Evita is very convincing

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: Eventhough, it's partially true what the other opinion says about Nazis scaping from Germany, something else should be said. In that order, it should be known that Argentina helped the jewish community as no other country did. Argentina holds -as a fact- the third largest jewish populations of the world, so the words of the other comment should be taken in the appropiate scenario.

Rating:
Summary: Springtime for Evita
Review: It took nearly twenty years for Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular musical about Argentinean heroine Eva Peron to make a transition to the screen. And beyond its lavish production and smokey atmosphere, there is little worth praising. There is not a word of spoken dialogue to punctuate the musical strains of Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, which renders the storyline a dull mess. And if that wasn't bad enough, we have Madonna. Saint Madonna. This octavelly challenged singer must have been chosen for her name alone. To listen to her struggle with the vocal range that these songs demand is nothing short of embarrassing. Jonathan Pryce as dictator Juan Peron simply mumbles and fumbles his songs. Funny, actually. But also good for a laugh is Antonio Banderas who is nearly indecipherable as Che -- the Everyman who passes "judgment". Interesting enough, Hollywood has chosen to whitewash Evita. Interesting because Eva Peron and her husband Juan Peron were personally responsible for helping Nazi's escape punishment (including Adolf Eichmann). Indeed, it was surprising that the American media provided no counterpoint to the films hype. Not that it matters.

Rating:
Summary: I hate musicals
Review: I really enjoyed this movie. I just saw it tonight and was taken aback by how believable Madonna was and how WONDERFUL Antonio Bandarres was. I do believe Antonio should have recieved something as he was just as important as Madonna. A great movie, and for someone who hates musicals, and is not Madonna's hugest fan..That says something.
I did notice something was pretty funny about the movie. Madonna and Eva Peron were identicle in a lot of ways. Promiscuous, used sex to get to the top, and were powerful figures in their societies.
Kind of makes you laugh at all the controversy huh.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie many historical innacuracies
Review: I am a true Madonna fan and even before Madonna made this movie, I was already hooked to the story of Eva Peron.
Although the movie itself is amazing, the visual effects, the music even how much Madonna looked like Eva and portrayed her strong character, there are so many historical incongruences, the way it was implied Eva slept her way to the top (maybe she did have affairs with notable gentlemen but she isn't the first or the last one to sleep her way, is she?), the first thing that made me shake my head was her father's funeral scene, in real life Eva was the only one who did not feel a thing about her father's dead, yet in the movie she cries and goes and kisses him. Another very big innacuracy is the unproven fact that Eva ran away with Magaldi, the tango singer, even though it's one of the many theories on how she made it to the big city and perhaps the most accepted, but, he was not married nor he had a child.
I could go on and on and on about the many errors in the movie, rumor has it that Rice and Webber based the whole musical solely on one book, without doing any extensive reasearch about the life of Eva Peron, I read the book that they claim was the base for the whole thing and I have to say, it's the most boring book I've read and it was written by a total anti peronist.
In short, if you want to see a good musical, great scenarios, nice customs, very good music and see a great Madonna performance, EVITA will please you, however, if you are interested in the life of the real Eva, I suggest you get some of the books that are offered here, like the one by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz or the one by Marisa Navarro and even the novel Santa Evita (GREAT BOOK), they will give you a better view and you can rest assure that extensive research was done by their authors and it's not a partial view of 2 people who only write music or of an anti peronist who decided to bad mouth Evita.

Rating:
Summary: A musical for the MTV generation
Review: Evita is a very interesting musical; a hybrid between classical musicals and music videos. A classic musical uses the song and dance numbers as a means to "make the point" of the scene presceeding the number, moving the narrative forward, and as a segway into the next part of the film. In the case of EVITA, the song and dance IS the narrative, making it unique to the genre.
EVITA is visualy stunning, elegant and somber. Filmed in a sort of color sepia that works very well with the period. The role of Eva Peron was indeed ment for Madonna, scince the film is basicaly the most [costly] and lavish music video ever filmed, who better than the best video actress of our generation to portray her? Although Madonna can't seem to "be in the moment" when she acts in non-singing roles, once she hears and feels the music, like in her videos, she lets it possess and guide her emotionally beautifly with all the range and emotion required of beleivable acting. I do hope she "gets it" one day, and not be as painfully self conscious when acting with out music.
The overall tone of the movie is a bit lugubrious (It begins and ends with funerals) but worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Good, But You Need Patti Lupone
Review: Madonna is fine as Evita. She's hip, she's cool and looks very much like Eva Peron. Her voice is okay, however the voice of the original Broadway Eva, Patti Lupone is much better.
Antonia Bandares gives an Oscar worthy performance as Che and even though the title "Pop Opera" is more for the original Mandy Patankin, and the term "Hispanic Opera" is more for Bandares.
In all the film is very good. The music and lyrics are superb and the art direction, cinematography and script are even better! You have to cry for Argentina if you have never see Evita and want to.