Dario Argento’s gory remake of the Gaston Leroux classic story, only this time, the phantom is not disfigured, but a man who was raised by rats deep under the Paris Opera House.
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Sadly the film has huge problems and one of them is Asia Argento as she is no soprano nor as angelic as her father apparently believes. Julian Sands fare better as the Phantom though and the film looks gorgeous (at times). Crazy scenes involving a rat-catcher and his strange machine invention is so weird an idea that I thought I was seeing a different film. "Opera" was a much better modernization of the same story.
This was so bad that I actually enjoyed it. Julian Sands horribly overacting, ridiculous VFX, a dialogue that makes you laugh in places where you’re not supposed to laugh –but at least you’re laughing and not getting bored. Actually at times you get a glimpse of what this movie could have been: a burlesque reinterpretation of the Leroux’s original, a grotesque operatic comedy. Which it is not. But I’m still laughing.
Mmm, chewy... Can't think of anything good to say. Sorry, Argento. Even the hammy acting and the ratmobile are too ridiculous to be anything else than tedious. The worst part is that Argento's atmospheric visual style is nowhere to be seen.