MOVIE REVIEWS

**SENSATIONAL** Great cast, fantastic music, beautiful storyline. Can't help but watch it over and over. The music just stays with you and haunts you for days after. The Phantom just draws you in... this movie has everything going for it. It's a drama, comedy and romantic, and a great looking cast. The stage production was fabulous, it's so much better watching it on the big screen. The phantom being the villain, you just feel for him and his love for Christine. Not to mention that fact that he's so hot. That's something I wasn't expecting. I couldn't keep my eyes off him. The movie is stunning, the music absolutely superb. The cast WOW especially Gerard...what a hunk. I must say I bought the DVD, which had extras of the original phantom with the original stage cast. The movie I think is so much better. Gerard is superb, his emotional state was so believable. As were the rest of the cast. I still cry at the final scene. Definitely a movie to watch and don't forget the tissue. A wonderful love story. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius and I've fallen in love with Gerard. (This was my only IMDB review and I pinched it back)

I was fortunate enough to see this on stage and this version holds up quite well, by comparison. Sure, some of the dialogue scenes are cheesy, almost Disney-esque, but the quality of the music is consistently high with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart's wonderful music and lyrics delivered well by Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson - who is surprisingly engaging as "Raoul". It hasn't the impact nor menace of either the 1923 or 1943 iterations, the colour and glamour of the costumes and sets see to that; but that doesn't impact too negatively on the story of a young opera singer "Christine" who becomes the obsession of the murderous "Phantom" who lives in the sewers beneath the Opéra Populaire in Paris. Luckily, she has the dashing, chivalrous "Vicomte de Chagny" to keep her from her scarred pursuer. Minnie Driver is great as the ultimate diva "Carlotta", and Simon Callow and Ciarán Hinds as the sort of "Stadler and Waldorf" of theatre management create some light comical breathing space now and again from the continuous pace of this sumptuous drama. Miranda Richardson doesn't quite cut it as "Madama Giry", nor Jennifer Ellison as "Meg" - but all in all, Joel Schumacher has created a feast for the eyes that does some justice to Gaston Leroux' original story, and even more to the magnificent musical theatre adaptation from 1986 with rousing performances of "Think of Me"; "Music of the Night" and the eponymous title track made famous by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman to entertain us.