Phantom, a flawed masterpiece - or, I really do like Richard Gere, just don't get me started on Chicago
FACT: Joel Schumacher has made more "good" movies than "bad". The Lost Boys (87), Flatliners (90), Falling Down (93), A Time to Kill (96), Tigerland (00, and the best movie of that year), Phone Booth (02) and even The Incredible Shrinking Woman (81, his first major film in the director's chair), D.C. Cab (83), St. Elmo's Fire (85), Cousins (89), Dying Young (91), The Client (94), Batman Forever (95), Flawless (99) and Veronica Guerin (03) are not complete wastes. Then, there's the questionable one: 8MM (99) and the just plain bad one: Bad Company (02) - which brings me to Batman & Robin (97) which isn't necessarily good, bad or questionable; it is what it is: one of the most universally agreed upon "worst" films of all-time. Well, there's something to be said for that - but mark my words people, Joel Schumacher is not a "bad" director. It has become this thing where we all joke about it (about him) because of the "nipples on the bat suit" that he has led this unfortunate legacy of cinematic crap. Bullshit (see above). For any potential 'slinger of shit' the Schumacher way, ask yourself one question first: "Didn't you fucking love The Lost Boys?" Andrew Lloyd Webber did. That's why he contracted Schumacher to turn Phantom of the Opera into a film as far back as 1990. But before we get into that, I'll tell you the single most reason why I respect Joel Schumacher, and why he isn't a bad film-maker: he turned down both Forrest Gump and Chicago (one of the worst films I have ever seen). So, if admitting to you that I think both of those "Best Picture" Academy Award winners are two festering piles of drippy dog-crap disuades you from reading my thoughts on Schumacher's most recent film, Phantom, then click away.
Phantom of the Opera is so nearly a perfect film. Forget the show, although that's hard to do isn't it? More than any other "musical film" this one had a built-in audience to end all built-in audiences. 80 million people have watched the stage musical across 65,000 performances in 18 countries to a box office of $3.2 billion. The film had no way of ever living up to that. Hell, even I (the hermit to end all hermits) saw the show once in D.C. performed by a national touring company (sans Crawford and Brightman). It moved me greatly. Simply put, the show is an enduring work of art. Film is a different medium. I have read the criticism that Schumacher basically filmed the stage version. I don't know which of the 780 (that's a slight exaggeration) filmed versions of Gaston Leroux's novel that critic saw - but he/she didn't see this one. Maybe they were confusing this movie with Chicago - which was less than a 'filmed version' of the stage show; the filmmakers (if you can call them that) took a Bob Fosse show and turned it into a Richard Gere trying not to let the gerbal out of his ass while tap-dancing extravaganza. I know, I shouldn't be one of "those people" who keep those urban myths alive, but did you actually see Richard Tiffany Gere's big number in that needless clap-trap? That's right, for those of you that did not know, Richard Gere's middle name is "Tiffany". 'Nuff said. Although Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Catherine Zeta-Jones and especially Renée Zellweger have to go down in history for leading one of the WORST ensemble casts since Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (01). Yikes.
Webber obviously saw something in Schumacher as far back as the mid-eighties. They agreed to turn his Phantom into a film as soon as possible, but the usual production difficulties came up and prohibited them from collaborating until just this past year. Antonio Banderas was even rumoured at one point to play the Phantom (thank God this one fell through - I think he's due for another Spy Kids sequel any second now). I can't tell you what Phantom (the film) would have looked like if it was directed by someone other than Schumacher - but I can tell you that watching this immensely entertaining film is like finding an undiscovered treasure. No one really made a fuss over it when it was out in theaters several months ago. But now's your chance. Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow and Ciarán Hinds did the best job that anyone could have done in Schumacher's Phantom. Minnie Driver stole the show in what is probably her best performance (minus the dubbed opera singing) she has ever given. Who did I leave out? Wait, let's see - oh yeah, the Phantom!
Okay, so Gerard Butler is no Michael Crawford. I never would have envisioned him in this role - not in a million years. But, it worked. Don't ask me how - I don't get paid to do this. For some strange (and maybe even slightly sick) reason - he pulls it off. He makes it work for him. God bless 'em. God bless us all. See the movie. The music is transcedent. The cinematography is outstanding. The production design, art direction and costumes were brilliant. The singing is 97% perfect and this particular Phantom is brooding as well as sympathetic (if not just a tad bit pathetic). I didn't want to like this film. I still don't want to like it. But if there's something of the "horror" afficionado in you - then you can't pass this one up. It retains a slight (and intentional) bit of camp to it, and it is the quintessential classical "horror musical" to ever come along. It's more than that by the way. It's a universally moving story and one of (if not entirely) the greatest musical song-books of all-time. This time it just happened to be set to film, with "most" of the ingredients contained. See how many times the hair on your arms stands up throughout the course of hearing these songs sung.
"I have no regrets - Batman & Robin was good for my old age." - Joel Schumacher
"It looks like Chris Nolan's being allowed to do the Dark Knight stuff. I'm sure it'll be great. My only regret is that I didn't get to do Batman: Year One. I only wanted to do a small, interesting Batman but I was never allowed to." - Schumacher
**** 1/2 (for "musical fantasies")
**** (for a regular film)
FACT: Joel Schumacher has made more "good" movies than "bad". The Lost Boys (87), Flatliners (90), Falling Down (93), A Time to Kill (96), Tigerland (00, and the best movie of that year), Phone Booth (02) and even The Incredible Shrinking Woman (81, his first major film in the director's chair), D.C. Cab (83), St. Elmo's Fire (85), Cousins (89), Dying Young (91), The Client (94), Batman Forever (95), Flawless (99) and Veronica Guerin (03) are not complete wastes. Then, there's the questionable one: 8MM (99) and the just plain bad one: Bad Company (02) - which brings me to Batman & Robin (97) which isn't necessarily good, bad or questionable; it is what it is: one of the most universally agreed upon "worst" films of all-time. Well, there's something to be said for that - but mark my words people, Joel Schumacher is not a "bad" director. It has become this thing where we all joke about it (about him) because of the "nipples on the bat suit" that he has led this unfortunate legacy of cinematic crap. Bullshit (see above). For any potential 'slinger of shit' the Schumacher way, ask yourself one question first: "Didn't you fucking love The Lost Boys?" Andrew Lloyd Webber did. That's why he contracted Schumacher to turn Phantom of the Opera into a film as far back as 1990. But before we get into that, I'll tell you the single most reason why I respect Joel Schumacher, and why he isn't a bad film-maker: he turned down both Forrest Gump and Chicago (one of the worst films I have ever seen). So, if admitting to you that I think both of those "Best Picture" Academy Award winners are two festering piles of drippy dog-crap disuades you from reading my thoughts on Schumacher's most recent film, Phantom, then click away.
Phantom of the Opera is so nearly a perfect film. Forget the show, although that's hard to do isn't it? More than any other "musical film" this one had a built-in audience to end all built-in audiences. 80 million people have watched the stage musical across 65,000 performances in 18 countries to a box office of $3.2 billion. The film had no way of ever living up to that. Hell, even I (the hermit to end all hermits) saw the show once in D.C. performed by a national touring company (sans Crawford and Brightman). It moved me greatly. Simply put, the show is an enduring work of art. Film is a different medium. I have read the criticism that Schumacher basically filmed the stage version. I don't know which of the 780 (that's a slight exaggeration) filmed versions of Gaston Leroux's novel that critic saw - but he/she didn't see this one. Maybe they were confusing this movie with Chicago - which was less than a 'filmed version' of the stage show; the filmmakers (if you can call them that) took a Bob Fosse show and turned it into a Richard Gere trying not to let the gerbal out of his ass while tap-dancing extravaganza. I know, I shouldn't be one of "those people" who keep those urban myths alive, but did you actually see Richard Tiffany Gere's big number in that needless clap-trap? That's right, for those of you that did not know, Richard Gere's middle name is "Tiffany". 'Nuff said. Although Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Catherine Zeta-Jones and especially Renée Zellweger have to go down in history for leading one of the WORST ensemble casts since Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (01). Yikes.
Webber obviously saw something in Schumacher as far back as the mid-eighties. They agreed to turn his Phantom into a film as soon as possible, but the usual production difficulties came up and prohibited them from collaborating until just this past year. Antonio Banderas was even rumoured at one point to play the Phantom (thank God this one fell through - I think he's due for another Spy Kids sequel any second now). I can't tell you what Phantom (the film) would have looked like if it was directed by someone other than Schumacher - but I can tell you that watching this immensely entertaining film is like finding an undiscovered treasure. No one really made a fuss over it when it was out in theaters several months ago. But now's your chance. Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow and Ciarán Hinds did the best job that anyone could have done in Schumacher's Phantom. Minnie Driver stole the show in what is probably her best performance (minus the dubbed opera singing) she has ever given. Who did I leave out? Wait, let's see - oh yeah, the Phantom!
Okay, so Gerard Butler is no Michael Crawford. I never would have envisioned him in this role - not in a million years. But, it worked. Don't ask me how - I don't get paid to do this. For some strange (and maybe even slightly sick) reason - he pulls it off. He makes it work for him. God bless 'em. God bless us all. See the movie. The music is transcedent. The cinematography is outstanding. The production design, art direction and costumes were brilliant. The singing is 97% perfect and this particular Phantom is brooding as well as sympathetic (if not just a tad bit pathetic). I didn't want to like this film. I still don't want to like it. But if there's something of the "horror" afficionado in you - then you can't pass this one up. It retains a slight (and intentional) bit of camp to it, and it is the quintessential classical "horror musical" to ever come along. It's more than that by the way. It's a universally moving story and one of (if not entirely) the greatest musical song-books of all-time. This time it just happened to be set to film, with "most" of the ingredients contained. See how many times the hair on your arms stands up throughout the course of hearing these songs sung.
"I have no regrets - Batman & Robin was good for my old age." - Joel Schumacher
"It looks like Chris Nolan's being allowed to do the Dark Knight stuff. I'm sure it'll be great. My only regret is that I didn't get to do Batman: Year One. I only wanted to do a small, interesting Batman but I was never allowed to." - Schumacher
**** 1/2 (for "musical fantasies")
**** (for a regular film)
