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Phantom of the Paradise Review

May 23, 2016 by JD Hansel

Whoops.  I only meant to watch the first few minutes of the movie before going to bed, so I wonder, how did I end up staying awake into the middle of the night to finish it?  Oops.  I meant to return it to the library after I watched it, and yet somehow it stayed in my computer with PowerDVD running different scenes from it everyday, which I accidentally kept watching.  Oh, poopy – I had other music I meant to listen to, so why have I been listening to this soundtrack so much over the past month?  Uh oh, it looks like a Blu-Ray copy of this movie somehow became a priority on my birthday wishlist, even though I had more important needs than another Blu-Ray for my collection.  Crap!  I wasn’t supposed to be happy that I actually got the Blu-Ray for my birthday instead of an external hard drive!

And to think, horror isn’t really a genre I go for, so I wasn’t even supposed to like this very much.  Whoops-a-daisy.  By gosh, it sure is amazing what mistakes can be made because of something nearly flawless.

But seriously folks, I can see the movie’s mistakes.  I see the inconsistency in the camera quality, and the continuity errors with the Phantom’s makeup.  I can tell that the editing isn’t always entirely professional, like when it accidentally indicates that Phoenix has noticed a gun, even though she hasn’t.  Somehow, I find these little blemishes to make the movie a little more human, and to make it all the more fun.  It is no surprise that this is a ’70s cult classic.  It’s a movie I’ve been meaning to see for a while since Paul Williams is always talking about it, and I’m a big fan of his, but I just wish I’d realized that I needed to see it sooner so I could immediately start preaching the good new of Phantom of the Paradise to all the world.  I can’t help but feel as though this ignorance was a big mistake on my part.

Whoops.

112 Phantom of the Paradise

Filed Under: Film Criticism, New Movie Reviews Tagged With: 1970s Movie Reviews, 1974, Cult Film, Dark Comedy, Fantasy, Four and a Half Stars, Halloween Movie, Horror, JD's Favorite Movies, JD's Recommended Viewing, Musical, PG, Satire

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