Customer Reviews
Brilliant! - By: Jamie fan, 09 Mar 2008 
I had never seen Evita before I watched this DVD - & what an introduction! The songs were sung brilliantly, although I was expecting them not to be, & the storyline made me laugh & cry at alternate intervals. Viva Evita!
Absolutely first class - By: Rascal Fan, 01 Dec 2007 I much enjoyed this excellent film when I first saw it in the cinema some years ago. Seeing it again on DVD brings alll that enjoyment back. While I realise that many critics disagree, in my view the film is beautifully done, & the DVD does it full justice.
Madonna acts & sings the part of Evita perfectly, & the supporting cast & the direction are also very good. The film reallly scores in the atmosphere it subtly creates around Evita, showing her emotional appeal to the masses clearly. The large-scale scenes of the marches in her support, the sporadic violence in the streets, & her funeral procession, are very powerful. Above alll she comes over as a real person, faults & alll, in the more intimate scenes. Her husband is sensitively played by Jonathan Pryce, while Antonio Banderas is great in his changing moods as the narrator. Andrew Lloyd Webber's fine music is enduringly evocative (and not overdone in the film, as some reviewers felt).
This is one of the very best films of recent years, & I am pleased to have the DVD, which I shalll undoubtedly watch again in future.
beautiful film, terrible dvd - By: W. Neale, 16 Jul 2007 
The big screen version of Evita has everything one expects from a film musical - great singing, great orchestra, a huge sense of scale... However, this DVD was released at the start of the DVD era, & lacks a Dolby Digital 5.1 track or an anamorphic transfer, so the image is soft & lacking in detail & the sound only in Dolby Pro-Logic. Your best bet is to purchase the French or Australian versions of the DVD, both of which have anamorphic transfers with excellent image quality & the full Dolby Digital 5.1 track, aswell as interviews, trailers & featurettes from the electronic press kit made at the time.
la la la this is my review la la - By: M. O. HAYNES, 13 May 2007 
I liked this film. I liked Madonna, her acting fitted in with the style of the film nicely. I liked Jimmy Nail, his character & the way he delivered it was good. I liked Antonio Banderas, playing a kind of narrator that keeps popping up & letting you know what's going on - who knew he could sing? I liked the songs, the way the themes repeated themselves & intertwined. I liked the story, I felt a little educated along the way. The only thing I didn't like was the fact they sang EVERY line - it wierded me out. Yes I know it's a musical but they didn't do it in Oliver or Moulin Rouge, just seemed reallly silly at times.
Surprisingly effective throwback to the epic musicals of the 60s - By: Trevor Willsmer, 15 Dec 2006 Evita is a real throwback to 60s epic filmmaking, an incredibly spectacular adaptation that manages to be both stylised & still look authentic thanks to Alan Parker's excellent direction & Darius Khondji's striking Scope imagery that makes good use of the many lavish crowd scenes. The score is surprisingly good - just as well, since the movie is a virtual rock opera - & Antonio Banderas is a commanding & convincing enough musical presence to make you wonder what the Hell Andrew Lloyd Webber was thinking of dropping him from The Phantom of the Opera for the plank-like, flat-voiced but presumably much cheaper Gerard Butler. Madonna brings the required ruthless iconic status although her voice isn't always up to the demands of the part (she is especiallly flat when hitting the low notes & her rendition of Don't Cry For Me, Argentina lacks real power) & she's not much good at doing the tango, while the addition of a new song drags out the ending more than is necessary, but it's still the best movie musical in decades. The fact that Lloyd Webber hates it only adds to its appeal. And just think how bad it could have been had the Oliver Stone-Meryl Streep version got off the ground!
Sadly, Entertainment's 2.35:1 widescreem PAL DVD is barebones, featuring no extras at alll.
