It sounded like a good idea. One of the century's most widely admired and successful modern operas; a reunion of the composer and lyricist to personally adapt the material for the screen; a huge budget; and the very problematic Madonna at last cast in a role seemingly made for her: the manipulative, power-hungry, blonde bombshell role of Eva Peron.
How could it go wrong? Very easily. In order to get permission to film in Argentina the producers had to remove virtually everything from the stage show that actually made it memorable--and to cover the gaps Rice and Webber added fluff. Madonna never had the opportunity to play the cut-throat Evita; she was instead given a poor little pitiful me Evita--a role that even the greatest actresses of the day would have difficulty putting across. And as for that mammoth budget... well, let's just say that the entire film has the look of an expensively made videotape.
Madonna does the best she can with it, but there aren't any fireworks in the reworked material. Both Banderas and Price seem more than a little miscast in their roles of Che and Juan Peron. And the action drags and drags drags. Extremely, extremely disappointing.
Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer
How could it go wrong? Very easily. In order to get permission to film in Argentina the producers had to remove virtually everything from the stage show that actually made it memorable--and to cover the gaps Rice and Webber added fluff. Madonna never had the opportunity to play the cut-throat Evita; she was instead given a poor little pitiful me Evita--a role that even the greatest actresses of the day would have difficulty putting across. And as for that mammoth budget... well, let's just say that the entire film has the look of an expensively made videotape.
Madonna does the best she can with it, but there aren't any fireworks in the reworked material. Both Banderas and Price seem more than a little miscast in their roles of Che and Juan Peron. And the action drags and drags drags. Extremely, extremely disappointing.
Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer