Matador
by Pedro Almod?var
Our Price: $79.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.97 (click here)
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases
Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Product details
Actor: Antonio Banderas, Assumpta Serna, Eva Cobo, Julieta Serrano, Nacho Mart?nezDirector: Pedro Almod?var
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Color, NTSC
Release Date: 1989-10-26
Audience Rating: NC-17
Publisher: Cinevista Inc.
Studio: Cinevista Inc.
VHS Movie Reviews of Matador
Movie Review: Goodbye, "Machismo"
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a brilliant, if unsettling movie. On its surface, it revels in various sorts of violence, including attempted rape, bullfights gone bloody, and serial killings, real or imagined. Beneath the flashy surface, though, Almodovar has a serious aim. He's examining the effects on his contemporary Spanish characters of a religion that was frequently rigidified into pharisaism and a code of manly behavior often reduced to mere "machismo" during the immediately preceding reign of Franco. What he presents us with in the film is a set of characters malignly influenced by such cultural baggage. Though seriously disturbed, they are at the same time both moving and unwittingly comic. Diego, the gored bullfighter and Maria, the lawyer, both buy heavily into the "machismo" code and wind up confounding a delight in eros with a monstrous one involving death. At the center of the action, and perhaps the most disturbed by his culture's warped expectations is Angel (Antonio Banderas), who oscillates between a mother whose religion is stiflingly conceived and his own, hidden reverence for bullfighting. He is himself just an inexperienced youth furiously seeking possible paths to manhood. Like a child, he endearingly faints at the mere sight of blood. For this reason, he has to constantly reassure the curious around him, who themselves are suffering from a "machismo" cultural lag, that he is not in fact gay. No other explanation, after all, would fit their too narrow conception of manhood.
Movie Review: One of Almod?var's worst
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a long time fan of Almod?var and of his films of the 80s and early to mid 90s, however I can not say that about this film. MATADOR along w/ LIVE FLESH have to his two worst films. This one in particular is utterly boring and just uninspiring. I saw this for the first time when I was in high school in the early 90s and hadn't seen it since. I tried watching it again thinking maybe I didn't understand it as well and thought maybe it will be more appealing to me as an adult. Well I was wrong. This movie lacks the charm & charisma that is usually pulsating through his films.Movie Review: one of Almodovar's absolute BEST!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the first Almodovar film I'd ever seen, and it's made me a lifelong fan of his. Lately he's become a bit too serious, overreaching and melodramatic---"Bad Education" was especially disappointing---in contrast to the fascinating, gorgeous and hilarious black comedy and absurdism of masterpieces like "Matador," "Tie Me Up Tie Me Down" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." It's the difference between reading Charles Bukowski at his best versus reading some pompous "The New Yorker" column.
Unfortunately this film is extremely difficult to find nowadays, but it would totally be worth owning and seeing over and over again. Every frame is beautiful, and the characters are all strangely interesting in their own fetching absurd ways. The cast is perfectly chosen and directed, and the young pre-Hollywood Antonio Banderas is truly a pleasure to watch, his earnest absurdity has an inherent comic genius similar to that of Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"...you laugh your @ss off at him all the time but at the same time find it impossible not to like and identify with him. The characters like the film have an exhilaratingly fresh, devil may care energy and abandon that is simply irresistible.
Granted, if you are a rigidly conventional, straight-laced person you'll probably find Almodovar's early work very hard to swallow. The rest of us will likely find it far superior to his current day output.
Movie Review: Matador Shocks You
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an Antonio Banderas classic with Carmen Maura, Pedro Almodovar, and friends from Spain--and the scenes from Spain are beautiful. But true to Almodovar, the movie leans to the morbid and the perverse. I would not recommend Matador for people who are offended by comical gory murder scenes, and it is a pity that the movie has no English subtitles! Movie Review: One of Almodovar's "classics"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of his best movies - hope to see it available again, on DVD this time around!
Genres Video
Video Genres
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Genres Video
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie BrownCBS Television; Release date: 1996-09-03; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.95
Schoolhouse Rock! - Multiplication RockWalt Disney Video; Release date: 1997-08-05; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $33.49
Workout: Staring Jane Fonda, original 1982Karl Video; Published: 1982; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.98
Tae-Bo Workout; Instructional and Basic (TaeBo; The ultimate total body workout for men and women)Ventura Distribution; Release date: 1998-12-29; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
The Legend of Sleepy HollowStarmaker Entertainment, Inc.; Starmaker Entertainment; Release date: 1992-08-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $43.00
The Lion King (A Walt Disney Masterpiece)Walt Disney Home Video; Release date: 1995-03-03; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.16
Price in other shops:
Schoolhouse Rock! - Grammar RockWalt Disney Video; Release date: 1997-08-05; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $39.96
Beauty and the Beast (A Walt Disney Classic)Walt Disney Home Video; Release date: 1992-10-30; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.09
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Walt Disney's Masterpiece)Walt Disney Home Video; Release date: 1994-10-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.81
Price in other shops:
Legend of Sleepy HollowWalt Disney Video; Release date: 1994-12-14; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $107.88
Similar Video, DVDs, Audio CDs
Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)Release date: 2005-04-12; DVD
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Live FleshRelease date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $5.81
Price in other shops:
Talk to Her (Hable con Ella)Sony; Release date: 2003-05-27; DVD
Best price: $10.64
Price in other shops:
Dark HabitsRelease date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $11.05
Price in other shops:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous BreakdownRelease date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $119.95
High HeelsParamount; Release date: 2001-04-03; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $15.00
KikaVidmark / Trimark; Release date: 1998-01-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $2.29
Price in other shops:
What Have I Done to Deserve This?Release date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $12.61
Price in other shops:
The Flower of My SecretRelease date: 2005-04-12; DVD
Best price: $7.25
Price in other shops:
VolverSony; Release date: 2007-04-03; DVD
Best price: $8.12
Price in other shops: