Pantaleão e as Visitadoras

A marvelous combination of story, direction and acting! The director, Francisco J. Lombardi, has apparently never directed a bad, or even mediocre movie - The author of the original story, Mario Vargas llosa, is widely acclaimed, and appropriately so.

The casting is superb - no one will ever forget Angie Cepeda, as Columbiana - and Pochita ( Monica Sanchez ) can get mad as good as any actress to ever grace the Big Screen.

Aristoteles Picho is perfect as "El Sinchi."

The dialogue is extremely well done, judging from the English sub-titles. I assume the spoken Spanish is equally outstanding.

Although a highly entertaining comedy, it appropriately reflects an underlying message regarding morality, the military and politics for those who care to observe and reflect.

An essential addition to almost any DVD collection ( It is rated "R," but I would not call it a "hard" "R." )

This movie is based on a book by the famous latin writer Mario Vargas Llosa. The movie is set in Peru, where a very self-disciplined militar man (Pantaleon Pantoja) is ordered to go to a jungle town and set up a service of prostitutes for all the militar men from Peru. The movie is very faithful to the original book, and the presence of the actress angie cepeda as "the colombiana" is very striking, she looks superb in the role of the prostitute who falls in love with Pantaleon. I recommend this movie, its worth the time, specially if you dont have much free time to read the original book. I give it a 8 out of 10

It's not easy to take a successful novel and make a movie based upon it. No discussion about this. The aim of such adaptations should not be to repeat the book on the screen, but take the essence and identify the best suited passages to develop a script. It's a work of artistic translation at many levels.

This movie is excellent. As a comedy it warranties smiles and laughs, as a drama it may reserve some tears over the end, as a documentary it lets you discover many aspects of the complexity of a country like Peru, and visually it will give you a pleasant experience immersing you in the charming Peruvian Amazonia locations.

I don't know how much is lost if you are not able to understand Spanish. As always happens it is possible that part of the value of this film may be lost if you have to spend time off the main action reading subtitles.

To round up the special beauty of the Amazonia, Angie Cepeda provides the perfect match, bringing to the screen all her exuberant sensuality and femininity as "la Colombiana" ("the Colombian"). I can't imagine a better actress for this character. Angie Cepeda by herself is reason enough for any person who admire female beauty to see this movie, not once but many times. You will fall in love with "la Colombiana" as Captain Pantaleon Pantoja does, and you will also understand why Chuchupe (an experienced brothel manager) refers to her as an inconvenience after his notoriety for driving men to suicide. Angie (born Angelica), an actual Colombian from Cartagena De Indias, is with no doubt one of the prettiest and most sensual current actresses. Today, the Colombian Angelica head to head with the American Angelina (turn in this unattractive hybrid of "Brangelina") wins the race for more than a body (and more than just the body).

But look also for Aristóteles Picho as the hilarious "El Sinchi" the radial journalist that is always around troubling Captain Pantoja's mission.

Also pay attention to Peruvian comedian and also pretty actress Tatiana Astengo as the "visitadora" (female escort, an euphemism for prostitute) known as "Pechuga", character honored with this nickname to celebrate, well, her breast (that's one of the meaning of the Spanish word).

You will laugh a lot, cry a little, learn something about Peru, and re-joy your eyes and soul with one of the most beautiful creatures on Earth. What else?!

Besides, you will be able to fake you read Vargas Llosa's bestseller.

"Pantaleon y las Visitadoras" tells of a gung-ho Peruvian Army Captain (del Solar) who is ordered to staff a small corps of happy hookers to improve morale at remote Amazon jungle military outposts. The extremely efficient, straight laced, married Captain, however, finds he has his hands full (in more ways than one) once his troop of hotties (aka: Pantyland) is deployed. With mixed reviews from the critics and respectable marks from the public, this fun little Peruvian dramady gets off to a slow start, runs a tad long at two hours, and is sexy, silly, sweaty, and sepia, making for a lukewarm watch which will appeal most to foreign film freaks into flicks from south of the border. (B-)

I read the book about 1988 and saw most of the movie on TV in Lima in June 2002. The movie captured the spirit of the book very well.

I worked as a civilian employee in a military agency for 30 years. Never during my career did I encounter an officer who was as dedicated and competent as Pantaleon Pantojas. That was the striking feature in the book and in the movie, as well.

Although Iquitos, the city on the Amazon where much of the movie was filmed, is much larger than what is shown in the movie, some elements of the life on the river are reflected in the film.

Can anyone tell me where I can purchase a VHS copy of the movie?

Hugh