Captain Pantoja and the Special Services

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." )

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

Pantaleón y las visitadoras , I saw that movie at the Montreal Word Films Festival 2000 on August 28. I didn't know what to expect at first from the title of that movie , I had no idea what the movie was about. Let me tell you I was agreeably surprised. That movie is based on a Mario Vargas Llosa book is very very good piece on entertainment. The story, the actors and the settings was entertaining and well rendered, this is a very good comedy to me. I would recommend it no question ask to anyone ... I hope that this movie will come out on VHS format so I can buy it and show it to my friends. The only problem with the projection that I have attended was the quality of the actual film, I don't know if it was intended (maybe) or not but a lot of exterior scenes had a yellowish halo to it like if the director would have put a yellow filter over the camera lense and also the quality of the film with some badly made cut overs was questionnable. But overall it was a very good comedy with an original story. Finally let me tell you guys that the actress playing the role of Columbiana, Angie Cepeda, is one hot lady, my god we are not used to see that many south american movie up here in Canada and that latino women is a devilish beauty.

The Peruvian army is sick of reporting about violations committed by the soldiers that are detached in the Amazonian jungle. But they have a solution: they'll ask his most straight and serious officer (Captain Pantaleon) to gather together an army of prostitutes that satisfy the necessities of the soldiers. After a few days the captain will fall in love with one of the girls: Olga (Angie Cepeda).

A nice story written by Vargas Llosa, with the exquisite language of the Peruvian writer and with Angie Cepeda, a girl that's not the best actress ever but she's been blessed with a awesome body and a superhuman beauty. She's a piece of art in herself.

Some times is funny, some times is dramatic, and so sensual.. Maybe is too long but its length is reasonable after all.

*My rate: 7/10

"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-)