Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Rodrigo Amaro "The Portrait Dorian Gray", the classic story written by Oscar Wilde in 1890, was adapted to the modern times in "Dorian", a quite cheesy film that brings the same story with an giant variety of changes and characterizations of events, in short a drastic summary for people who hate read books and prefers to watch images.The story goes from the 1980's to the 2000's; Dorian (played by Ethan Erickson) isn't rich, he's a young worker that happens to be in the right place at the right moment when his beauty is noticed by Henry (Malcolm McDowell) who wants to transform the average worker into a famous top model. Instead of painted picture Dorian is immortalized into a photograph that will become ugly, scary while he'll never get old after making a pact with the devil (the notion we get is that Henry is the devil who steal cute guys souls to take). There's the forever young theme, the romance between Dorian and Sybil; tragedies, beauty vs. ugliness vs. intelligence and body vs. soul, and the elements and quotations perfectly written by Wilde in his masterpiece.But there's something rotten in this film, something that doesn't work quite right. Actually, many things. The wooden acting from the casting (but hey, 'Mr. Hans Landa' Christoph Waltz is there to give an impressive job here), the script that is pretty laughable at so many moments (the photo session with Dorian trying to do a sexy pose is one of those); and once you love the book, know how everything is so perfect and beautiful in it, you can't never achieve greatness in an update like this. A remake with period costumes, closer to what the writer wrote, like the one made in 1945, works way better than this."Dorian" only works when it comes to see how handsome Dorian is, I mean, the main actor who looks incredibly hot whether shirtless, showing his great body or just wearing those tight jeans, so nice to look, he's very hunky. His female co-stars are equally good, except for the one who plays Sybil Vane, which might only be attractive to the director or Dorian's eyes. This Dorian Gray's modernization might work for the poor souls who haven't got the opportunity, or the time and patience to read one of the most dazzling and respected classic of English Literature. To me, it was just an silly entertainment, with some good laughable moments. 4/10

wes-connors The story is familiar - recall, original novelist Oscar Wilde's "Dorian" wished his painting would grow old whilst he remain young. Like in days of old, handsome male model Ethan Erickson (as Louis) wishes for eternal youth. Then, while one of his pictures ages, he becomes the ageless "Dorian" of the title. Like his predecessors, Mr. Erickson descends into decadent debauchery. A charismatic older mentor, Malcolm McDowell (as Henry), eggs him on...Re-titled "Pact with the Devil".Allan A. Goldstein's updated "Dorian" alters the story in ways that become nonsensical. The main problem occurs by making Mr. McDowell's character semi-Faustian. To have McDowell in the cast, and render his character inexplicable, should be a crime. Erickson, an extremely good-looking man, is also slighted by a faltering characterization - in an early scene, he is required to pretend he couldn't imagine someone thinking he could be a pin-up boy? And, Jennifer Nitsch (as Bae) has an undeveloped, but intriguing, back-story.**** Dorian (2001) Allan A. Goldstein ~ Ethan Erickson, Malcolm McDowell, Jennifer Nitsch, Christoph Waltz

JustApt Everything about this sickly adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray stinks to heaven: stinks its saccharin cloying disco soundtrack, stinks Cheshire Cat's grin of a protagonist throughout the film, stinks its stuffy atmosphere of cheap glamour. After the publication of bestseller about the model Dorian - I wonder what kind of bestseller may be written about a man advertising underwear - he becomes famous and forever young thanks to devilish charms put into his photograph and forever intoxicated on drugs and alcohol he's galloping through beautiful people's parties thanks to his putrid popularity straight to his unavoidable bitter end. If there weren't so many funny Malcolm McDowell's grimaces, for whom playing a demonic being is business as usual, I would have given this piece of crud just one star.

preppy-3 This was shown on cable under the title "Pact with the Devil". I thought it would be an obscure John Carradine flick...but it was this.This is a modernized version of "The Picture of Dorian Grey". Henry (Malcolm McDowell) a very rich man who runs a photographic service becomes enamored with Louis (Ethan Erickson) a young, hunky man. He sees him as the perfect male model and gets him started. He tells Louis about the story of Dorian Grey--a man who makes a deal with the devil--he'll stay young-looking always while his portrait ages. Louis is intrigued and does exactly that. Henry changes Louis' name to Dorian, Dorian becomes a HUGE male model and Henry will do ANYTHING to keep Dorian...including murder.PLOT SPOILER AHEAD!! You've probably guessed that McDowell is the devil and it all ends as the original did. PLOT SPOILER END!! This is no great movie but not bad on its own terms. It's beautifully shot in some absolutely gorgeous settings. The music soundtrack is good and there are some nice directorial touches. The story itself is OK--it follows the original pretty closely. There was one glaring lapse--it takes place over 20 years. Everybody notices how young Dorian stays--but don't notice it with McDowell or another character! McDowell is (quite obviously) having a whale of a time with this and he's just great. Erickson is so-so. Sometimes he's pretty good--other times he's pretty bad. But he is incredibly handsome with a nice body. The surprising thing about this is there's no nudity--the closest they get is when Erickson ALMOST bares his butt.So--for a direct to DVD movie--this isn't too bad. And Erickson IS incredibly good-looking. I give it a 7.