Amazon.com essential video: A dazzling and yet frequently maddening bid to bring the movie musical kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge bears no relation to the many previous films set in the famous Parisian nightclub. This may appear to be Paris in the 1890s, with can-can dancers, bohemian denizens like Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), and ribaldry at every turn, but it's really Luhrmann's pop-cultural wonderland. Everyone and everything is encouraged to shatter boundaries of time and texture, colliding and careening in a fast-cutting frenzy that thinks nothing of casting Elton John's "Your Song" 80 years before its time. Nothing is original in this kaleidoscopic, absinthe-inspired love tragedy--the words, the music, it's all been heard before. But when filtered through Luhrmann's love for pop songs and timeless showmanship, you're reminded of the cinema's power to renew itself while paying homage to its past.
Luhrmann's overall success with his third "red-curtain" extravaganza (following Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet) is wildly debatable: the scenario is simple to the point of silliness, and how can you appreciate choreography when it's been diced into hash by attention-deficit editing? Still, there's something genuine brewing between costars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman (as, respectively, a poor writer and his unobtainable object of desire), and their vocal talents are impressive enough to match Luhrmann's orgy of extraordinary sets, costumes, and digital wizardry. The movie's novelty may wear thin, along with its shallow indulgence of a marketable soundtrack, but Luhrmann's inventiveness yields moments that border on ecstasy, when sound and vision point the way to a moribund genre's joyously welcomed revival. --Jeff Shannon
I have to give this film a low grade ^ This is one of those movies that I can't help but permanently dislike. It is not necessarily one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but still I was not moved by the film. It's excessively stylish to the point that the visuals don't seem very relevant except for the sole purpose of eye candy. It's not as visually wild as what you would find in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, but unfortunately it's not as interesting either. The songs.....well, I was hoping for some original music at least. But most of the songs are nothing but pop culture references. If you've heard "Lady Marmalade" or "Smells like Teen Spirit," then you will recognize the melodies right away. I did, and I became bored by the fact that these songs have been recycled and added in this movie. It's more like a poor excuse to avoid any musical originality. But I think the biggest problem I have with Moulin Rouge is the melodrama that surrounds the love story. I don't mind love stories in cinema; I mean, I do like Casablanca and Edward Scissorhands. But this is more of a soap opera. It's so sappy and so overdone, that I couldn't really care for both Satine & Christian. The ending was pretty powerful, though.
I didn't hate everything about Moulin Rouge. There are some cleverly funny moments, and I did like Jim Broadbent and John Leguizamo's performances. The song "Spectacular Spectacular" is very amusing to listen to, and some of the visuals are indeed fascinating to look at. But in the end, I can't really admire the film because of what is mentioned above. It's not really special, at least to me.
Grade: D+
Moulin Rouge! (Widescreen Edition) ^ It's Paris in 1899. Christian, a young English poet, comes to Paris to pursue a penniless career as a writer. However, he soon meets a group of Bohemians who tell him that he should write a musical show for them to be performed at the Moulin Rouge, the most famous underworld night club in Paris. The night they arrive at the Moulin Rouge, Christian meets Satine, the club's star and a beautiful courtesan. He falls head-over-heels in love with her and though it takes a bit of convincing, she falls for him as well. Meanwhile, the club's owner, Harold Zidler, invests in a wealthy Duke to help pay for the club, however, the Duke will only pay if Satine is his. This crazy love triangle twists and turns. And little does Satine know that she has a deadly secret that could end everything. Visually it is superb, an indulgent feast for the eyes with every breathtaking, artistic scene. Everything about it is over the top, every scene more stunning than the next, and as it continues, your heart becomes more and more intertwined in the love story. It pushes against the confines of convention and leaves you breathless. A stunning, visual feast.
Moulin Rouge ^ If you love musicals you will love this movie! Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor did an amazing job - I find myself singing all the songs after the movie is over - they are stuck in your head (but in a good way).
Great fun movie although you might shed a tear or two!
You'll love it or you'll hate it... but you shouldn't miss it ^ I was fortunate to see this in the theaters, or I may never have stuck with it long enough to find out how amazing the story and the movie are. If you have not seen this one, I recommend you try it. And if you do, make sure to watch for more than the first 20 minutes... when I first saw it, the beginning seemed so frantic and the pace was so quick, I thought it was little more than a quirky music video. I was ready to walk out.
But if you stay with it until the "poetry reading" scene, you'll probably be hooked by the story and the humor of it! This is definitely one of those movies that was made boldly, and people either love or hate it - very few shrug their shoulders and say "It was okay." I think it's one of the great stories/movies of the past decade.
The film makes VERY unusual use of music and lyrics, and the result gives the love story an emotional impact far beyond most other great movie love stories. And the dazzling visual style "wows me" over and over. Often, being aware of a "visual style" in a movie is a sign that a director is more interested in impressing us with his/her clever movie-making than in telling a compelling story. If a "dazzling" visual style of a film distracts me from the story, I will dislike the visual style for interfering. But in the case of Moulin Rouge, I found the style and the visual elements added very significantly to the emotional impact of the story.
It's one of the best and boldest movies I have seen in recent years, and one of the very few that I find myself re-watching every year or two.
Another excellent performance by Obi Wan Kenobi!! ^ Nicole Kidman dies at the end!!!! Anyway...the movie is just about a bunch of whores doing this and that. I've never seen a whore house where the whores look clean and sing all the time. Whores. Obi Wan definitely delivers an Oscar winning performance. Everyone else was horrific compared to him however. Actually, he's the only reason to see this movie. He's the man. Just watch Star Wars or Black Hawk down for proof. If you like whores, you should probably invest your time and money into an actual whore instead of this movie. If you like musicals...Go watch a West Side story. There about the same this except in that movie you get more bang for your buck because more people die in the end. Thankyou for your time.
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