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Summary: Best movie of 2001 and a great DVD to own.
Review: Great works of art that challenge conventional notions often polarize opinion, and it's obvious that "Moulin Rouge" has done just that. The polarity of opinions seen here on Amazon mirrors the love-it/hate-it reactions the film generated upon release in Spring '01.I think this is because "MR" reinvents that most sacred and traditional of genres, the romantic musical, and because the film has the audacity to take pop culture [and pop music specifically] seriously. Plus, the idea of watching Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, whatever you think of their acting, SINGING for more than two hours isn't intuitively appealing. But I urge viewers to give this movie a chance if you haven't already, and I'd highly recommend buying the DVD if you already DO like the film from the theaters. This is a marvelous piece of cinematic entertainment and the DVD is a fantastic exploration of the medium and the source material. I applaud the director and his crew for delving so deeply behind the scenes. Make no mistake: "MR" is a work of art. If you didn't like it, I posit that you didn't get it.
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Summary: Love it or Hate it--it is a great film and an awesome DVD!
Review: Yes, this is a film like most any groundbreaking or specific director's vision that will cause people to love it or hate it. People who like musical theatre have both hated it and loved it. People who don't like musical theatre have both hated it and loved it. It just depends on how the film grabs you. If you don't like the first 10-20 minutes--wait--because the film's tone changes. It's like ROMEO AND JULIET. The first part is a crazy, comical spectacle. The second half is a gut wrenching, beautifully filmed drama. The film is thrilling and majestic. The DVD is FULL of incredible extras. If you listen and watch how Baz and his creative team made the choices that became this film, you really understand how well thought out this film is. I love the film even more knowing that there is indeed an intelligent method to the madness. And hey, the film hold the National Board of Review Award, Golden Globes, and 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Seems the Love it audience is bigger than the (vicious) Hate it audience. I love this film and especially its DVD extras.
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Summary: Tragic & Exhilerating!
Review: If you like a story that ends happily, do not watch this movie. If you favor a good drama that may invoke tears while entertaining you and surprising you at every turn, then watch it! It's a DIFFERENT sort of film- it doesn't REMIND you of ten other stories made tired by overuse. The only movie with a similar style I have seen is Romeo & Juliet (another tragedy, of course). If you didn't like that movie, you might not like this one either.
Rating:
Summary: What energy
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect when I went with a couple of friends to see Moulin Rouge in the theater. We all came away feeling blown away. Even today I can visualize The Duke, during the "Like a Virgin" segment, looking into the camera and quiveringly explaining "Feels so good inside..." and it makes me laugh. I am quite pleased with the DVD version, although my only complaint is that the menus are a little hard to navigate. They just aren't that intuitive and, for example, to find the "Vouslez-Vous" Lil Kim, et al, video you really have to dig deep. Overall though, this is a fun energy filled movie, quite worth watching repeatedly, especially for some of the musical numbers.
Rating: 
Summary: Go watch Chicago instead
Review: It was very difficult fir me to actually watch this movie the entire way through. I saw this and ahted it, but when Chicago came out i thought it was one of the best musicals of the time. Here the acting was fairly weak and the plot was just boring. If you want to see a musical, go get Chicago, not this trash.
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Summary: It should have won that year's Oscar
Review: Shame on the Academy to fall on a ripple effect - Moulin Rouge should be the true worthy winner of the Oscar, but unfortunately it has to take a whole year for them to realize the success of the musical genre, and as a "felt guilty" payback, to give the award to another just so-so musical - "Chicago". Moulin Rouge beats Chicago hands down in every aspects of movie making - the visual and musical effects are stunning. It is the pioneer work of Moulin Rouge that reinvented musical genre and reawakened people's interests toward the musical genre. Academy has no way to payback for what Moulin Rouge did for the industry. Baz Luhrmann deserves a best director as well. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor shin brightly in the movie. What a wonderful treat! If you missed it in the theatre, go buy this DVD immediately. The sound track is a worthy buy as well, great original songs plus interesting variations of many familiar tunes. This movie as whole package (acting, music, cinematography) is exactly what a musical should be. It's a milestone and benchmark, it will trigger (has already triggered) a lot of spin-offs like Chicago trying to catch up with it.
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Summary: A few of my thoughts on Moulin Rouge
Review: I could go on and on about Moulin Rouge, as it is one of my all time favs, but don't have the space to do so here. The following is thus some exerts from a paper I wrote on Moulin Rouge shortly after its release. The paper attempts to uncover and discuss what I feel Moulin Rouge is truly about. Moulin Rouge is an exquisite example of a film that deals with a number of concepts that are highly important within the postmodern world. Quite simply, one of the key components of Moulin Rouge, and possibly the main theme of the film, is its questioning and reaffirming of the value of art within a postmodern culture. According to Jean Baudrillard in his essay "After the Orgy": "When everything is political, nothing is political any more, the word itself is meaningless. When everything is sexual, nothing is sexual any more, and sex loses its determinants. When everything is aesthetic, nothing is beautiful or ugly any more, and art itself disappears." Within the postmodern realm described by Baudrillard, art no longer has the value it once did, and whether or not it even has any value at all is a valid question. Moulin Rouge plays on this key notion of postmodern thought throughout the film, as it constantly questions this viewpoint. In order to do so, a number of classic pop-songs are recycled within the construction of the film. The songs (two important examples being "Your Song" by Elton John and "Silly Love Songs" by Wings) are present not only for nostalgic and emotional purposes, but for master-narrative purposes as well, as it is through the use of such songs that the film does its questioning of the post-modern. The songs (which are almost all directly connected to love) are obviously portrayed as still being important based on the lyrics that have been chosen. The most prolific example of this occurs in the medley sequence of the film in which Christian and Satine sing the following songs from "Silly Love Songs": "You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love longs. But I look around me and I see it isn't so. Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs. And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know." Because they play such an important role in the film, the referenced songs, must be seen as advocating that love songs (and on a greater level, the notion of art itself) still have value today within the post-modern realm. Moulin Rouge can thus be seen as attempting to discredit the post-modern ideal at hand. Yet, at the same time in reconstructing pieces of old songs for a new purpose, the film also employs one of the key aspects of postmodernism. Because Moulin Rouge references and recycles so many ideas, it is in its construction a very post-modern film. Moulin Rouge is thus a postmodern film (in theme and in construction) that in some ways discredits one of the key driving notions behind postmodern thought (that art is dead) at the same time through its narrative choices. ****, (10/10)
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Summary: When of the best and most successful musicals of all time.
Review: When you talk to people who have seen Moulin Rouge, they either love it or they hate. But no matter if you understand this film or not, you cant deny how much work and effort went into making this. The movie grossed about $60 million at the box office and won 4 Oscars. Its truly a feast for the eyes, each minute saturated with color and music. So yeah, Nicole Kidman isnt the best singer in the world, but she sings with feeling, like an actress should. Kidman, who was nominated for and Oscar for this role and won the Golden Globe for it, is absolutly stunning. I still say she should have won the Academy Award.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: "I've got a great idea for a movie! It'll be a musical, with MTV sensibilities...jump cuts, frantic camerawork and get this... it'll utilize period inappropriate music...modern pop music in 1900 Paris."
This movie will find a place in the "Worst conceived musical" section in the local video store next to 1978's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" It may well become a camp / cheeze classic but friends...the emperor has no clothes. Avoid
Rating:
Summary: An Insult to the Real Moulin Rouge
Review: This movie was so stupid, I turned it off after the first 15 minutes. I'm half French, and I can say that this movie completely destroys the class and elegance of the real theatre. And to top it off I can't believe anyone had the brains to nominate it for an Oscar. (Probably drank Absinth stright up) Anyone who's been to the real Molin Rouge in Paris will see that this is completely off base. There are no fat people in the show, everyone sits at tables and not dance around. The place has a lot of high standards. It's supposed to be set in 1900, yet they have a lot of modern music like Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana? Hello, the director and the writer shoud be dragged out in the street and shot! If you are stupid enough to believe that this is what really goes on at the Moulin Rouge I got a nice piece of land on Mars to sell you. Don't waste your money on this load of crap and go to Paris instead!!
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