Rating: Summary: Spectacular! Spectacular! - Nothing But Spectacular! Review: This movie is one of the most refreshing films I have seen in along, long, long time. It has color and style and energy and music and pacing and performances and more and more.This is the kind of film you'll either love or hate. No middle ground here. Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman give outstanding performaces. All the supporting cast are just as brillaint. The sets and costumes are magnificent and the cinemantography extremely vibrant and exciting. This movie is so stylized - that hoping it will remain one of a kind. The DVD edition is "Spectacular"! The commentary, bunus footage, music videos and the unique interactive menus are brillaint. This is a must in every ones collection. I had just as much fun discovering all the goodies on this DVD as I did watching the actual movie. I still am watching it!
Rating: Summary: Absolutely Charming Review: This movie is absolutley charming. It is pure romance, stylized, imnaginative, playful, sparkling. It will only get better in time. This is truly a DVD to own as a destined classic. Enjoy!
Rating: Summary: Spectacular, Sparkling, Beautiful Film! Review: I love this movie! It's a beautiful film, and I only wish I had been able to see it while it was in thaters. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are brilliant actors and singers. Jim Broadbent is amazing, portraying the entire range of emotions with incredible skill. Richard Roxburgh is hilarious, and deeply frightening. Every actor in this film is good. I hope we'll see more from our unconscious Argentinean friend, Jacek Koman (who is actually Polish!!). The sights and sounds in this movie range from blatantly gorgeous to sweetly subtle. It gives you more emotion than you've ever thought about going through in a few hours. Also, the DVD extras are absolutely amazing. You'll spend hours playing with the extras, and hunting for "easter eggs". The Easter eggs are great! I also like the "Behind the Red Curtain" feature. It has some great commentary by Baz and Catherine Martin, and some interesting footage. All-in-all, the best DVD I've ever played with... granted, I haven't seen many, but this one has kept me entertained for days!! Like many have said.. it's a love it or hate it movie. There's no in-between. I hope YOU love it!!
Rating: Summary: And I thought I hated musicals... Review: Rarely have I been as prejudiced about something as I was about "Moulin Rouge": an unintellectual love story filled with clichés, people dancing in ridiculous costumes and actors singing their own lines, I thought. You can probably guess that I'm not the biggest fan of the musical. However "Moulin Rouge" proved to be a huge exeption from that opinion. The movie is directed by Baz Luhrman, who has also co-written it with Craig Pearce. It's not a typical musical but an exeptionally good, two-hour long music video, exept that it works better. It doesn't even try to show reality in a light way; it's pure description of an imaginary reality. "Moulin Rouge" isn't a typical musical: predictable, irrelevant american movie/theater performance where characters just burst out singing, leading to the realistic plot losing it's credibility, hence making the story a "musical". It's just a dreamily unreal world, that you feel like awakening from when the film is over. On top of that the vide variety of musical segments of the film aren't just made up of separate scenes that are forcefully implanted to the story, but are rather the primary method of storytelling. The movie is set in a fantasy world that somewhat resembles Paris and it's erotic cabare, the Moulin Rouge at the dawn of the 20th ceuntury. It's a tragic tale about a british poet and a prostitute, of emotions and the cruelty of the world. It's a tale straight from the romantic era of literature, but it's execution as (post-?)postmodern as it can be. Baz Luhrman's directing is challenging. Artistic and unconventional enough to have made an impression to the experts of art films around the world. Writing isn't so good, but couldn't be any better if it were to fit the film that's full of symbols and dreams, giving no place to dialogue. All the actors do a creat job in bringing their two-dimencional characters to life. They were reportedly instructed to overdo their performances, and if you'll watch "Moulin Rouge" you'll understand the reason for that: without overly emotional and melodramatic performances by the actors the characters would drown in the flow of the movie. And I must say that the actors do a creat job in overacting and yet conveying something deep about their purposefully stereotypical characters. Especially Nicole Kidman as the faihfull curtisane Satine manages astonishingly well in that. A lot better than her co-star, too often less-than-perfect Evan McGregor. But the terms used to defy ordinary hollywood films don't apply with this musical. You see, "Moulin Rouge" isn't a film with music in it, it's music with a film in it. Sounds corny, but it's true. The idiotically stupid and predictable love-story-combined-with-tragedy-- storyline, wich is all too typical for musicals, doesn't bother at all because you don't even notice it. What comes through is a breathtakingly visual storytelling combined to a working musical complexity. It's like a two hour long educational session about the history of music. The movie carries the viewer through the most well-known pieces of classical music to the hits of today, combining them to a completely functioning musical spectre. Mozart and Nirvana are one. It's all about music, not about certain types of music. How long the various musical performances take of the film's time is hard to estimate, because it's hard to notice the beginnings and ends of the music scenes, if they even exist. This is why the usually so irritating singing of dialogue doesn't bother at all. You don't even notice it, so naturally it's incorporated into the fantasy world of the Moulin Rouge. When the whole movie is like a dream, unrealistic scenes don't matter. On top of this, musical pieces aren't being used as complete tunes; some are heard only for a few beats, sometimes completely separate from any other music. That's why I wasn't afraid of the next overly jovial music scenes as I usually am when watching musicals. Infact, I was even surprised when I realizend one was being performed. The musical scenes also vary radically in terms of tone and color and are everything but just ridiculous entertainment numbers to soften everything that's serious in the story. The visual storytelling of "Moulin Rouge" is exeptional. Slow-ups, speed-ups, special effects and experimental photography in complex sets are used to a breathtaking extend. And I must point out that I don't usually pay any attention to the visual quantities of a motion picture. This is mainly because they usually serve only as effects to enforce something else. "Moulan Rouge", on the other hand, has left predictable plot, well performed but superficial characters and bad dialogue to stand aside. And I don't think the film would have worked any other way. "Moulin Rouge" is as good as it could possibly be, think I. But the essence of "Moulin Rouge" is the dreamworld created with visual art and music that's bigger than life. It has so much surface it compensates for the complete lack of depht. "Moulin Rouge" is... different.
Rating: Summary: Beauty Review: The only way that I could possibly describe "Moulin Rouge" is beautiful. The characters voices are lovely (Nicole's is sultry and Ewan's irrestistable) and the cinematography, art, and music are fun, splashy, and alltogether gorgeous. I cried the first time I saw the movie, and it still touches my heart (sounds cheesy, but it's true. I don't think you have to be a romantic or an artsy-fartsy type or afflicted with ADD (as some reviewers have mistakenly said). I think that all you need is an open mind, a heart, and an appreciation for beauty of both the eyes and the ears.
Rating: Summary: The reason why this format excells!! Review: Not just a great movie, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge explodes on DVD, putting the format to great use with extra camera angles, alternate shots, commentary, bonus features, and more!
Rating: Summary: absolute rubbish Review: What a waste of time.It reminded me of a very long music video. Nicole Kidman is second rate,including a song by second rate as usual Maddona didn't help.Try to see John Huston's version.
Rating: Summary: Absolutely Wonderful Review: I love Ewan Mcgregor, I love everything about him. From his toes to his head. I was angered to see that most people didn't like the sound of his voice. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I can't understand how anyone would find it "ugly". Nicole Kidman, by the way, is a superb actress. (Being an actress myself, I should know). She seems to be very flexible in her roles. She's played everything from a madwoman, to a cabaret dancer. I enjoyed her singing, also. She has the type of voice, that doesn't knock you off your feet, but is pleasant in it's own way. The movie, itself, was amazing. I love Baz Luhrmann's usage of color and music, which you don't see in any ordinary film. It's the type of movie which could be acted on stage just as well. That's the best feature of the film. It's likeness to the stage. Most people can't get out every night and see a real play, so why wouldn't you enjoy this?? With all these factors combined, I was overwhelmed, astonished, etc., by this brilliant masterpiece of a movie. Ewan Mcgregor, to me, though, was the very essence of this film.
Rating: Summary: This is not a story about love Review: Luhrmann and co-writer Pearce evidently think that having their hero walk around repeatedly proclaiming that "this is a story about love" somehow makes it so. It may well be the case that "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love, and to be loved in return," but rather than be told so ad nauseum, I'd much rather be told a story which demonstrates it. On that count, the Christian/Satine love story fails. It is escalated so rapidly and explored so superficially that it's hardly even moving, let alone a compelling argument for love as the meaning of life. But such is the nature of musicals where plot is subservient to spectacle. And on that count, 'Moulin Rouge!' succeeds marvelously. As always with Luhrmann, music and production design are the primary attractions. And this looks and sounds utterly spectacular. Kidman and McGregor shine, and seeing Jim Broadbent and Richard Roxburgh perform 'Like A Virgin' is worth the purchase price alone. (Roxburgh entirely steals the show. We can now forgive him for 'M:I-2'.) But don't be fooled by the taglines. This is not a story about love. It's not really a "story" about anything. It's a lecture on the history of romantic musicals and a two-hour commercial for a couple of CDs. But for all that, it's highly original and will still have you grinning from ear to ear.
Rating: Summary: Quasi-musical is terrific Review: While the storyline is not entirely original, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are good actors with the vocal talent to make up for it. It's not realistically set in the 1890's, either, but that didn't bother me too much. Good choreography, music, makeup, and costumes, as well. :)
|