Overall Rating
 Awesome: 59.51%
Worth A Look: 11.72%
Just Average: 4.3%
Pretty Crappy: 8.07%
Sucks: 16.41%
18 reviews, 660 user ratings
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Moulin Rouge! |
by Gadzooks!
"too many shiny things"

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My expectations were low when going to see this movie, but apparently not low enough because I thought it sucked big time.
I've enjoyed visits to the proctologist more than this giant cow pat of a film, for the love of God save your $8.50 and go rent Victor/Victoria if you're feeling fruity.Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, where to begin.
"Moulin Rouge" is like that guy you knew in high school. The one who tried to be different and weird, just for the sake of being different and weird. You know who I'm talking about, his name was Dan and you thought he was a giant loser. Anyways... In addition to being a wannabe abstact film the movie is just a giant cliche, but maybe people are into that sort of thing, I dunno. It would be one thing if "Moulin Rouge" made fun of it's self in a farcical way, but I really got the feeling that this movie is supposed to be serious, and that's just sad. It's your standard "musical" plot line...boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, boy loses girl again, all set in a crazy brothel/theater in late 1800's Paris. To call this movie a musical is a joke within it's self. You cant take songs by Elton John, Paul McCartney, U2, David Bowie, Nirvana, and Labelle, mush them all up in a ridiculous way and expect to get some new and fantastic sound out of them, or to have people enjoy them as a matter of fact. You never actually see a real dance number either. Is Baz Luhrmann on crack? Why does he have to film every scene using 10,000 different angles? The way the camera kept flipping from shot to shot at a mile a minute was extremely distracting and frankly made me a little nauseous. You never really see a full scene. Give it a rest Baz! We get the point. Try some real cinematography next time, instead of just whizzing and popping between 30 cameras. Nicole Kidman's singing voice along with her acting leave A LOT to be desired. You would think in a musical they would cast a lead who has had even a shred of singing experience, but no! Kylie Minogue would have been better! Just smile and look pretty for the camera darling. Ewan McGregor's voice is a bit better, and probably the only redeeming factor in this overrated monstrosity. And by the way...John Leguizamo sucks as Toulouse Lautrec! Come on! It's called type-casting for a reason, just keep playing street tough Brooklynites John and the world will be happy. "Too many shiny things", this literally refers to the millions of little shiny things that were all over the place. I almost had a seizure in my movie seat. What was up with those things! Every "magical" background was awash in sparkling glitter, computer generated stars and fireworks were shooting off all the time, and if I saw one more fakey pull back and zoom in on the weird paper Paris backdrop I was going to puke. Like this movie needs any more annoying distractions in addition to the actors. My main problem with the movie is this: it's a gimmick. People think that using modern music in a period setting and mixing genres is revolutionary but I just think it's stupid. If done well it can be a fabulous new form of movie making, but if done badly like in "Moulin Rouge" it can sink a movie like a thousand pound weight on a fishing line. I can't enjoy a movie set in the 1800's while I'm constantly reminded of Bono and Madonna. The f'd up camera shots, the sped-up stop motion, the stars and fireworks = gimmick. Casting Nicole Kidman = gimmick. The biggest gimmick of all is that we are lead to believe that the movie draws on it's cliches. It's so stupid it has to be making fun of itself right? Wrong. It just keeps getting more and more serious, until the painfully slow and drawn out final scene where the ones who don't have the wool pulled over their eyes see that it isn't making fun of cliches, it really is one.As a piece of art "Moulin Rouge" could hang on my bathroom wall anytime, but as a film it stands to be one of the worst I have seen in a very long time. Nothing Works. Gadzooks! Grade: D- (it gets spared an F for Ewan McGregor's effort)
link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=4303&reviewer=254 originally posted: 06/06/01 00:43:53
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USA 01-Jun-2001 (PG-13) DVD: 14-Jan-2003
UK 07-Sep-2001 (12)
Australia 31-May-2001 (M)
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