Classic or dud: Baz Luhrman

So yes, you can — and owing to the binding effect, it will make the pastures safer to walk in, also. Hurrah!!

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. "

I read it as undercutting the entire speech, and making fun of how useless graduation pieces really are. If you read it this way, the whimsical tone of the rest of the piece really seems more like a vicious parody. Or perhaps I'm crazy.

I certainly think Luhrmann is an interesting director, and Moulin rouge sounds like the real deal - a proper musical. Yes there might be touches of po-mo irony in there, but I doubt it. To see a full technicolour spectacular with singing, dancing and glorious sets and clobber - well its frankly refreshing. Here on ILM a while ago there was a pretty universal like of musicals, and here we have a musical making use of the music we equally love (apparently the Kidman Like A Virgin rendition is very sleazy). However I have no doubt that Moulin Rouge will probably be flash but hollow, but I like a bit of flash every now and then.

That said, do we really need another version of Lady Marmalade? With Christina Agulleira on it?

It's all well and good that Baz Luhrman thought of the idea of putting the sunscreen speech to music, but ideas are only useful if they are good, and quite frankly I think it was a poor idea, or at least a very poorly executed one. I've never been more bored by a song in my life. It's just got this out of a box music backing going, something out of Pure Moods II, slightly speeded up, and the annoyed voice just doesn't come off at all right. It's just cheeseheaded. Novel, sure - but I can't abide that being novel is good in and of itself, and for me that's all that song is.

As for his films...well, I regard Romeo + Juliet as one of the worst films of the '90s, though it's unfair to blame this on Luhrman because I absolutely loathe Romeo and Juliet, I hated West Side Story (which is all this was, without the singing), I can't stand Leo DiCaprio, and Claire Danes is the most evil person alive. It was pretty much doomed to failure in my eyes from like the day it was thought up.

So I suppose this is me calling him a dud, because I think of him as an annoying flashboy who doesn't even execute his flash very well. However, I'm more than willing to give him one more chance with Moulin Rouge because it just sounds so bizarre, plus, Ewan McGregor, hello. So I'm not quite calling him a dud yet.

MDN (Tobias6312@aol.co

The goal of a movie is to entertain ... and I've never been more entertained by any other pair of movies. I like being transported to fantastic dreamworlds, set to beautiful soundtracks. And that is exactly what Luhrman has done for me, twice.

Saw Australia today and was kinda surprised shocked that I liked it.

I liked "She's So High"

i fucking hate moulin rouge

only slightly more than i hate its fanbase

'orrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zejyzr5vW3A

I saw the Elvis movie this afternoon--my first Baz Luhrman film. Some of the music's good, especially later stuff (performed by the actor? I assume so), a few hysterical scenes, good recreation of Little Richard, a typically conflated timeline (the Tate murders, Altamont, and "Burning Love" seem to happen simultaneously--not really a big deal), well-chosen end-credit song. I found Tom Hanks to be a major annoyance. I assume the real Colonel spoke like that, because I can't see why you'd make him sound like a cartoon Nazi otherwise.

Apparently he did not!