Moulin Rouge

[Ron-P]

What an excellent Romantic Musical.

I bought this blind yesterday after hearing countless good reviews and I was not dissapointed.

The story is simple, the cast is outstanding and the director, Baz Luhrmann creates an excellent stage like look for the film. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are outstanding and I was very impressed with their voices. The fast-pased editing is done very well. The modern songs fit very well into this film. I was never a big fan of Nicole K., but her preformance in this film is very good.

As always, another steller 2-disk set from FOX. Colors are extremely vibrant with deep dark blacks, a very clean DVD with an extremely enveloping dts track.

Simply one of the best films of 2001.


Peace Out~:D

[juice21]

i'm dying to see this after reading so many great reviews! HTF rated this the #1 DVD of the year! i gotta pick it up - SOON!

[Ron-P]

My wife and I have watched this movie 4 times in the past 7 days.
This movie simply rocks....and damn, I must say Nicole Kidman looks HOT in this movie.


Peace Out~:D

[Strong Bad]

Now I have to go buy this DVD!!! ;)

[Firerider58]

Bought this the other day after hearing so much about it. Usually not my type of movie, but the wife likes musicals so I figured why not?. I have to admit, this is a stunning piece of work! Visually spectacular, and a great soundtrack to boot. Now I know why I got my DVD player. I'm looking forward to watching it again. Happy New Year to all!

Ron

[Ron-P]

yeah, and that green fairy is F'ing HOT!


Peace Out~:D

[trubluluc]

I picked out the four movies we watched yesterday,
yeah, long night.

The Score (thumbs up)
Apocalypse now redux (thumbs up)
El mariachi (yeah baby)
Desperado (thumbs up)

My gal is a trooper, but she has expressed an interest in watching something with less gunfire,
go figure,
so this might be just the thing,

-luc

[juice21]

well, i finally had some free time, and i rented this. what a great movie. should have just bought it! the cinematography in it was awesome...

[RuSsMaN]

Is it a freakin musical? I've picked up the box several times, almost rented/bought....but man, it screams 'whip' to me.

I just can't do it.

R

[TroyD]

the song that they play all the freakin' time on the radio just kills it for me. I don't care how hot any of them are.

Troy

[juice21]

russman, it basically is a musical...

troyD, that song is only in it for maybe 20 seconds the first time they pan into the moulin rouge...

this is definitely worth seeing...

[Micah Cohen]

I am with anyone who is hesitant about this. I just can't see this kind of thing, seems hokey to me -- rock and disco remakes happening in some hazy 19th century time frame? I'm confused.

The DVD does have the MTV video with little Christina Agulara all tarted up, tho, doesn't it? Hmmm.

MC

[juice21]

man, you won't sit down and watch a quality flick unless there's a hint of mastorbatory material somewhere on the dvd...:D

[Ron-P]

So Micah, you'll rent Tank Girl and Hannibal, knowing very well that these are going to suck. (Although I liked TG). Yet you question renting one of the best movies of 2001,

If this helps, you do get a peek at Nicole Kidmans nipples a couple of times, and the Green Fairy is sure to please.


Peace Out~:D

[scottvamp]

I will not even try this one. You got to be joking guy's. My parents said they had to shut it off after the first half hour. And they will sit though almost anything. That is enough for me. I only passed on a couple movies this year and this one will sit on the self with "Freddy Got Fingered".:o

[Micah Cohen]

"The green fairy"? Ron, Mister "Green Room," what are you talking about here?

[scottvamp]

Sorry Ron, We usually have the same taste in Movies. Perhaps I may rent it.....Grrrrrrrr!

[PETERNG]

My rating for this movie is B-, still a great movie to watch...

[joelll]

Originally posted by Micah
"The green fairy"? Ron, Mister "Green Room," what are you talking about here?

The Green Fairy is a character in the movie, but I'd also suggest a websearch on Absinthe, the Gilded Age bohemian drink of choice.

I think I'd need to drink my way through a bottle of it before I'd watch this movie through from beginning to end again.

Personally, I thought the movie was dreck. Baz Luhrman took the most gorgeous sets, costumes, lighting, cinematography and talent, and made an incoherent feature-length VH-1/MTV pop video. Even if some bits were fun, I kept wishing that I had the same resources and creative control to make a far better movie.

I agreed mightily with the Boston Phoenix reviewer's opinion (even if you liked the movie, it's a well-written unfavorable review):

http://12.11.184.13/boston/movies/do...s/01655667.htm


.

[trubluluc]

First, let me say Nicole Kidman is a beauty.
Never been a fan, but she is something...
The scenery and costumes are fantastic.

But....
I think the films editor should seek treatment for coke/crank addiction, or at least have their starbucks card revoked.
They should be chained to a chair and forced to watch MTV videos at 4x speed for a week.
The director, who must have approved of this slash and rip technique, should be subjected to the same punishment, and additionally be forced to watch "Fiddler on the Roof" at 1/4 speed.

My basic philosophy in film direction is:
If you have a good story, good actors, try to keep from leaving sticky fingerprints all over it.

-luc

[Ron-P]

The director, who must have approved of this slash and rip technique

Yet one more reason why I loved this film.

Although, I am a bit surprised at how many people complain about this type of editing, esp. for this movie when it is hardly used.


Peace Out~:D

[trubluluc]

Ron-

It's not that I object to the technique.
Used in moderation, and in places where the intensity of action, and overall chaos of a scene is enhanced, if that is the effect desired, I'm for it.
In much of Moulin Rouge, I felt like a kid at the circus, one who keeps getting dragged by the hand, away from something very beautiful and interesting.

There were many scenes and images,
that I wanted to linger longer with.

-luc

PS.
What's with the format? Had to watch it in "expand" or "zoom" to get rid of the bars top and bottom. Thought getting the Mits widescreen would do away with that stuff.

[juice21]

i for one, actaully enjoyed the way this tehnique was used throughout the film. i feel that it kept it in a surreal/dreamlike/overdoesed kind of mind-set in the film. i think that this added graininess and confusion brought flavor to the moulin rouge as a place with rough edges...

i don't know if that last sentence makes sense, but at lest i know what i was trying to say

[Micah Cohen]

What's with the format? Had to watch it in "expand" or "zoom" to get rid of the bars top and bottom. Thought getting the Mits widescreen would do away with that stuff.

Not all widescreen is equal. MR must have been filmed in a more extreme widescreen ratio, possibly 2.35:1 (I'm too lazy to check it this morning due to lack o'coffee), which will leave black bars at the top and bottom of even an anamorphic print on a widescreen TV, which is more closely measured as 1.33:1 or something larger (not as wide).

Check out the anamorphic widescreen DVD of BEN HUR, the widest widescreen film ever, and you will see that even then you get BIG black bars, since your TV, tho it's widescreen, is still not as wide in this case as a movie theater screen.

The black bars (of MR) are smaller on your WS TV than they would be on a 4:3 TV, and you shouldn't have to "zoom" or "expand" to get rid of them, you should just let them be. That way you do nothing to the OAR of the picture and get the best resolution.

Need coffee...

MC

[Ron-P]

There were many scenes and images,
that I wanted to linger longer with.

Ahh yes, I will agree with you here.


Micah nailed it. MR is 2.35:1, so you will have minor black bars on a WS TV. With AR of 1.78:1, you will not have any black bars if overscan is set correctly.

NEVER use zoom or expand, once you do that you loose picture on the sides of your TV destroying the OAR of the film.


Peace Out~:D

[Micah Cohen]

But you may find that you have to ZOOM or EXPAND when the material is not ANAMORPHIC, in which case even on a WS TV it will appear squished, like my head.

ZOOMing the non-anamorphic image will stretch it to normal dimensions, like my head.

MC

[ntculenuff]

Moulin Rouge...Rented it, Watched it, Now i am buying it.
thought it was great. Fun and entertaining. would have watched again last night if it was not so late after the first showing.

juice21 sez it best

i feel that it kept it in a surreal/dreamlike/overdoesed kind of mind-set in the film. i think that this added graininess and confusion brought flavor to the moulin rouge as a place with rough edges...

i will agree this technique kept your head spinning as in a dream:)i was expecting the green fairy scene to be longer after reading so many comments on it from ron but i enjoyed it.
she is a tasty fairy

[Ron-P]

i was expecting the green fairy scene to be longer after reading so many comments on it from ron but i enjoyed it.

I wish it was a-lot longer (the Green Fairy Sequence, that is).


Peace Out~:D

[Micah Cohen]

ARG. I watched MOULIN ROUGE this weekend. So... First the good things: The direction, can't fault it. Tim Burton should direct this way. Lurhman proves himself a poor-man's Peter Greenaway (see: "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover"). Editing, sound design and visual style was subtle and impressive. Detailed. I like that. My TV LOVED this movie; the reds, golds and blacks, and the fact that at its best moments it really brought the art of Degas & Latrec to life on film. And Jim Broadbent, the actor playing the impressario, was amazing, as he usually is. It was a pleasure to watch him act.

Which is lucky, since the whole of the rest of the movie SUCKED. I understand "post-modernism," but MOULIN ROUGE still sucked. It was utterly dopey and idiotic. It was embarrassing, awful, dumb, low-grade junky. It was a terrible mishmash that made me wince. It was discombobulated, moldy; a bonehead attempt at post-mod for the MTV Gen. It was really tough to sit thru. I could have used more of the Green Fairy (was it Kari Wurher?).

Sorry, but Ewan McGregor croaking out sappy Velveeta Elton John and Whitney Houston songs in a make-believe Paris set meant to be make-believe is just BAD. Goshawful, in fact. He's no Jedi.

This movie is winning awards? Do we have nothing else to give awards to?

So I ended up watching the stupid "Lady Marmalade" video on the DVD like 8 times. Christina, man, rocks my world. What a little tart! I was humming the stupid song all weekend. Hum hum hum.

BTW, I watched the movie in FULL mode, no zoom. It is an anamorphic image, possibly 2.35:1, since I did have narrow black bars on the top & bottom. But with a WSTV, that's no big deal.

Baz Luhrman owes me two hours, and I'm coming to collect from YOU, Ron!

MC

[trubluluc]

Ladies and gentlemen.....

In this corner weighing in at 57 inches we have...

and in this corner weighing in at 46 inches we have...

out of da way folks.

-luc