MovieChat Forums > Moulin Rouge! (2001) Discussion > This is such a bad movie

This is such a bad movie


Do you like the sound of pots and pans being banged in close proximity to your head? Nails on the chalkboard? Bright lights flashing frenetically in your face? How about I sweeten the deal and throw in hackneyed accents & speech impediments, campy sound effects, manic jump cuts, incessant cribbing of pop songs sung off-tempo, freaking narcolepsy as a plot device, mustache-twisting baddies and wrap it up in a cliched storyline? That, my friends, is Moulin Rouge--a spectacular mess of a movie that never should have been made.

To quote the great Roger Ebert, speaking about another movie:

Those who think [Moulin Rouge] is a great or even a good film are, may I tactfully suggest, not sufficiently evolved. Film by film, I hope they climb a personal ladder into the realm of better films, until their standards improve. Those people contain multitudes. They deserve films that refresh the parts others do not reach. They don't need to spend a lifetime with the water only up to their toes.

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While you have every right to not like this film, I think quoting a well known film critic about another movie to give more credit to your opinion is quite shallow.

Especially since Mr. Ebert has written a review about Moulin Rouge and he actually liked it.(3,5/4 stars) http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/moulin-rouge-2001

PS: What movie is that quote for? I really hope I didn't like it!

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I believe the Ebert quote is applicable here, even if he liked the movie. The quote was pulled from his "I'm a Proud Brainiac" essay concerning Transformers 2.

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Moulin Rouge! actually works if you consider it a satirical take on the genre rather than a film to be taken seriously as actual drama.

When I first watched Moulin Rouge!, I hated it. The film had this air of self-importance despite the fact that the story is clichéd and predictable. Characters act inexplicably and there isn't much character development.

Now, changes lenses. Like Enchanted did for Disney princess movies and Scream did for horror movies, this is satire of the star crossed lovers story. In over the top fashion, it gives us all the usual tropes: the quick meeting and declaration of love, the villain standing in the way, the misunderstanding that leads to a breakup, the cheesy reconnection, and the dying lover succumbs almost immediately despite, while not in perfect health, to not be knocking on death's door.

Watch it through that lense and you'll find it is almost enjoyable. At least it will make you laugh.

Lizzie

To love another person is to see the face of God! - Les Miserables

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Do you have any reason to believe the movie was made tongue-in-cheek? If not then you're using your imagination to pretend it was made as a farce. Can't one do that about everything one doesn't like? It might make the viewing experience more whimsical, but it's a manufactured construct, not unlike watching bad movies "ironically".

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Do you have any reason to believe the movie was made tongue-in-cheek?


No, nor did I ever state that I believed it to be so. I said that's how I view it.

If not then you're using your imagination to pretend it was made as a farce.


That's exactly what I said I was doing. I'm trying to figure out how you missed that point.

Can't one do that about everything one doesn't like?


I can't do that with every movie I don't like but I can with Moulin Rouge. I think it's the bombastic style. It wants to be over-the-top but then takes itself way too seriously. That combination made it easy to view as satire.

It might make the viewing experience more whimsical, but it's a manufactured construct, not unlike watching bad movies "ironically".


When I saw this for the first time, I hated it. I couldn't understand why everyone was fawning over it. The story is clichéd, the singing isn't great, the style is over-the-top, even the acting is mediocre (how Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress for this is beyond me).

Unfortunately, one of my closest friends loved Moulin Rouge. She thought it was a beautiful story about the power of love. I was floored. She told me to watch it again because she was sure I would find it brilliant on second viewing. So we put it in and I hated it the second the green fairy shows up. Then, I decided to view it as satire. It made it tolerable to sit through.

That doesn't make it a good movie. It means if a friend wants to watch it, I can tolerate it.

Lizzie

To love another person is to see the face of God! - Les Miserables

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Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as combative. There are just too many good movies out there to sit through a bad one and pretend it's good or that "bad" actually means "good". Finding a creative way to spin a bad movie into something more bearable is a clever defense mechanism. I just wish I could fake it.

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Do you have any reason to believe the movie was made tongue-in-cheek? If not then you're using your imagination to pretend it was made as a farce.

Read any interview and critic review and most of them make it pretty clear they know it's made tongue-in-cheek. Your expectations sound quite ignorant.

At least it explains your hatred. You simply did not get it.

Luhrmann isn't some hack director who spent months making a "serious love story" which ended up a complete mess. His point just sailed clear over your head.

It's your complete wilful misunderstanding that reflects poorly on YOU - I REALLY cannot get how people don't get that this movie was made tongue-in-cheek (at least in the first half) what with the crazy edits and extreme close-ups and silly songs.

It's like complaining Austin Powers is too silly to qualify as a James Bond-wannabe movie.

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by repete66211 » Tue Jun 30 2015 13:47:30
IMDb member since October 2002
Do you like the sound of pots and pans being banged in close proximity to your head? Nails on the chalkboard? Bright lights flashing frenetically in your face? How about I sweeten the deal and throw in hackneyed accents & speech impediments, campy sound effects, manic jump cuts, incessant cribbing of pop songs sung off-tempo, freaking narcolepsy as a plot device, mustache-twisting baddies and wrap it up in a cliched storyline? That, my friends, is Moulin Rouge--a spectacular mess of a movie that never should have been made.

This from someone who didn't like "One from the Heart".

Go watch the latest Transformers movie or something from Marvel, man. Quit wasting bandwidth and killing electrons with your tripe.

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You liked One from the Heart? Man, are you a glutton for punishment. Let me guess, you also loved Cool World and anything with Rob Schneider in it.

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No, I thought Cool World, like the rest of Bakshi's work, was an unfinished product.

"One from the Heart" is literally one from Coppola's heart. The fact that he spent gobs of cash on the thing didn't endear him to the snob elite.

Everyone expected a huge spectacle along the lines of Cleopatra for all the money he dumped into the thing, but instead got a very nice intimate tale about a couple at a crossroads in their lives.

The tale was told in an artificial "surreal" environment, telling the audience that everything would be okay in the end. And it was.

I think if he said that he had shot it on the cheap, then people would have forgiven him and given it high marks. But, like a lot of artists, he let his ego get in the way and pushed it behind his film, which could have and should have stood on its own merit. When people saw that he was taking criticism personally that just opened the floodgates to tearing at the film.

Irregardless; it's a hit in the home video market.

So there.

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I had to see this one a date..
Gosh it was a terrible film...loud and all over the top! Not my style thanks.

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I don't consider it a masterpiece but it's a fun movie and by the way, Roger Ebert (RIP) was often wrong. Time is telling us that.

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Ebert wasn't 100%. No one is and no one ever will be. But he was right more often than he was wrong. It's all opinion anyway. We all have them. What makes Ebert's opinion special is that he always said why he felt a certain way about a movie. I'm curious to know what you think he got wrong.

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Some people just want to watch Kevin Spacey sit around and drink coffee.

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