Baz tries too hard

Rating: 1/10 (11 June 2001)

Well for me this is a groundbreaking movie, I don't think I have ever hated a film from the opening '20 Century Fox' intro.
Poor Baz gives us a fine example of how success can inflate the ego so that it becomes very hard to focus on creating a humble, sincere and thoughtful piece of work. He takes the elements of Romeo & Juliet that make it such an original masterpiece - ie. unique fresh fast paced camera work, extravagant 'in your face' sets and costume design and an intense depth of emotion - and blows it so far out of proportion so that he thinks it can't possibly fail.
Baz, you struck the balance perfectly in Romeo & Juliet, there was no need to try and blast our socks off by making the ride louder and wilder unless it had other elements that would have made it fitting. That would make for a very intense piece of work and this wasn't intense, it was a flimsy story with no depth that simply did not merit the movie's extreme style. It's like taking a boring song and trying to make it sound amazing by playing it at a ridiculously high volume. It doesn't work and will only impress listeners that get excited from sensory impact but have no idea about substance. Well it seems to have worked as it's a box office hit and the majority of reviewers on IMDb were so overwhelmed that they couldn't tell that the movie was just that metaphoric cacophonous noise. I am a little sad that so many people think that "those who don't like it, don't get it", you've obviously been left so dizzy from the ride that it's hard to see that there was nothing going on under all the glitz and glamour to GET.
The only thing I thought was original and did work at some places in the movie was the use of famous pop songs as the message that the characters were trying to convey, but I feel it was still wasted on a movie that fell apart on every other level.
Please Baz put away your BAZMARK INC. label and stop trying to take movie making to even giddier heights because you are getting a little out of your depth. I know you'll probably hate me for saying that but hey, I wasted $12 on it so I'm still a little peeved ..............2/10