Great if a little bit shorter...

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2001)

I was dragged to this movie by a girlfriend so, needless to say, I wasn't expecting much of anything. While I enjoyed Baz Luhrman's "Romeo and Juliet," I wasn't part of the masses of people that thought it was a towering achievement. Before I saw MR, I heard they were using current pop songs ("Like a virgin,""Roxanne") in the soundtrack and was very skeptical. Well I must say is was much better than I expected, and just about all the pop songs fit very well, with the possible exception of "Like a virgin," which was totally unnecessary. I actually liked this film a lot, and was very happy that Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman sang their own parts. The visual style displayed is key, but not the only drawing point, and therefore works well within the context of the famous French nightclub. My only complaint really was that it was about 20 minutes too long. With a TRT of over 2 hours, the plot is just not thick enough to support this length, and therefore becomes a major detractor. 7/10