Over produced and unmemorable - is Baz Luhrmann... Mel Brooks?

Rating: 1/10 (27 May 2001)

Baz Luhrmann's long awaited film Moulin Rouge has been unleashed - and what an unmemorable, over produced disappointment.
The curtains opened and I waited for an innovative and spectacular movie experience. Presented instead with what might as well have been Mel Brooks meets 'The Sound of Music' (complete with table cloth 'Mother Mary style' on the fat man singing 'Like a Virgin').
Jim Broadbent is excellently cast as Zidler (the owner of the Moulin Rouge). Satine (Nicole Kidman) as the head dancer/courtisan/actor gives her very best but ultimately her performance (and lip-synching) is lack lustre. Richard Roxburgh playing The Duke of Monroth is unbelievable having no authority or presence on the screen.
If an unoriginal cheesy sound track with manic edits, motion sickness inducing cinematography and Mel Brooks style humor is your cup of tea, you'll love it.
One star out of five.