Terrible, John Huston rolls in his grave!

Rating: 1/10 (7 May 2008)

This film is evidently meant to be a more light-hearted telling of a dramatic and tragic tale told previously before on film, most notably by the great John Huston back in the 50s. However, as with his other films, Baz Luhrmann's incessant need to be overly colorful, poorly acted, and schticky in a passÃ© manner overshadow anything resembling a story.
This is one of Ewan MacGregor's worst performances, mostly because his singing isn't that great. Not his fault, I can't sing either. Nicole Kidman was pretty good, but again, she can be so much more than this. All of the actors in the film have done much better work, with the exception of Leguizamo's previous foray into Luhrmann's twisted little corner of lame, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (funny, I was IN a production of Romeo and Juliet, and I don't remember Shakespeare having Romeo take ecstasy or Juliet SHOOT HERSELF IN THE HEAD!)
While the visual spectacle of the film may have been wildly colorful and flashy, no amount of set design and effects take away from the fact that the story was poorly told, and that many of the scenes seemed to have more to do with Luhrmann wanting a certain song to be in the film than any sort of continuity.
I'd recommend anyone to stay away from this drivel, see Huston's film and you'll know what I mean.