Baz Luhrmann, What Have Ye Wrought?

Rating: 1/10 (17 June 2009)

Horrendous version of the Shakespeare tragedy directed by horrendous hack Baz Luhrmann, up there with Joel Schumacher and Danny Boyle among my five least favorite directors of all time.
This is "Romeo and Juliet" for the MTV generation, the movie equivalent of a shark, afraid that if it slows down for even a moment it will die. Luhrmann throws a bunch of images up on the screen and maintains a relentlessly ferocious pace, hoping we'll be too distracted to notice the horrible acting and the fact that our young leads don't understand the lines they're speaking. Well, that might work on teenage girls, who are probably the demographic most likely to admire this film, but I can't vouch for anyone else.
Baz Luhrmann must be stopped at all costs. Why doesn't anyone else understand that??!!!
Grade: F