The Great Gatsby sucks

[Hammock Parties]

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The trailers for this made it seem like the greatest thing EVER.

Now topping out at 42%

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_gatsby_2012/

Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" is a tale told idiotically, full of noise and furor, signifying next to nothing.

The production is not insipid, let's give it that. An exercise in absurdist excess, this fourth screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, means to dramatize the excesses of the Jazz Age, with hints of Weimar decadence thrown in for bad measure.

But that's a banality by this late date, and it's as far as Mr. Luhrmann goes in making sense of the book. The film's only governing principle is maximalism—everything has been made as big as possible, apart from conversational interludes, when big feelings are displayed, like bullet points, by actors striking static poses.

What's intractably wrong with the film is that there's no reality to heighten; it's a spectacle in search of a soul. For all of its glittery fragmentation, "Moulin Rouge!" came around to moments of genuine passion. None of these new trappings means a thing because the people who populate them are stylish sticks, unsinged by the spark of life.

That's almost surely not the fault of the actors, for the director turns them into lifelike props. Mr. DiCaprio, who's no more comfortable with the phrase "old sport" than Robert Redford was in the previous version, is elaborately sincere when he isn't frowning like Jack Nicholson; being charming like, well, Leonardo DiCaprio, or being mysterious, except that people who are genuinely mysterious don't look mysterious. Carey Mulligan's Daisy is either languorous or amorous, not a lot in between. Mr. Maguire's Nick is cheerlessly impressionable. Joel Edgerton's Tom is charmlessly brutish. Elizabeth Debicki's Jordan Baker is a flouncing cipher. And Mr. Luhrmann uses Amitabh Bachchan, a legendary star in his native India, to make the Jewish gangster Meyer Wolfshiem a leering pillowbiterin.

Given the lifelessness of the enterprise, there's little point in belaboring its failure to convey the novel's themes, let alone the emotional and social resonance of what has come to be considered a masterpiece of world literature. Although the hero created himself out of the whole cloth of romantic yearning, we see almost nothing of that self-creation, only the conflicted result. Although the Nick of the novel arrives at a new and tragic understanding of the American Dream, the Nick on screen can't be more than an earnest observer, since any vestige of the story's tragic sense has been replaced by melodramatic sadness.

This dreadful film even derogates the artistry of Fitzgerald, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" while living on Long Island and in Europe. In a deviation from the book that amounts to a calumny against literary history, Nick, the author's surrogate, is discovered in a psychiatric hospital where, as an aging alcoholic, he struggles to comprehend the vanished figure at the center of the long-ago story, and finally completes his treatment by writing the novel. It's literature as therapy, and Gatsby as Rosebud.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

The Beach, Body of Lies, Romeo + Juliet (another one of those overrated Luhrman bores) off the top of my head.

I fully disagree on Body of Lies. That was a great performance by him and Russell Crowe. The scenes where they're torturing him are ****ing intense.

Romeo and Juliet was interesting. I'd hardly call it a "bad" movie, just different. If it's not your thing (and it's not mine), I get it but it's not "bad".

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

There was also that Western with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone. Can't remember its name...it was kind of shitty.

Eh, he was a freaking kid at the time but if you're going back that far into his career, he was phenomenal in Gilbert Grape and especially This Boy's Life.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by KC native

Ugh I ****ing hated Titanic.

It's theoretically impossible for you to hate that movie as much as me, and I've never even seen it.

[KChiefer]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

DiCaprio has been in several bad movies, though Titantic wasn't one of them. Appears Gatsby will be another to add to the bad list.

The Beach and J Edgar come to mind, though I haven't seen J Edgar but it's such an odd casting.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by KC native

Ugh I ****ing hated Titanic.

Loved the re-creation of the time period and the effects/disaster sequences. Just a great job by James Cameron in that regard. Billy Zane as the villain was awesome too.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

I like all those movies except Body of Lies and think them to be of fairly high quality (some more than others).

What didn't you like about Body of Lies? It's not an indictment, just a question. I thought it was really well made.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by KChiefer

The Beach and J Edgar come to mind, though I haven't seen J Edgar but it's such an odd casting.

So J. Edgar is a bad film but you haven't seen it?

[KC native]

Originally Posted by DoucheMcCloud

It's theoretically impossible for you to hate that movie as much as me, and I've never even seen it.

I've only seen clips. It was so infuriating that I couldn't stomach more than 15 minutes at a time. So, your theory is flawed.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Loved the re-creation of the time period and the effects/disaster sequences. Just a great job by James Cameron in that regard. Billy Zane as the villain was awesome too.

I'm not a love story type of person. The best part of the movie is when Leo freezes to death because the movie is almost over at that point.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by DoucheMcCloud

I fully disagree on Body of Lies. That was a great performance by him and Russell Crowe. The scenes where they're torturing him are ****ing intense.

Romeo and Juliet was interesting. I'd hardly call it a "bad" movie, just different. If it's not your thing (and it's not mine), I get it but it's not "bad".

Found Body of Lies mediocre (although that had nothing to do with Leo). And just didn't like Romeo + Juliet. They aren't terrible, though, I will admit.

Eh, he was a freaking kid at the time but if you're going back that far into his career, he was phenomenal in Gilbert Grape and especially This Boy's Life.

I've heard good things about his performances in those, but never seen them.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by KChiefer

The Beach and J Edgar come to mind, though I haven't seen J Edgar but it's such an odd casting.

I liked the Beach. It wasn't the greatest movie ever but was still a good movie IMO.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by KC native

I'm not a love story type of person. The best part of the movie is when Leo freezes to death because the movie is almost over at that point.

I'm fine with love stories as long as they're done well. I'm not really sure Titanic is one of those, but it has several other redeeming factors.

[KChiefer]

What classic literature has been put on screen with great success in the last say 20 years? I'm having a hard time thinking of many.

Hitchhiker's Guide, which I haven't read but I know many love only got 60% on RT.

LOTR

There Will Be Blood which wasn't even Sinclair's most famous novel.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

I'm fine with love stories as long as they're done well. I'm not really sure Titanic is one of those, but it has several other redeeming factors.

Only two. The ship sinks and Leo's character dies.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by KC native

I've only seen clips. It was so infuriating that I couldn't stomach more than 15 minutes at a time. So, your theory is flawed.

Not even close.



I worked in Paramount's music division at the time of the release. In case you weren't aware, the film's budget was so enormous that Paramount and Sony co-financed the film and shared royalty participation.

We had the music publishing and suffice to say, I got extremely tired of people constantly asking for the numbers on "My Heart Will Go On" and the soundtrack. HQ would ask (in what seemed like a daily basis) for more than three years after the release of that film. It was annoying beyond comprehension.

Not only did I vow to never watch it, I hated it with a passion.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by DoucheMcCloud

What didn't you like about Body of Lies? It's not an indictment, just a question. I thought it was really well made.

I was just disappointed with it after seeing it. Expected more, but it just came off as generic action fare at times to me.