The Great Gatsby (Blu-ray+DVD+UltraViolet Combo Pack)

3-D Splendor: Luhrmann's "Gatsby" Is An Opulent And Over-The-Top Assault On The Senses
No one can ever accuse Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann of playing it safe! Subtlety and restraint are not qualities that the director embraces. In fact, his motto appears to be "the bigger, the better." His previous pictures (both good and bad) are chaotic, frantic, excessive and over-the-top in every way imaginable. I don't necessarily mean that as an insult. I enjoyed both "Strictly Ballroom" (a lot) and the anachronistic "Romeo + Juliet." But it was "Moulin Rouge" that really stole my heart. I appreciate this musical mash-up so much because it simply shouldn't work. It's too much, everything about it. Yet for all its ADD attitude, it's a dazzlingly original piece of work with real heart and passion. It was my favorite film of 2001, while his follow-up "Australia" was my biggest disappointment of 2008. Expectations were high when Luhrmann announced a re-imagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." The prior film interpretation, with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, was a...
Excellent film, and yes, supplementary to readers.
Though this is supposed to be a product rating and not a movie review, I wanted to comment on Matthew's review titled "Old Sport." as a separate review because commenting on his post would merit less views, and I don't like misconceptions.

So yeah, rap probably wasn't the music Fitzgerald had in mind for Jay Gatsby's parties, but that doesn't mean that kids in school studying the novel this movie is based on won't find this movie helpful. In fact, it might be more helpful than any movie adaptation made before it, for this reason: it is largely contemporary. I think it sticks to the story quite well. It is only told differently - that is, it doesn't attempt to stiffly adhere to some notion of antiquity. It tells the story in a way people today, and probably especially those the adolescent age of students studying the book in school, will understand. Maybe jazz in the 20's evoked a feeling different from what it evokes now. And so the soundtrack used in the film expresses...
If it wasn't for Leo...
...I would not have watched this movie. Personally the original movie, with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford, was qualitatively better. If one was to ask an older generation, I am sure that the original would prove to be quantitatively better as well. I did not care for most of the music in the film, though a couple of the renditions were okay. Also, as a fan of the book, there was a particular dialogue that made the book and the original movie that was critically altered in this film, "rich girls don't marry poor boys" (Daisy to Gatsby in the book and in the 1974 film). In the new film this line was muttered by an insignificant character to Carroway in reference to his crush on Ms. Jordan Baker. Also, the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is a bit skewed. In all, I gave the film three stars because of the things mentioned above and because the direction was not stellar, nor was the cinematography (which was jerky and disorienting at times). As a long time fan of Leo DiCaprio, I hate...
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