Some more negative reviews sadly...seems the critics are pretty split on this Well at least so far all the tweeters/viewers have loved it...Excited to see the other reviews from EW,People, and other big ones; hopes to see more positive coming in the reviews days ahead..

Review: Luhrmann's 'Great Gatsby' is okay and nothing more

http://www.hitfix.co...nd-nothing-more

Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby greeted with mixed reviews in the US

http://www.telegraph...-in-the-US.html

--------------------

Positive review from The Hollywood Reporter:

The Bottom LineA hugely elaborate, well cast adaptation of an American classic that will provoke every possible reaction.

http://www.hollywood...y/review/451988

We should never consider only the opinion of critics, there will always be those who will against the current...unfortunately.

On Rotten Tomatoes says that 98% of audience wants to see the movie and that says a lot to me.

Tks for the articles Kat!

Tks for the pics MakeitCount, Lua,Princess!

"For its first two thirds, Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” is busy busy busy with nary a minute to avoid an onslaught of stylized metaphors. People keep asking me Is it like “Moulin Rouge”? Well no, it’s not nearly as unruly because Luhrmann has to stick– more or less- to the F. Scott Fitzgerald text. He has a structure and a story and at some point he has to get with the program. And he does. The last third of his Gatsby is one of the most beautiful, moving films I’ve ever seen. And the first two thirds? They are a joyride through the director’s wild imagination.

DiCaprio is the wild card here. After playing Hoover, and Hughes, and several patrician characters, I wondered if he could differentiate among all these similar voices. But Gatsby is more like a version of Frank Abagnale the pretender from “Catch Me If You Can.” Gatsby is a dreamer, he’s obsessed with Daisy, he’s unrealistic about his goals.

DiCaprio is an oddity in the film business. He’s the defacto leader of his generation of actors. He’s not a theater actor; he’s a movie star. But he gets lots of kudos. At 38, he gets Oscar nominations but no Oscar. His Gatsby probably won’t get him that Oscar. but he’ll get close. He begins as a ghost, to Daisy, to us. But as he gets fleshed out, this Gatsby has a lot of pathos. He’s doomed. We know it, he doesn’t. And I think DiCaprio can be very proud of this performance."

http://www.showbiz41...y-like-its-1922

Thanks for the updates. Loved the showbiz article.

Baz movies always have mixed reviews, even Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet arent unanimity... I want to see how the audience will respond to it. To me this movie's goal is not to be a critic or a award season favorite, is to please the audience and I hope it happens!

'The Great Gatsby' review: A good 'Gatsby,' but a great DiCaprio

The good thing about this review as the source 'newsday' is one of the review sites that have their reviews repeated in local papers where there is no local film critic, so it gets more exposure them some reviews to general public

There's a lot to like about "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's flashy, messy, manic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. That slim but thematically tricky little volume remains a captivating riddle, which may be why no filmmaker has created the "definitive" version. Luhrmann, the fourth to try, hasn't, either -- there's a lot to dislike here as well -- but his is easily the most entertaining "Gatsby" yet.

It's a product of its time, as were the others: a 1926 silent, a 1949 noir and a gauzy 1974 romance starring hunk-of-the-moment Robert Redford as the mysterious Long Island millionaire Jay Gatsby. This version is a postmodern pastiche: Flappers gyrate to Jay-Z, Gatsby's Gold Coast mansion looks like a Disneyland castle and Jazz Age New York has more candy-colored costumes and confetti than a Katy Perry concert. (Make that Madonna; Luhrmann's vision of pop spectacle sometimes recalls the 1980s more than the 1920s or 2010s.)

The anachronisms hammer home an obvious point -- 'twas ever thus! -- which would get tiresome if not for some outstanding performances. Carey Mulligan is picture perfect as Gatsby's aristocratic beloved, Daisy Fay Buchanan, but the character's vibrancy has been written away; now she's just sad, sad, sad. Tobey Maguire, as Nick Carraway, strikes a nice blend of passivity and outrage, while Joel Edgerton, as Daisy's husband, Tom, is a revelation, bringing out the nobility in this story's go-to villain. Crucial roles, such as the jet-setting Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) and the ill-used Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher), are reduced to near-cameos.

As for Leonardo DiCaprio, he is now the Gatsby to beat. Despite a borderline comedic entrance -- haloed by fireworks and accompanied by Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" -- DiCaprio nails this maddeningly enigmatic character. He's as tough as Alan Ladd in '49, as suave as Redford in '74, but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. You hear it all in Gatsby's favorite phrase, "old sport," a verbal tic that stumped other actors. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance.

DiCaprio helps save the movie from its excesses and missteps, particularly a narration that not only redundantly describes the visuals but obscures them in the form of floating words. Luhrmann hasn't solved the riddle of "Gatsby," but it's an audacious and worthy attempt.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/the-great-gatsby-review-a-good-gatsby-but-a-great-dicaprio-1.5207150

Awwww Leo always brings his A game, loved the parts you bolded! Thanks Oxford for the article!

'The Great Gatsby' review: A good 'Gatsby,' but a great DiCaprio

The good thing about this review as the source 'newsday' is one of the review sites that have their reviews repeated in local papers where there is no local film critic, so it gets more exposure them some reviews to general public

There's a lot to like about "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's flashy, messy, manic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. That slim but thematically tricky little volume remains a captivating riddle, which may be why no filmmaker has created the "definitive" version. Luhrmann, the fourth to try, hasn't, either -- there's a lot to dislike here as well -- but his is easily the most entertaining "Gatsby" yet.

It's a product of its time, as were the others: a 1926 silent, a 1949 noir and a gauzy 1974 romance starring hunk-of-the-moment Robert Redford as the mysterious Long Island millionaire Jay Gatsby. This version is a postmodern pastiche: Flappers gyrate to Jay-Z, Gatsby's Gold Coast mansion looks like a Disneyland castle and Jazz Age New York has more candy-colored costumes and confetti than a Katy Perry concert. (Make that Madonna; Luhrmann's vision of pop spectacle sometimes recalls the 1980s more than the 1920s or 2010s.)

The anachronisms hammer home an obvious point -- 'twas ever thus! -- which would get tiresome if not for some outstanding performances. Carey Mulligan is picture perfect as Gatsby's aristocratic beloved, Daisy Fay Buchanan, but the character's vibrancy has been written away; now she's just sad, sad, sad. Tobey Maguire, as Nick Carraway, strikes a nice blend of passivity and outrage, while Joel Edgerton, as Daisy's husband, Tom, is a revelation, bringing out the nobility in this story's go-to villain. Crucial roles, such as the jet-setting Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) and the ill-used Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher), are reduced to near-cameos.

As for Leonardo DiCaprio, he is now the Gatsby to beat. Despite a borderline comedic entrance -- haloed by fireworks and accompanied by Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" -- DiCaprio nails this maddeningly enigmatic character. He's as tough as Alan Ladd in '49, as suave as Redford in '74, but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. You hear it all in Gatsby's favorite phrase, "old sport," a verbal tic that stumped other actors. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance.

DiCaprio helps save the movie from its excesses and missteps, particularly a narration that not only redundantly describes the visuals but obscures them in the form of floating words. Luhrmann hasn't solved the riddle of "Gatsby," but it's an audacious and worthy attempt.

http://www.newsday.c...aprio-1.5207150

Yeah...nice review too....

http://www.screendai...&contentID=1479

DiCaprio fares far better as Gatsby, a poignant figure laid low by his desire to acquire enough riches to win back his true love. It’s been 17 years since DiCaprio appeared in Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, but you can see much of the last decade of his career in his portrayal of Gatsby: the thwarted ambition of Howard Hughes from The Aviator, the dark intensity of Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island, and the romantic anguish of Dom Cobb from Inception.

Of late, DiCaprio seems drawn to roles where he plays dashing, confident, worldly men who cannot overcome some fatal flaw that threatens to undo everything they’ve accomplished. His Gatsby is very much cut from the same cloth, and while it’s largely affecting — now well into his thirties, he can better utilise his still-boyish face to wring great pathos — it’s also a touch familiar at this point.

LOVE leo getting positive reviews at least...and while I'm a little upset so far the reviews haven't been to favorable, at the very least the crowds and movie going audiances who have seen it have liked it!! (I know I loved Moulin Rouge and R&J even though those reviews were sketchy too)

Also...what is this mag? Fake, or special issue, or what?

h. jon benjamin ?@HJBenjamin 7h

New issue of dicaprio magazine OUT!!!

New Gatsby clips, Leo comments etc.

Jay Z Talks Musical Inspiration Behind 'Gatsby'

Thanks to all for the Gatsby reviews , articles, vids

Sweet Gaby

I share the sentiments you expressed below ,as they remind me of what happened years ago when Titanic with Leo was about to be released.

I want to see how the audience will respond to it. To me this movie's goal is not to be a critic or a award season favorite, is to please the audience and I hope it happens

Never heard of that magazine either lol. Not sure what the deal is, either way he looks great.

Who better to play Jay Gatsby than Leonardo DiCaprio, a teen sitcom star who turned A-lister ?

Living the American dream

NEW YORK — Like Jay Gatsby, Leonardo DiCaprio knows a thing or two about reinventing himself.

DiCaprio made the transition from Oscar-nominated teen in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape to young adult Titanic star with a blink of his baby-blue eyes.

Later on, he managed to position himself as a 21st century A-list power player who could get films made by saying yes.

However, it took more than a nod of approval from DiCaprio to get the green light for Baz Luhrmann’s ambitious makeover of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby.

DiCaprio’s involvement helped, but Luhrmann had to shoot the movie in his native land of Australia to reap some cost-saving benefits from the country’s cinema incentive program.

Based on the results, DiCaprio said they were thrilled that they did a movie that’s as relevant now as the book was when it was first published in the early 1920s.

“I think we can all relate to the dreamer in Gatsby,” said the 38-year-old, relaxing at a refurbished suite in the Plaza Hotel. “He’s a character who created himself according to his own imagination and dreams, and he’s lifted himself from his bootstraps … and created this image.”

Opening May 10, the latest version of Gatsby is still set in 1920s New York but shot in state-of-the-art 3D. And the film features DiCaprio as a less mysterious Gatsby who becomes embroiled in the melodramatic lives of the upper class after re-connecting with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan).

Tobey Maguire co-stars as Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story and the observer of the reckless affairs surrounding him.

Joel Edgerton plays Daisy’s philandering husband Tom while Isla Fisher portrays the tragic Myrtle Wilson.

Six film and TV versions of The Great Gatsby came before the Luhrmann production; the most famous starred Robert Redford as Gatsby in the 1974 movie.

That was only one of the reasons DiCaprio was initially hesitant about taking on the iconic part.

“For me, this is American Shakespeare,” he said. “And this is one of the most celebrated novels of all time.”

Certainly, he was comforted by the fact that he was collaborating again with his friend Luhrmann, whose hyper-real post-modern Gatsby is not as camp as Strictly Ballroom or as song-oriented as Moulin Rouge! Yet it was just as challenging.

“To venture into a project of this magnitude took a core unit of trust for me to feel comfortable and it took somebody I knew for 20 years,” said DiCaprio who played Romeo in Luhrmann’s stylized Romeo + Juliet.

In fact, Luhrmann had DiCaprio by his side as he developed the production from a maybe to a might and finally to a daring project with multiple collaborators. “We were a theatre company and, like a theatre company, it was a true collaboration,” Luhrmann said.

Yet the director and leading man knew that adjustments would have to be made to connect the past to the present.

“It’s a truly American story,” said DiCaprio. “Here is this emerging democracy that is America in the 1920s and (Gatsby) wants to emulate a Rockefeller but creates his wealth in the underworld.”

Familiar today are Luhrmann’s sub-themes depicting a financial system teetering on the brink of collapse as a party-mad subculture immerses itself in excess.

“That’s why it’s not just a (period) novel,” DiCaprio said. “Fitzgerald was very much commenting on society and human nature and the great pursuit of wealth, and it’s timeless.”

That was hardly DiCaprio’s perception when he first read the novel as a 14-year-old. He said at the time he thought of it as a yarn about a hopeless romantic lost in love.

Back in those junior high days, DiCaprio was auditioning for TV commercials, then soon managed to get his first gig on the short-lived TV show Parenthood. It led to more TV appearances, including memorable guest spots on the highly rated Roseanne and Growing Pains.

DiCaprio made his film debut in 1992 opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life, which was the beginning of an incredible movie career.

He said he never expected that a Gatsby movie would be his future, especially one filmed in Australia.

“What was amazing about shooting in Australia, and recreating this whole world, was the incredible enthusiasm of all the people there,” said DiCaprio. “I think it infused us with this great energy.

[email protected]

© Copyright © The Ottawa Citizen

Oxford, I agree with everything you said! I liked your Titanic story and mom + leo fan's advice, so sweet. I read somewhere today that "movie critics seem to be taking unvarnished glee in savaging the film's blinged-out depictions of Jazz Age excess." and i believe this is true, critics have been waiting to tear Gatsby apart since it was announced - a lot of reviewers have a real hatred of Baz's style, which saddens me.

I'm not going to let the negativity stop my excitement for the movie at all!

Really nice article about Leo´s romantic films!

This weekend, “The Great Gatsby,” Baz Luhrmann’s overstuffed piñata of a literary adaptation, opens everywhere (read our review). Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the mysterious mogul Jay Gatsby, with Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, the object of his very intense desire. Anyone who has taken a freshman literature course (um, spoiler alert?) knows that the central love story of “The Great Gatsby” doesn’t exactly end well, but even more alarming is the fact that within the career of Mr DiCaprio this seems to be what a therapist would describe as “a definite pattern.” Over the years leo has been embroiled in a quite shocking array of cinematic trysts that ended in absolute catastrophe.

Through nightmares and dreamscapes, historical disasters and literary classics, DiCaprio has faced has faced an almost unrivalled myriad of doomed romances. He finds love -- fleetingly -- only to have it ripped away from him in, usually in the most depressingly tragic way possible. "The Great Gatsby" is no exception. It is at least his first doomed romance in 3D, so there's that. Without further ado - the top 5 Leonardo DiCaprio doomed romances!

"Revolutionary Road" (Sam Mendes, 2008)

The Romance: Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) are a married couple in suburban Connecticut in the fifties. He commutes into the city while she stays at home with the kids. They once deeply loved each other, and spoke about leaving their dull life behind and moving to Paris. Sadly, that never gets to happen.

How It's Doomed: Frank and April's relationship is wracked by conflict – screaming matches, infidelity, and general unease – but the tragic end to their marriage occurs after April has become pregnant. She tells Frank that she wants to get an abortion, which sends him flying into a rage. Later on, she tries to give herself an abortion… and things do not end well. Under the direction of Sam Mendes, "Revolutionary Road" unfolds as a series of mournful tableaus and the final abortion sequence is jaw-dropping precisely because it's so well composed. In the history of Leonardo DiCaprio wives who crazily kill themselves, though, Winslet has a surprising amount of depth – her decision doesn't seem all that nutty, partially because Mendes is such an empathetic director.

Emotional Devastation Factor: Pretty high. This was, after all, the highly touted reunion of DiCaprio and Winslet, who co-starred in the sweepingly romantic (and equally doomed) "Titanic." That was, at one point, the biggest movie of all time. "Revolutionary Road," by comparison, was small potatoes, but it might have packed an even bigger emotional wallop.

"Shutter Island" (Martin Scorsese, 2010)

The Romance: Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio), a U.S. Marshal, is investigating a missing mental patient named Rachel Solando, a resident of the insane asylum on Shutter Island, a craggy mass in the Boston Harbor. Solando apparently drowned her children – but why is Teddy racked with similar visions?

How It's Doomed: "Shutter Island" unfolds with a loopy, nightmarish logic all its own but what's eventually revealed is this – Teddy isn't actually a U.S. Marshall but is in fact a patient – a man who killed his wife after she drowned their children. The entire plot of "Shutter Island," it seems, is an elaborate attempt to uncover repressed memories and free DiCaprio's character (whose name is really Andrew Laeddis) of his insanity. DiCaprio doomed romances don't usually have this much murder and mayhem (expertly visualized by Scorsese, who is clearly having the time of his life referencing dozens of B-movie chillers).

Emotional Devastation Factor: Surprisingly low. There's just so much stuff in "Shutter Island" (including but not limited to: Nazi doctors, World War II flashbacks, multiple actors playing the same characters, and hazy fantasy sequences) that it's hard to make an emotional connection to any of it. Still, Scorsese tries his best, and the scenes where we see what really happened with DiCaprio's wife and children, are pretty disturbing, even if they are still ensconced in Scorsese's cobwebby haunted-house aura.

Inception" (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

The Romance: Dom (DiCaprio) and Mal (Marion Cotillard) are so happy together that they actually create an entire universe in their dreams. When they unplug, though, the relationship (and their sense of reality) comes crashing down.

How It's Doomed: Mal, unable to handle the effects of leaving the dream world and convinced that reality is also a construct, hurls herself off the side of a building (on date night, no less). What's worse is that a version of Mal, more villainous than in real life, haunts Mal as he makes his way through the dreamscape (since her death, he has become a renegade dream thief), foiling him at every turn. She really is the ex that you can't get away from. While director Christopher Nolan has a history of creating female characters who are morally reprehensible or end up violently killed, Mal is more than that – she works on a metaphorical level as well as a literal one, and adds some devilish kinkiness to a movie that, even though it involves the psychologically murky world of dreams, is starkly asexual.

Emotional Devastation Factor: Middle. It works on a surprising emotional level, especially considering that "Inception" was the second Leo-trapped-in-dreams movie of 2010 (after "Shutter Island"). Cotillard's performance, especially in her "human" scenes, is particularly affecting – she seems like the kind of woman that would make you create a fantasy dimension just so you could have her all to yourself. Leo is also solid, playing a man chasing this memories of a better life through his dreams. As Robert Palmer would say: "Tell me I'm not dreamin'"

"Romeo + Juliet" (Baz Luhrmann, 1996)

The Romance: Star-crossed lovers Romeo (DiCaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) have one of the most crushingly powerful and tragic romances of all time, defying a violent grudge between their families.

How It's Doomed: Based on William Shakespeare's immortal play and transposed to what appears to be war-torn, modern-day South America (with flourishes borrowed from Southern California and, of course, Australia), Romeo and Juliet's love affair ends with both of them taking their lives. (It's a little convoluted – read the play.) This was Luhrmann's first collaboration with DiCaprio, on probably the only source material that is more sacred than "The Great Gatsby," and the two are obviously on similar creative ground. The tragedy is heightened by the fact that both DiCaprio and Danes are both so young and adorable. It's like drowning fluffy kittens.

Emotional Devastation Factor: High. This is one of the most gut-wrenching love stories of all time, and Luhrmann and his actors do it justice, especially since, by the time the tragic final scenes play out, much of the showy excess has been stripped away. What's left is two kids, dead by their own hands, and really, what's more heartbreaking than that?

"Titanic" (James Cameron, 1997)

The Romance: It's an upstairs/downstairs romance on the RMS Titanic as dirt-poor Jack (DiCaprio) falls in love with Rose (Winslet). They have to dodge Kate's hothead fiancé (Billy Zane) as well as dealing with the whole ocean-liner-sinking-into-the-depthless-sea thing.

How It's Doomed: Considering the movie is bookended by a sequence of an old lady telling her story to a group of modern day Titanic enthusiasts (led by Bill Paxton's redneck researcher), it's safe to say that only one half of this relationship survives the cataclysmic crash of the Titanic. Of course, they make it through the actual sinking of the ship to find themselves floating in the chilly Atlantic waters, waiting for rescue. Rose is perched atop a piece of wood, while Jack dangles underneath. Eventually, he dies, his half-frozen body sinking into the water. Cue the wailing cries of millions of teenage girls worldwide. DiCaprio's tragic demise is even more harrowing considering how much the couple got through on the boat alone (including Billy Zane firing a pistol at them, and the ship cracking in half as it began its slow descent to the bottom of the ocean) – if they can conquer all that, as well as the rigid class system of the time, shouldn't they be able to hang out in the water for a few minutes before getting rescued? No. This is a DiCaprio romance. Somebody had to die.

Emotional Devastation Factor: Again: pretty high. James Cameron is a master manipulator, able to wring tears out of virtually any situation, and man if you don't get drawn into the story of these two kids in love, then you're probably a robot. The emotions are actually amplified by the historical setting, unlike "Pearl Harbor," which tried a similar formula but felt much cheaper. Coming a year after "Romeo + Juliet" too, "Titanic" served as a would-be warning to any cinematic partner interested in a relationship with DiCaprio: things most likely won't end well. While not quite as histrionic, a number of other Leonardo DiCaprio romances have also felt doomed: his relationship with Armie Hammer in Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" never had a big moment of dissolution but was tragic for its quiet lack of acceptability; in Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," he has a wonderful relationship with Amy Adams that is undone by his criminal duplicity; he forges a meaningful relationship with Vera Farmiga in "The Departed" but is ultimately killed (insert sad emoticon here); and his own mental instability means that he can never sustain a romantic relationship in "The Aviator." Poor Leo!

Gaby

Agree with your comments below (Y) (Y)

I read somewhere today that "movie critics seem to be taking unvarnished glee in savaging the film's blinged-out depictions of Jazz Age excess." and i believe this is true, critics have been waiting to tear Gatsby apart since it was announced - a lot of reviewers have a real hatred of Baz's style, which saddens me.

I'm not going to let the negativity stop my excitement for the movie at all!

http://youtu.be/xHudO2oaflU

Possible NY sighting

DRJ ‏@davejerg 11m

Wife told me she's sitting next to Leonardo Dicaprio at dinner in NYC, and I got a boner. Women stand no chance.