Rating: 
Summary: Very, very good movie, but could have been better!
Review: This was indeed a spendid movie and one of the best I have seen. But one thing bothers me. This movie could have been titantic if it wasn't for the very outragous gang scenes and the Capulet ball. Don't get me wrong the scenes which included Romeo and Juliet were very extraordinary. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes was an excellent choose to share the main roles in Romeo and Juliet. Sorry if this bugs anybody. I really recommend everybody renting this one if you haven't yet. So go get it!
Rating: 
Summary: This is one of the BEST movies I've ever seen....
Review: This movie was too great for words. Well at least for me. The first time I saw this movie, I was in total shock. It also made me think, "Why would someone do so much for love?" Now I know the reason why... ANd if you haven't seen the movie, I totally recomend you see it!
Rating:
Summary: Stunning visuals & soundtrack, mostly so-so acting
Review: This movie is adapted from William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" and follows two young people from rival families as they meet and fall in love, and as "star cross'd lovers" their short-lived romance burns out in a fire of passion and death.Director Baz Luhrmann's vision for Romeo & Juliet is visually exciting. The sets, costumes, locations, and props down to the smallest detail are rich and vivid. The soundtrack is riotous and is the perfect accompaniment to the neo-catholic design of the movie. With snippets of Wagnerian opera, and some great techno, the soundtrack proved to be audio bliss, and this movie had a great deal of impact on me when I saw it in the theatre. There are some details of this movie that just make the whole thing worthwhile: the clannish costuming of the two families (ultracool hawaiian for the Montagues, and latino-gothic for the Capulets), the revamping of two pop songs in the style of a catholic boys' choir (most notably, Prince's "When the Doves Cry" in an amazing performance by Quindon Tarver), the lush locations in Mexico City and the Catholic themes that show up all through the movie. It is truly a beautiful film. Although this movie is mostly aimed at the MTV generation (and therefore probably exempt from my complaints, because its audience doesn't care about them), it falls short in some fundamental areas. "Romeo and Juliet" does not achieve the clarity that "good" Shakespeare movies such as those adapted and directed by Kenneth Branaugh ("Much Ado About Nothing" "Henry V" and "Hamlet") do: namely, the delivery of the lines. Almost all the actors, with the exception of Pete Postlethwaite (Friar Laurence), and Christina Pickles, with her short performance as Mrs. Montague, delivered lines so badly that it was hard to tell what they were talking about. (This is where the strong visuals come in, as the audience could always SEE what was happening, if the dialog did not make it clear). Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad actors, just not good Shakesperean actors. That being said, the casting was good (at least appearance-wise), and most of the choices made in production worked to make this movie a glorious two-hour music video that just might tempt some non-believers into appreciating Shakespeare.
Rating:
Summary: Critics can go to hell...
Review: Just like I said before, Critics can go to hell. I am a huge reader and have read nearly everyone of Shakespeare's plays. However, I have a cousin, who is not as bring a reader as I am. I was reading Romeo and Juliet and when I told her, she just said "How dumb." So I decided to take her to see this version of Romeo and Juliet to so her that she could see the story. You know what? She loved it! These kinds of movies can bring non-readers to literature.
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie, GREAT film on a big screen
Review: An excellent fast paced adaptation. However, it's MUCH more impressive on a large screen. If you ever get a chance to see it in a theatre, I highly recommend it. I'm not a huge DiCaprio fan, but he does a decent job here. The cinematography is amazing. Again, this really is only true on a large screen where you tend to get lost in the camera movements (in a good way). On a regular TV, the cinematography loses a lot, which takes away greatly from the film.
Rating:
Summary: A simply great movie :)
Review: Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio are two of my favorite actors/actresses and they were perfectly suited in this modern version of Romeo and Juliet. At first, you may find it awkward to hear an olden language spoken and guns used at the same time! But as the movie goes on, you'll get used to the modernized and original concept. The cast was pretty good, especially Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio. As I'd mentioned, they were just the perfect match for Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack to this movie was also great! After watching this modern version of Romeo and Juliet, "Lovefool" by the Cardigans, would always remind me of the romance in this film (and how cute Leo is, lol). Anyway...I think everyone show watch it, enjoy it, and eventually love it!
Rating: 
Summary: Shakespeare's Finest Romance Minus the Passion
Review: This, most recent, attempt at bringing Shakespeare's classic romance to the big screen is only partially successful. The cinematography is stunning, and the director's effort at updating the setting into the 1990s is well done. However, Leonardo DiCaprio falls flat in his performance as Romeo. In one of the most romantic scenes (Act I; scene V) Romeo first speaks to Juliet in a dialogue which begins "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this;" In his performance, DiCaprio runs through these line as though he was late for a meeting with his agent. Offsetting DiCaprio's performance are several outstanding performances among the supporting cast, notably those of John Leguizamo as Tybalt and Harold Perrineau as Mercutio. An excellent film for use in an English or theater class to compare with the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version. Hard-core Shakespeare fans will be disappointed, but this film is worthwhile if only as an example of how not to perform Shakespeare.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful !!
Review: I saw the movie because I had heard of Romeo and Juliet as one of Shakespearefs works, but I didnft know the story in detail. This movie arranges the original story setting it in modern Italy. I was deeply moved by its themes : they are gEncounterh and gDeathh. Romeo and Juliet first get acquainted with each other for the first time in a party held at Julietfs house. The party is very funny!! In the middle of the party, suddenly Petruchio begins to dance and sing ! I was very surprised by seeing it, for the Montagues and the Capulets are oppsed to each other. If Petruchio is found out, he will be killed for he is a loyal retainer of the Capulets. (Finally, he was killed by Tybalt, Julietfs cousin.) While the party continues, Romeo meets Juliet across a fish tank in the powder room by chance. ( The fish tank is very big and beautiful ! ) The scene is very charming! Romeo and Juliet get married in secret. Their wedding is simple, but they seems to be happy. After their marriage, Petruchio was killed by Tybalt. Hearing of his death, Romeo rushed to his head, and he killed Tybalt. Because of this matter, he was banished from the country. Although her cousin was killed by her husband, Juliet kept believing and loving him. It is marvelous! Sad to say they donft be happy, but the Montagues and Capulets make peace by their death. After I saw the movie,I was greatly impressed by it !
Rating: 
Summary: Shakespeare not on the agenda
Review: This adaptation of the play (and it is not the play itself, by any means) gets off to a bad start when the actor speaking the prologue mistakes a comma for a period at the end of the second line, speaking an introductory phrase as though she had finished her sentence. In fact, all of the actors in this show get a bit baffled if their sentence happens to last more than about a line and a half; they seem unable to insert a parenthetical phrase and still make the two surrounding pieces of the sentence sound like parts of the same sentence. But of course, doing words is not what this particular spectacle is about. It's about quick-cut editing for the ADD generation. The rap/rock music gives way at the end to Isolde's Transfiguration - to be recognized by whom in its target audience, I wonder? And what an insult to our own ability to comprehend a dramatic irony, to have Juliet wake up before Romeo dies. The whole thing is cheap and cynical, neither a responsible adaptation of the play itself nor an interesting translation into a purely cinematic idiom, as is Kurosawa's nearly wordless "Macbeth/Throne of Blood". Whiting and Hussey came in for some criticism as immature actors in the '69 Zeffirelli version - they look like old pros next to these two clods. To be avoided.
Rating:
Summary: A mythical Verona Beach and Rich Boys' Gang war
Review: Here the adaptation is a modernization in a mythical city of Verona Beach in Calidornia, a city that does not exist, even if we may think of Venice next to Los Angeles. It uses the editing technique and the shooting technique of modern cinema and video clips. The prologue for instance is given three times : on TV by an anchorwoman, over real life pictures by a male overvoice emphasized by headlines in papers, and finally in text injections on black screens at high speed. The situation is changed and the brawl is transformed into a gang war betwwen two rich boys' gangs, the Montagues being some kind of punks and the Capulets some kind of Latin America mafia, with a strong set of allusions to western films, and even to Clint Eastwood's « a Man named Nobody ». Tybalt is the direct impersonification of evil with his metal teeth printed with SIN, with his image of Christ on his waistcoat that he flashes at Benvolio as an image of the death that is awaiting Benvolio, as if this picture were a mirror image of Benvolio in the process of dying. The main change though is the transformation of the Prince into the head of the police that comes from the sky in a helicopter and that has full power to keep the peace in Verona's streets. It is a vision of a society where the police is omnipresent and where the youth can only organise their pleasures and entertainments in a rebelious search for street adventure. It is in a way marvelous. Di Caprio is admirable as a romantic, naive and completely lost young man or old teenager. Mercutio is a prodigy as a black man and a drag queen, even if only for fun. He is a pretty jolly good fellow even if a grave man in a many ways. One excellent adaptation. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
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