Much Ado About Nothing

Rating:
Summary: funny and just plain enjoyable! by a 14 year old
Review: This movie is so, as I said, enjoyable! It's hilarious - it has both physical and oral comedy. The scenes with Benedick and Beatrice are great.

Shakespeare's play is about two romances. One with a young, innocent, beautiful Hero and a naiive guy (I forget his name). The other is with Beatrice and Benedick, a couple who love to hate each other and don't realize their true feelings without a little help from some friends. Unfortunately, all is not completely happy. Someone is trying to put a damper on everyone's fun with lies and false accusations. But don't worry! Much Ado About Nothing isn't a tragedy.

The music and scenery is beautiful and the who feel is the movie is sprightly and energetic. I think everyone did a good job. Branagh and Thompson obviously were wonderful. Everybody says Michael Keaten (spelling?) and Keanu Reeves were terrible, but I strongly disagree. Perhaps they were a little prejudiced by former viewings of the actors. Keaten was so funny - I am sure Shakespeare was not always refined - and Reeves was evil. They both were fine!

I recommend this movie to Shakespeare lovers (though it may not be COMPLETELY true to the original text) and to anyone who wants a good laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This film version of Much Ado is hands down one of the best productions of Shakespeare available on film. The cast is superb and Branagh allows them to shine in their roles. The text comes through crystal clear without sacrificing any of the meaning or playing simply for laughs. However, laughs there are, galore! The only down spot is Keanu Reaves, who looks the part but unfortunately isn't up to the task, but he's surrounded by pros and isn't on screen all that much.

Rating:
Summary: Whitty! Funny! An All Time Favorite
Review: Kenneth and Emma are great. A romantic comedy. A must see.

Rating:
Summary: What did Heidegger say about The Nothing???
Review: "Much Ado About Nothing" is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. Come on, it's worth five stars just for the three scenes with Dogberry (Shakespeare's greatest clown???). However, the rest of the play is brilliant as well. Some people read it as a straightforward love story. However, I am not sure whether or not any of the characters are REALLY in love with each other or not. I've read it as a commentary on society (as I've read many of the comedies). I think that the play is about how our lives are shaped by gossip and the opinions we believe others to have of us. Notice how both Benedick and Beatrice mention how others will perceive them if they do not requite the others "love" for him/her. I think it is a commentary on the flaws of placing so much emphasis on propriety and manner and the power of words in shaping our lives. But then again, that's just me. Whether or not you (or anyone for that matter...(gulp!)...or am I really alone???) read this play the same way, you should find much enjoyment in it and I therefore recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: It Shouldn't Happen To A Dogberry
Review: "Much Ado About Nothing," a bon bon of a play, one of Shakespeare's most breezily delightful comedies, is deceptively difficult to pull off, mainly because its success rests entirely upon the charm and vivacity of the performances. Kenneth Branagh's vanity production suffers from a plentiful lack of both, and the play comes to grief. There are few genuinely bad things about his movie, but the bad things are truly terrible.

If the chubby little star/director's crude hamming (when was the last time a person actually expressed joy by splashing about in a fountain?) or the smirking-through-her-frowns mugging of his then-wife Emma Thompson are not enough to put you off, Michael Keaton's performance should do the trick. Playing the sublimely funny clown, Dogberry, Keaton is worse than a disaster: he's an atrocity. Dogberry is a scene-stealing actor's dream of a role: one that not only gets the biggest laughs in the show, but is generally considered to be actor-proof. Unhappily, it is not Keaton-proof. The chief pleasure of the role is the familiarity of his type: a well-meaning and diligent, but imbecilic and utterly incompetent petty official with delusions of grandeur. But Keaton misses the joke completely and plays him as a disgusting creep -- Beetlejuice on a bad acid trip. His swinish performance very nearly makes Branagh and Thompson seem acceptable by comparison. It is a noisily wrong-headed performance of such arbitrary and grotesque ugliness that whenever he is on screen, you may find yourself (as I did) using your hand as a blinker to prevent yourself from catching sight of his repellant image. You may also want to turn the sound off so you won't hear him murder the text with his willfully obscure, thuddingly unfunny line readings. Still, it can be said that Keaton's performance is something of a wonder, if judged purely as an abomination. It stands as the second worst performance ever committed to (or on) film. (For the record, the all-time, unapproachable worst is Howard da Silva's in "1776".)

Happily, an antidote may be on the way: a famous 1970's Public Theater production of "Much Ado About Nothing" (which should be released in the near future) features the splendid Barnard Hughes as Dogberry, who plays the role with such pizzazz, and is so superbly funny, he will make you forget all about Keaton's criminally insane misinterpretation. He may even wash the septic taste out of your mouth.

Patrick Doyle's score is pretty and pleasant, if too short.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Film
Review: Kenneth Branagh's film is a hilarious and captivating rendition of the very best Shakespearean comedy you will ever see. This production is one you will want to watch over and over--there isn't a single portion which becomes stale with multiple viewings. The poetic soliloquies of the stubborn Benedick and Beatrice will leave you laughing for as long as you own this masterpiece. "Much Ado About Nothing" was intrumental in inspiring my own love of Shakespeare. This film would make an excellent introduction to the great playwright for teenage viewers who might suppose Shakespeare to be simply a stuffy language from years ago. The amazing cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Robert Sean Leonard, Micheal Keaton, and Keanu Reeves.
The talent in this film is breathtaking, as is the location, a charming villa in northern Italy which provides the perfect backdrop for the antics of this all-star cast. I consider the film an priceless installment to my own collection, and urge you to make it a part of yours.

Rating:
Summary: Our generations Olivier!
Review: So, Ok, there was and will only be one true Laurence Olivier. However, Kenneth Branagh is our generations Olivier. He has the same vigor, fortitude and foremost ability to play complex characters as Sir. Laurence Olivier had. The play has been wonderfully adapted by the cast and Emma Thompson is quite beautifull and is the perfect love interest for Brannagh's charcter. I do not find it to be as good as other Shakespeare plays. However, being an alright play by Shakespeare means that it is supperior to most anything else and in the case of this movie. This is also true. Highly Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent in Spite of Keanu
Review: Branagh does it again -- almost -- as the modern interpreter of Shakespeare -- his best being Henry V and Hamlet. This is an excellent version of Much Ado, and the interplay between Branagh and Emma Thompson shows two actors at the top of their craft. The photography is stunning as are the sets. Two jarring notes, when I purchased and viewed the video last week -- the treatment of women as a piece of "goods" not worth having if non-virgin (well that's just the attitude of the time in which it was written, but really, preferring your daughter to be dead?), and Keanu Reeves, who is seriously miscast as Don John (OK, he's fine in The Matrix, but Shakespeare is way over his head). Fortunately, it's a small role.

Let's hope Branagh continues to provide us with new interpretations of Shakespeare -- I wonder what he would do with Macbeth, Richard II or III. Hopefuly I'll still be around when he decides to do Lear.

Rating:
Summary: Much Ado About Many Things!
Review: "Much Ado About Nothing" is one of Shakespeare's more entertaining comedies. From the "merry war of words" between Benedick (Kenneth Brannagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson) to the infernal plotting of Don John (the woefully miscast Keanu Reaves, the film's only low), there is never a dull moment. Denzel Washington shines as the militia commander, and the chemistry between Brannagh and Thompson is absolutely wonderful. I have seen many productions, both on stage and on film, of this particular play, and this one outshines them all.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Shakespeare film
Review: To hit the high points, Branagh's film version of Much Ado About Nothing: - Makes Shakespearean English come to life. - Is beautifully filmed in northern Italy. - Features an absolutely marvelous cast including Michael Keaton, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and many other great actors and actresses. - Is funny, romantic, and lively. - Brings the characters to life! If you think Shakespeare is dry, inomprehensible, dated, or otherwise uninteresting to the modern viewer, I ***promise*** this production will change your mind. My daughter lent it to her high school English teacher, who showed it in class. The teen audience, both guys and girls, loved it!