Titus

Rating:
Summary: Titus
Review: A movie adapted from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Taymor surprisingly kept to the original plot; and has created an inventive, surreal environment that truly encompasses every age, past and present. Anthony Hopkins gives a spectacular performance as tired Roman general Titus, and Jessica Lange is very adept as Tamora. The supporting cast is also excellent, giving life to the play. A wonderful first hour in the movie left me eager to see more; but the second hour became rather irritating and without luster. Taymor seemed to have taken the idea of extremes a little too far, causing me to turn away rather than make me lean closer. After the first hour, it was already made clear to the viewer just what kind of people we're dealing with: people full of debauchery and deceit. So literally seeing them in debauchery (think of the "Arrows of the Gods" scene -- you'll have to see it to get my meaning) all over the place didn't add anything to the story, nor did it improve it in any way (the costumes Tamora and her sons wear when they pretend to be Vengeance, Lust, and Murder were amusing though). The final moments of the movie, however, returned my interest (the banquet was great -- thumbs up for Hopkins!) So, with the exception of a few useless moments and tiring scenes, Taymor does a unique, original job over a great play. Read the play, however; it's much better than the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Taking Lemons and Making Ice Cream!
Review: Who would have thought that a lesser work of Shakespeare could become my favorite filmed version? It had everything going against it, then came Julie Taymor, Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. Suddenly this less eloquent revenge play becomes a complex, fascinating work of art. And art is the key word here.

Taymor's design is amazing, shocking, challenging and ultimately very successful! I've never liked Shakespeare much when they take it out of its period. I could never get past the anachronisms of Richard III, in spite of Ian McKellan's performance, and the many other more contemporary versions were so-so at best.

Not to say it isn't jarring in Titus. A scene will begin and will feel centuries old, then somebody will get in a car and drive off at the end of the secne! I don't know if this was the way to do it or not. I'd like to see what Taymor's more classical version would have looked like. We'll never know and it doesn't really matter. These are not really obstacles to enjoying the film.

To think, Anthony Hopkins avoided Shakespeare because he was intimidated! Finally he has the courage to do it, and he doesn't back away from the challenge. His Titus becomes complex, intense and passionate. Thankfully Anthony keeps challenging himself, unlike many of our veteran actors, who keep recreating the same character in every film. Hopkins is the finest actor living today, and you're just going to have to accept that.

Passion rings throughout TITUS. The entire cast is superb, and each gives their character life! This is a large cast, and the performances are the best rounded than any Shakespeare film I've seen yet. You won't find Keanu Reeves stumbling through Iambic Pentameter in this film, or Jack Lemmon stuttering unconvincing thees and thous. Every actor is superb. Casting was done very carefully, and Taymor directs them with the skill of somebody much more experienced and older. You can see the work that went into this movie. It's on screen all the time. This has got to be one of the best films released in years.

Don't like the price? Get over it! The movie is nearly three hours long, there's a second disk with lots of GOOD extras! There's more bang for your buck here than T2 or MIB (both dubious works of art), or Fight Club, or any other special edition DVD I've seen.

Rating:
Summary: ANTHONY HOPKINS IS BRILLIANT.
Review: The movie is not. Just say you DON'T want your mtv. The costumes were terrible, PEE WEE HERMAN(i mean saturnine) was terrible. Jessica Lange-who has'nt had a hit since FRANCES, was godawful in her makeup and acting. Julie Taymor turned this movie into a jazz-swing, webster hall kid,nazi like outfit wearing ,cars and guns, bad music video.Does she do music videos? Anthony Hopkins in between quoting brilliant shakespear as only he can, redeems this entire movie, with his acting and his final revenge.Maybe he wanted out of this movie mess?Violence? the violence was tame, kids. So get off it, already.Watch this movie if you're interested, with alot of time to kill,and don't say i did not warn you on this new 1990's Rome...Romeo and juliet was a little better..but not by much. SCORE FOR ANTHONY HOPKINS! THE ONLY SAVIOR IN THIS STUPID MTV MESS..

Rating:
Summary: authentically tasteless
Review: The audiences of Shakespeare's time didn't just enjoy his plays. Theyalso were rather partial to cock-fighting, brutal bare-knuckle boxing-- and public whippings, pillories, hangings, beheadings, andburnings. Large crowds turned out (with picnic lunches) to enjoy theaverage public execution.

Shakespeare was no fool; trying to buildup his career he had to write some shock-schlock to appeal to thepeople who these days like to slow down and take a good, long, lovinglook at major car accidents.

Unfortunately, Taymor has quiteauthentically crafted a _Titus_ that appeals to that same regrettabletaste. There's some good acting (notably the Moorish villain,beautifully played!) but the appalling violence is the star of theshow -- this is just "Nightmare on Elm Street" in fancydress and with more melodious dialogue.

Of all Shakespeare's playsthis is perhaps the one best adaptible to our current nadir incinematic and dramatic values. Redemption there is none; Taymor had towrite in a kitschy, wordless end-sequence to spread a little positiveicing onto the relentless despair of the script. Taymor in herobligatory interview congratulates audiences of the early 21st centuryon their ability to find humour in violence and brutality. I am notinclined to congratulation; barbarism doesn't become more attractivejust because it's contemporary. If contemporary audiences findmurder, rape, cannibalism and insanity amusing, then I suggest we needlook no further for reasons for most of our social ills.

Brutalityand psychotic selfishness have been fashionable in American culturefor a couple of decades now, and somehow we are all wailing andtut-tutting about the inevitable consequences (like Littleton) yetpatting ourselves on the back for our "sophistication" andour admiration for evil. We can't have it both ways. When we admireand vicariously snigger at evil, we teach our kids what to admire andhow to be. When they learn what we teach them, we have no one toblame but ourselves.

There is some fine location filming here, somederivative but pleasing surrealism (mostly cribbed from Fellini andhis followers), and of course Hopkins is always worth watching (thesole reason I bothered with the film, actually). What was tedious andat times quite appalling was the "see how shocking we canbe" self-conscious nastiness of the directing.

I'm not sayingit's inauthentic; updated, yes, but I think true to the same spiritthat led our beloved William to spill fake blood and dismemberedbodies all over the stage for his finale.

The question that troublesme is, how much farther is there to go in the shock/schlock genre?Personally I am not only bored by now, I'm more disgusted (not less)with each insult to my intelligence, each director who thinks the onlyway to entertain me is to show me a newer and fancier car wreck, amore protracted hanging, a heretic screaming more loudly in theflames. At what point do we decide that perhaps human misery andsuffering are not all that entertaining after all?

Or shall we justkiss off the idea of a civil and democratic society, open up a fewarenas, and start selling tickets for the new gladiatorial games? Arewe all that far from doing so now? This latest "Titus"makes me wonder.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT
Review: Once again, another film that dares to be different and is disliked by many. Just think of it this way, which film will be around in 25 years, Titus or The Bone Collector? Anthony Hopkins was phenominal as was the whole production. The most chilling moment in the film - when Titus's daughter turns around after her hands and tongue have been cut off. That shot of her is more memorable and has left a permanate imprint in my brain and is more artistic and beautiful than anything in the whole film Double Jeopardy. Try it, you will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Bloody Good!
Review: Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" is a bitter, bloody example of blind hubris and the strenght of family ties. Set in a post-modern Rome, "Titus" is blood, conspiracy, and murder. Unlike most Shakespearian plays, this one is full of blood, not just assumed violence.

Anthony Hopkins plays a very believeable Titus, who has arrived from battle to see a Rome devided by his own son, Bassicus, competing with Saturnicus for the crown. Titus, respecting nothing but honor, suggest that his son's opposition take the helm of Rome. This begins a tragic ride into the abyss for Titus and his family. They are then subjected to unspeakable tyranny while the Saturnicus is being seduced by the evil Tamora, played by the beautiful Jessica Lange.

This movie is not for the under 18 crowd. Brace yourself, this is not the Shakespeare you know...

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent as a film and as Shakespeare
Review: It's movies like this one that make me want to go out and buy a DVD player IMMEDIATELY. While I saw it on VHS tape, I was mesmerized by the cinematography. Okay, so this is eye-candy. So what, you may say, where's the story? Well, luckily, for the viewer of this fine film, this is Shakespeare. And of course this is probably one reason why this film had such a short tenure in the American movie theatre. The five leads in this film are brilliant! I was especially taken with Lange, who put in a bravura performance. Granted, there is a bit of mucking about on the part of the director. She should have left the kid out of it at the beginning. Why re-write Shakespeare, even slightly? With this venial sin aside, the movie captures the flavor of the play and provides the story in a beautifully realized film.

Rating:
Summary: A boring, pompous mess
Review: I'm not going to go into a long explanation of the film here, since many other reviewers have already done so. I will simply say that this movie was a major disappointment. I'm a great fan of serious film, but this movie was a classic example of overzealous direction and production. The arrogant Julie Taymor is obviously trying to "teach" us things with this mess, but instead has produced a haphazard melange that is neither entertaining nor particularly attractive. It's just boring. And it's insulting, too, because you get the feeling that Taymor feels it is somehow beneath her to simply create entertainment. Instead she's trying to produce "art," and the heavy-handed results are embarressing to watch. Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins try gamely to breathe life into this flaccid film, but even their enormous talents can't raise the dead.

Rating:
Summary: my brains leaked out my ears when I saw this film
Review: This film was such a surprise. Not only did Hopkins deliver some of his best work (and did not in the least remind me of Hannibal the Cannibal), Jessica Lange was one of the most enigmatic figures on-screen I have ever seen. I wasn't bored for one instant with the performances of any of these actors. Julie Taymor provides the viewer with exacting, shocking scenes of beautiful brutality and insanity. Her technique never seized to shock and impress me; everything from the scenes of carnality and sin to the pathos of the tragic figures was perfectly engineered to create in the audience a reaction of total and absolute horror and delight. I was in a state of frenzy by the time the film was over. I immediately wanted to view it again. I walked the streets that night in an excited and awed haze. There is no explaining the terror I felt when greeted with the possibility that this movie might change my life forever.

Rating:
Summary: Jessica Lange rules
Review: Titus is one of the best, if not the best, movies from a Shkespeare play I have ever seen. Julie Taymor's debut as a feature film director had to be one of the best directing jobs of 1999. Her script is brilliant. The sets and costumes are among the best you'll ever see. Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins turn in towering performances that rank among there best. Jessica Lange comes to own this movie. She says her lines with such passion such fiery sincerity that there isn't a word of praise she doesn't deserve. THe supporting cast is also brilliant. Laura Fraser as Lavinia turns in an extremly affecting performance. James Frain and Alan Cumming are remarkable in thier roles. The entire cast is brilliant. Julie Taymor turned one of Skakespeare's little known plays into a brilliant time-traveling masterperice. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.