Rating: 
Summary: One Of MY Favorites!
Review: This movie was not only beautifully filmed, but was also superbly performed. The historical factors just made this film better, because it runs along truth. Elizabeth I is a great woman of history and I was so elated to see this film so well done. I highly recommend it for anyone and everyone to see just once. Then you can see for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Jigga Please
Review: This movie is proof of the flawed Oscar system.If you have a British costume drama about someone from Victorian or Elizabethian times you are sure to be nominated for an Oscar.Now Cate Blanchett is a great actress and this wasnt a really bad of a movie but the historical inacuracies are obvious to anyone who has studied this subject to minimal degree
Rating:
Summary: CATE STILL RULES!
Review: I saw this film twice at the theater and was blown away each time. Cate Blanchett's awesome portrayal of the virgin queen deserved more than a best actress nomination. She and the rest of the cast were simply ripped off by the academy in '98. I haven't seen a performance this intense in a very long time. This is classic moviemaking with superb direction.
Rating:
Summary: Can't quite put my finger on it...
Review: This film definitely lacks something. And that's the dilemma: I can't figure out what exactly. I expected to be totally impressed, even astounded by this film, as I'm a sucker for a good period drama, plus all the people i know who've seen it claim to be astounded. But that never happened to me. The acting, writing, directing et al were really breathtaking, yet something was missing. Perhaps it was the ending. Somehow I believe that excitement and mind-twisting intrigues didn't cease with Elizabeth gaining control. Yet I understand that you cannot possibly fit 40 years of events into but one movie. So, all in all, I enjoyed it, but it did not see all as amazing as people claim.
Rating:
Summary: Eye candy, but not brain food
Review: "A feast for the eyes," "Incredible production and costume design," "Cate Blanchett shines." So true, and yet somehow just not quite enough. Cate Blanchett is wonderful here, the best role I've seen her perform. The scene where she is preparing to speak before Parliament is humorous and believable. However, most of the people I know who've seen this movie haven't understood a third of it, as they knew nothing of Elizabethan history before viewing the film. I did know something of Elizabethan history before viewing the film, and I was the poorer for it, as the glaring historical inaccuracies made it difficult to sit back and enjoy the "feast for the eyes" that the film really is. If you like period dramas, you will enjoy this movie as long as you are willing to take it as just that, a story rather than a history. Geoffrey Rush is great, and some of the minor parts are played very intriguingly. Take this film for your candy, but look elsewhere for the brain food.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning performances.
Review: When I watched "Elizabeth" my girlfriend brought up something I hadn't thought much of- imagine, she said, of how difficult things must have been for Queen Elizabeth when she came onto the throne in the middle of the 16th century given how little society at the time educated women. The pressures of ruling a country divided at home between Protestants and Catholics, and menaced abroad by the ambitions of France and Spain, were bad enough. As a woman, Queen Elizabeth had to endure another difficult barrier to successfully governing England. That this woman was able not only to survive, but to thrive and lead England into what many call the realm's Golden Age, is nothing short of miraculous. "Elizabeth" is a film by Shekhar Kapur about the coming of age of what may have been England's greatest monarch- Queen Elizabeth. It is an exceptional film about an exceptional figure from history. Cate Blanchett is the title character and she can only be described as brilliant in the role. Her character goes from terrorized to uncertain to confidant, from a beautiful and vibrant young woman to a cold and cruel Queen. Blanchett pulls off the performance in spades. This is an actress with some serious talent. I also enjoyed Geoffrey Rush's performance as Elizabeth's loyal advisor. Rush is a talented actor ("Shine", "Shakespeare In Love") who pulls off the part with relish- cold, menacing, calculating. I found the dark conspiracy against Elizabeth that dominated the second half of the film took away, somewhat, from the overall feel of the film. The second half of the film is, to a certain extent, Rush's film. This is not a bad thing, mind you, but the second half of the film leaves Elizabeth reacting to events more than initiating them. Casting-wise Joseph Fiennes and Richard Attenborough turn in good performances as Elizabeth's lover and principle advisor. "Elizabeth" is, on the balance, an amazing film about a difficult historical figure to pin down. The strengths of this film are in its two leads- Blanchett and Rush are both outstanding. See this movie for their performances alone.
Rating:
Summary: What¿s all the fuss?
Review: The enormous support for this film in the press, Academy and other Awards is a further indication of how starved contemporary movie going audiences are. Don't get me wrong, I liked the film well enough, but was extremely disappointed nonetheless. There is little reading anymore and the quality of education is diminishing. It is my expectation that visual media like film and TV should take on substantial roles in providing historical information to those who might otherwise be ignorant. I knew little of Queen Elizabeth prior to my viewing this film, and knew only minimally more after I had finished. The production design and costuming, while interesting and possibly accurate (who really knows) left me not knowing who was whom and where was where. It is the responsibility of the filmmakers to keep us IN the story, they failed miserably here. Had I an advanced degree in European history perhaps my reaction would be rabid, instead of tepid. A few directions, some simple titles, narration, or background exposition, would have helped immensely. Somehow I feel the filmmakers believed themselves to be above all that drivel, proud to let us stumble along, continually uncertain as to who was whom, and which side was which. It's the arrogance of Kenneth Branagh-style filmmaking. Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth is good in the same way John Hurt was a good Elephant Man, again, who really knows? We certainly don't need another Kenneth Branagh, a man who pompously makes costume dramas without regard to any sort of audience involvement, preferring to throw his ideas and images at them, catch if catch can, like a rich man throws pennies to a beggar. Should the success of Elizabeth spurn growth of that type of filmmaking., then I am saddened even more.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the big deal about this mediocre movie?
Review: Even granting this movie some artistic licence and forgiving gross historical inaccuracies, it raises not an eyebrow. Joseph Fiennes performed very poorly while Cate Blanchett did the best she could with a bland and uninvolving script. Geoffrey Rush did provide some welcome relief, but not enough to salvage this passionless (in every aspect of the movie) twaddle.
Rating:
Summary: Why no Oscar?
Review: I ordered a film called "Shakespeare in love" because it received 7 Oscars. There was a previeuw for another movie called Elizabeth and I immediately wanted to have it...Eversince I saw it at least ten times! It is the greatest film I ever saw in my life. The acting, the costumes, the locations, the drama and (very important) the music. Everything contributed to this marvalous result. It is a shame that Cate Blanchett didn't receive the Oscar for best actress. It shows that it is more important where a movie comes from then what it looks like. For me "Elizabeth" deserved 7 Oscars or even more. This film is an example for historical films made in the future...this is how it's done ladies and gentelman filmakers!
Rating: 
Summary: Different Elizabeth
Review: When I watched "Elizabeth", I was expecting that the movie will stay close to the true Elizabeth I instead of a Hollywood version of Elizabeth. I was wrong. They went away from facts and into fantasy ie Hollywood. They tried to make Elizabeth like everyone and she was the good saint. She was not a good saint nor did she like everyone mostly Catholics. The one thing I can say good about this movie is the acting and the clothing, but don't think that they are trying to tell you the true side of Elizabeth..go to your Library to find the true Elizabeth.
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