Rating: 
Summary: I love this film!
Review: Why do I love a film about vicious dysfunctional alcoholics? It's like going home! Also I love the language of thsi film, the acting and the constant push of characters playing a game within a game. The art of the work is the language and timing. I'm not sure if some things can ever be resatged or refilmed with other actors because what also makes this work is the baggae of Taylor and Burton together. This isn't simply a work aside from actor, this is a farscape view into what these people may or may not have felt inklings of for each other.
George Segal and Sandy Dennis are great here too as unwitting pawns and weapons in the war between George and Martha, though Dennis is used more as a pawn who may or may not understand her position and Segal gets a chance to skewer and attack back.
I love the language and written heart of this woprk in particular for one reason. It goes for the jugular, to slit a vein open in this amazingly dysfunctional lifestyle and couple. Black and white only highlights the starkness of their feeling for each other and lovign hatred. They remind me of Nick and Jessica in twenty years. Sick and twisted.
Rating:
Summary: Sublime Emotional Drama with a Punch
Review: One night late after a dinner party a quarrelling couple, the washed-out History professor George (Richard Burton) and his bitter alcoholic wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), is about to receive guests. When the guests, the new Biology professor Nick (George Segal) and his wife Honey (Sandy Dennis), arrive they find the hosts mocking each other in overt malicious intent. This makes the guests very uncomfortable, but the awkward feeling is drowned in alcohol and further sarcasm. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is an emotional drama that provides an uncomfortably good performance that will stun the audience.
Rating:
Summary: Still holds up -- but quite hopeless
Review: In 2002, with an audience of young 20-somethings, everyone found this movie as fascinating as I remembered it from my youth. It still works powerfully, evocatively, at many levels, leaving many open questions, provoking debate. And it's terrifically entertaining. But it makes life in the modern world seem rather hopeless, really, no matter how you look at it. By the way, with all the mind-boggling verbal pyrotechnics in this movie, most people don't notice how thoughtful and dizzyingly innovative the editing and camerawork are. It's still as fresh as ever.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Adaption of Albee's Masterpiece
Review: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor do a superb job transferring this classic stage production to the silver screen. I'm sure Edward Albee would be pleased. The utter turmoil between George (Burton) and Martha (Taylor), and the fact that the majority of the film takes place in a small parlor, gives the viewer a feeling of claustrophobia and discomfort. Only two superior actors could pull it off. The conflict between the two begins with the opening credits and increases in its ferocity through out the picture, finally culminating in the final reveling scene. While reading the reviews, I was surprised to find very few comments on this very important last scene...where we discover the truth behind the mysterious son of Martha and George. This is the root cause of some of the most savage dialogue in the film, and should not be taken lightly. This movie is certainly worth purchasing as it can be seen a number of times, and only increases in its profundity. It gets better and better with each viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding Shrewery.
Review: I consider this one of the most intelligently written and acted movies ever filmed. The psychological devestation that George (Burton) and Martha (Taylor)inflict upon each other casts a spell which, though it at times makes the viewer uncomfortable in its realism, is impossible to turn away from. George Segal and Sandy Dennis are the unfortunate co-passengers on this mad ride to "truth". Though they are not stupid, they are naieve and inexperienced to the point of seeming arrested development, and George and Martha go in for the kill. This is the film where Elizabeth Taylor shattered her glamour image, a pretty brave thing to do at that time, and it worked. Though her beauty was always obvious, I was never a big fan of many of her film roles, until I saw this film. It is not only her best performance, but I consider it in the ranks of the top female performances ever filmed, and Richard Burton is equally superb. That they were able to play so well off of each other in spite of, or maybe because of, their personal off-screen relationship, is amazing. Movies that do not insult the intelligence are rare these days,... I guess most of todays paying movie audience wants glorified ear-splitting music videos, with the plot secondary, if considered at all. This film is a perfect example of the mostly forgotten noble intention of the medium, which was ,yes, to entertain, but aspired to craft an experience that would also move you, make you think, and, stand in awe struck appreciation of REAL talent.
Rating: 
Summary: TOO TRUE
Review: This is not a movie I want to see again. The acting is superb and very, very real. It is basically an investigation of what alcohol does to the mind and to relationships, and as such it demonstrates all too well the depths people can plumb when in the grip of Demon Drink. All those revolting emotions are here: envy, bitterness, shallowness, gratuitous nastiness, the sick delight in hurting others' feelings. Yes, it's a brilliant movie. And like an aggressive drunk at full speed, it goes on and on and on. It made me feel very pleased with myself that I don't like alcohol. Morticia Addams of the Addams Family would have adored these people.
Rating:
Summary: AFIs Great Love Stories: #89 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Review: Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is one of the most important plays in the history of American Drama, representing a sort of merging of the psychological drama represented by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller with the existential plays of Samuel Becket and Eugene Ionesco. After a faculty party George (Richard Burton) and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) have invited a young professor, Nick (George Segal) and his wife Honey (Sandy Dennis), back for a few drinks. What happens is ironically described as fun and games, which end up airing everyone's dirty laundry in a compelling death spiral of brutal confrontations. All four players were nominated for Oscars, with both of the ladies winning in the finest ensemble performance since "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Burton lost to Paul Schofield in "A Man for All Seasons" and Segal to Walter Matthau in "The Fortune Cookie." Haskell Wexler also earned a richly deserved Oscar for Best Black-and-White Cinematography. I think this is clearly Elizabeth Taylor's best film performance (Burton's too). I remember someone asking Katharine Hepburn if she thought any other actress had ever shown a range comparable to herself and she mentioned Taylor. It makes sense. They have both done plays by William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and Albee. Not even Meryl Streep can say that. The film does have one major problem, which Albee himself has repeatedly pointed out, namely, it was a mistake director Mike Nichols to let the two couples leave the house and go to a roadhouse in the middle of Act II. The play is a one set play, of course, and Albee consider the claustrophobia it produced part of its main effect. By getting them away from the house, or even having George and Nick have their big talk from Act III out in the backyard, the idea that Nick and Honey are trapped with no way out. But I think this is something that bothers people who have studied the play intimately more than fans of the cinema. Most Romantic Lines: Yeah, right. I think the nicest thing Martha says to George is "You make me puke," and the most famous line from the play, "What a dump," is taken from a Bette Davis movie (Yes, I know which one, but, no, I am not telling). If you like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" then check out these other films on AFI's list: #84 "Double Indemnity" and #48 "Last Tango in Paris." Why? They are also tales of twisted love.
Rating:
Summary: Still Standing
Review: What is most striking about this work is how well it has stood the test of time, and how what was shocking forty years ago is now part of the national psyche. Here is Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her physical beauty, putting on a firght wig, and getting overweight to play -- no to overplay -- the boozy Martha to perfection. Richard Burton, the godfather of Anthony Hopkins and Russell Crowe, is the perfect foil to Taylor (or is he?) in this hall of mirrors, dark comedy. Ultimately it is a love story, with an oddly happy ending. Albee has shown himself to be our greatest working playright (Arthur Miller is still alive, and hasn't worked much lately). Compare this to Three Tall Women and we see an exploration of how the self can be broken into many people. Compare this to The Goat and we see how many people become incorporated into the self.
Rating:
Summary: Stays Very True to the Play. I Loved it!
Review: I was a little worried before seeing this movie, because I had read the play and absolutely loved it. I was worried that the movie would be water-downed and butchered like "A Streetcar Named Desire," which was forced to have that ridiculous ending in where evil was punished. Well, I was happy to find out that none of that took place in this film. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a triumph. The actors did a terrific job in playing their characters. The play is such a masterpiece that these people had to do their best to make sure that they did their characters justice. Of course the two that stand out the most are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Taylor was everything I had envisioned when reading the play, and did an outstanding job as Martha. I was a little worried about Richard Burton at first because in the beginning he seemed so monotoned and stiff. If you read the play, he is the most lively and bitter character in the play who pretty much runs the entire show. Well, as the movie continued he proved to play an excellent George. They couldn't had found a better person for the job. The other two actors as the guests did a terrific job. For it being such an old movie, it looks very good and clear. And there is a widescreen version you can watch. The sound is also good for being so old. Sorry to say that there are no eye-popping special features, but believe me, you won't be missing them because this is such a great movie. Congrats to Ernest Lehman, the person who wrote the screenplay, for keeping the movie true to the play and not giving into the pressure to make it appropriate. No "Streetcar" repeat here. It stays very similar to the play. There are little differences, but nothing that dramatcially changes the story. It starts and ends the same way. I did like how the movie moves to different locations from time to time, but still stays similar to the story at the same time. Mike Nichols did a very good job of directing as well. I really enjoyed this movie, and it is one of my favorites. If you haven't already, please read the play. If you like the movie, you will love the play. All in all, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is an outstanding achievement. A classic movie that should be seen by all who enjoyed reading the play, or who just want to see a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: Sure; Some of "Woolf" is Brilliance....
Review: ...some of it may be pure venom that Liz wanted to vent anyhoo, and fiction may be closer to truth. This is a good show for those who could stand the rantings. I felt it was a little more realistic acting than in "Cat on A Hot Tin Roof" because it has a no-holds barred feel to it. It's one of those films I don't mind watching again and again, not because I'm necessarily sadistic, but it IS one of the best films ever made. Let the better reviewers give you blow-by-blow analysis of "Woolf". Let me be the one who tells you that if you don't get how magnificent and powerful the world of cinema is, you probably won't understand why I and most of the reviewers here gives it 5 stars and +++++ more.
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