Rating: 
Summary: Shakespeare Rolling in Grave For Some Choices in Film
Review: For anyone who has read this play or seen any true performance of this play, there are some shockingly odd things about this movie. The producers' first mistake was updating the play to the 19th century. The work was meant to be played out in ancient Greece and in the fairy world of that time period. The most outlandish use of poetic license was when Puck (actor/director Stanley Tucci) was taking his ride on the bicycle. It seemed very out of place for this mythical creature to be doing this. I do agree with the other reviewers that this movie was excellent eye candy and that even the lesser talented actors shine in this film. Besides, how can you go wrong by glittering up Michelle Pfiffer? Three stars for Shakespeare's words and one more for the excellent performance of the play-within-the-play near the end of the film.
Rating: 
Summary: michelle pfeiffer and kevin kline were the best
Review: michelle marie pfeiffer and kevin kline were the two reasons to watch this movie. they worked really well together. calistia flockhart seemed like ally mcbeal in shakesphear's time. she was really out of place. it was a truely fun watching kevin kline with those donkey ears on. the movie its self was really beautiful to look at.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS MOVIE GETS ONE STAR FOR BEAUTIFUL SCENERY AND ONE STAR
Review: FOR HOW WELL MICHELLE PHEIFFER WEARS GLITTER BELIEVABLY. I really really really wanted to like this movie.....it had everything going for it...big budget....Shakespear.....Great stars (WELL, "GREAT" IN EVERYTHING ELSE THEY HAVE DONE ANYWAY) This movie was just, well, long...or maybe it just seemed long. Kevin Klein, who I ADORE in all the odd roles he excels at, was well, just odd... with out the good natured humor. Although I'm quite sure that the writers thought that it was quite amusing. That's the only explaination I can think of for this movie. To be fair...(I'M STARTING TO FEEL LIKE A REAL SCHREW NO SHAKESPEAR-IAN PUN INTENDED =) Read other reviews...I know others liked it...but for the life of me I can't figure out why...
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This movie was eye candy and beautiful! if you like midsummer or shakespeare then you will LOVE this movie! it is a masterpiece of our times, the fairies were beautiful the people were beautiful... they even made Calista Flockheart look beautiful! I LOVED IT! it's worth more then 5 stars! =)
Rating: 
Summary: Great Scenery, Horrible Actresses
Review: MSND is one of my favourite plays of the Bard, behind 12th Night. This adaptation ranks very poorly among the movie canon of the Bard. The Tuscany setting was gorgeous. I'll even give it that the male actors were good. Everett was an excellant Oberon. Tucci surprised me by turning in a decent Puck. But the female actresses were utterly, horrifically deplorable. If you are going to change the setting (location) of a Shakespeare, at least be consistent! Every time I heard "Athens" I wanted to scream. Athens is in Greece NOT, NOT, NOT Italy. You might as well have changed the town's name the discrepancy was so blarring blatant. Others have mentioned some of the subtleties that this adaptation missed. After a while you just get used to the fact that everyone corrupts Shakespeare these days. The poor Bard must be rolling in his blessed Stratford-upon-Avon grave.
Rating:
Summary: Anyone interested in Shakespeare
Review: This film is fabulous for anyone that takes a liking to Shakespeare. The interpretation of the play is wonderful, well-thought, and easy to understand. This would be a good film to present to a class studying Shakespeare or literature, because the translation of the play into film is easy for even the most illiterate to understand
Rating:
Summary: Visually beautiful
Review: Midsummer has always been a bit of froth, so carping that this version lacks depth is pointless at best and pretensious at worst. It is a sensual delight to the eyes and ears. No one has ever been more beautiful than Pfeiffer is here and the world of Faerie is wonderfully realized.
Rating:
Summary: To good for words
Review: I absolutly loved this movie. I've have seen many other Shakespearian movie/plays before, and this one is definatly on my top ten list. If you like Midsummers Night's Dream then I think you'll love another Shakespeare comedy. Both Much Ado About Nothing (with Kenneth Branagh) and Twelfth Night (with Helen Bonham Carter) are both excellent movies. I recomend these to anyone. Also The movie Hamlet (also with Kenneth Branagh) is a graet movie but beware it is four hours long but well worh it. I hope everyone who reads this will give these other movies a look.
Rating: 
Summary: No sense of ensemble but Kline is worth watching
Review: I love Shakespeare, but I think Midsummer Night's Dream a much more difficult play than most producers/directors want to admit. I have no problem with updating and relocating this story, and the director seemed to have a first rate group of actors and actresses to work with. But this cast generates no tension whatsoever. This is, after all, a play about love and power between men and women: a marriage of two great monarchs (who met on the battlefield), a father's ability to determine who a daughter must wed, Oberon's demand that Titania give him a child (that symbolism alone is often overlooked). The play is also about identity confusion, among lovers, among rustics, even between species (Bottom's transformation). Where is any of this expressed in a fresh and immediate way anywhere in this film? All of the words are there, but they are all spoken with the depth and subtlety of a bad junior high school play. The only person who seems real, who seems to be saying his own words with real emotions behind them, is Kevin Kline. His part is not ideal casting, and yet he comes through with some sense of who Bottom is and what the entire magical experience means to him. This entire production was played for glitz and star recognition. If that is what you are looking for, you will be satisfied. If you want poetry, watch Kevin Kline and fast forward through the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Charming Version of the "Dream"
Review: Beautiful to look at, this version of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" is highly original and features some great acting. Especially noteworthy is Kevin Kline who brings a stunning interpretation to "Bottom". There are just a few objections to the casting. First of all, my image of "Puck" is closer to the the young Andy Rooney interpretation...a youthful imp and not a balding middle aged man. The acting of "Oberon" seems singularly lacking in vitality...as if Oberon is sleepwalking through the "Dream". Finally, what about that music? As the Director, Michael Hoffman, chose Tuscany as the setting of the play, it appears that he felt compelled to interject Italian opera arias, as if "La Traviata" fit the script. Didn't he realize that Felix Mendelssohn wrote the definitive score for this play that will never be excelled. It was unbelievably annoying to hear Mendelssohn's wonderful overture truncated in such a sloppy way, and then to hear Italian opera arias replace those important scenes where the Mendelssohn score would have been far preferable. Who, for example, could top the "Fairies' March" to evoke the mystery of the initial images of Tatiania and her fairy court. So, despite being pleased with many aspects of this film (excellent DVD quality also), it rates only 4 stars because of the aforementioned reservations.
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