Rating: 
Summary: Love This Movie!
Review: Triumphant winner of seven Academy Awards -- including Best Picture -- this witty, sexy smash features Oscar-winning Best Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and an amazing cast that includes Academy Award winners Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush and Ben Affleck! When Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) needs passionate inspiration to break a bad case of writer's block, a secret romance with the beautiful Lady Viola (Paltrow) starts the words flowing like never before! There are just two things he'll have to learn about his new love: Not only is she promised to marry someone else, she's successfully impersonating a man in order to play the lead in Will's latest production! A truly can't-miss motion picture event with outstanding critical acclaim to match its impressive collection of major awards. Everyone will love this funny behind-the-scenes look at the writing of the greatest love story ever told!
Rating: 
Summary: What the academy likes
Review: Another made for the academy movie, truly boring. Group of friends and myself turned it off halfway through. Soooo Sooo witty, give me a break.
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Summary: THE SPIRIT OF THEATRE (L¿anima del teatro).
Review: Don't expect philological or historical precision. This movie is pure entertainment. The character of Shakespeare is not the best thing, because totally devoid of irony (and the gaping eyes of Joseph Fiennes don't help ...), but all the rest is really good, and this time we can even not got angry with Gwyneth Paltrow because her face so childish... The best thing of the movie is the love of theatre that unites everybody. There is a fabulous impresario who quietly explains to an his creditor the spirit of theatre in this way : "its natural condition is a series of insuperable obstacles in the way of an imminent disaster". The other asks : "and what can you do?" , "Nothing", "And how can we get out of trouble?" , "I don't know, it's a mystery". Have fun! Non aspettatevi esattezza filologica o storica. Questo film è puro divertimento. Il personaggio di Shakespeare non è certo la cosa migliore, perché totalmente privo di ironia (e lo sguardo sempre stupito di J.Fiennes non aiuta ...) ma tutto il resto è davvero buono, e questa volta potremmo anche non arrabbiarci per la solita faccia bambinesca di G.Paltrow... La cosa più' bella del film è l'amore per il teatro che accomuna tutti. C'è un magnifico impresario che spiega tranquillamente ad un suo creditore la natura del teatro in tal modo : "la sua condizione naturale è una serie di insormontabili ostacoli sulla via di una imminente catastrofe", e quello gli chiede "e cosa possiamo fare?", "Niente!", "E come ne usciremo?" , "Non lo so, è un mistero". Buon divertimento!
Rating:
Summary: Taking a Shakespeare class? Watch this NOW!
Review: If you want a taste of Elizabethiana, the costumes and sets in this movie can't be beat. One can practically whiff the smells of the streets of London. And you can even allow the cute and sassy touches to distract you (the "Stratford" souvenir cup, the cabbie-mannered ferryman, etc.) without missing the real strength of the story. The screenwriting is masterful in mirroring the love story with the creation of "Romeo and Juliet." And the more you know of Shakespeare's plays and their many presentations on stage and film, the more you'll appreciate the crafty fun the makers of this film must have had. The acting talent here, too, is right up to the charge: Everyone is so fine, that Ms. Paltrow does all she can to keep up, and really ends up overacting -- still, she is a diamond among even brighter stones in this gem of a movie. This is best viewed in a room full of close friends sharing much wine.
Rating: 
Summary: Undeserving of "Best Picture" award
Review: How this movie beat out the likes of "Life is Beautiful" to win the Best Picture academy award is baffling. It has its moments, but this thing is FAR too long. 45 minutes of this movie is continuous recitation of the characters' lines in the play. "Titanic" was the most overrated movie of all time, but this is pretty close. Gwyneth Paltrow was superb and may actually deserve her Best Actress award. Rupert Everett (Christopher Marlowe) was fantastic as well and probably would have performed the role of Will much better than Fiennes' minimal attempt. The scenery gets a good grade too, but there's nothing else in this movie that deserves a decent comment. It may have deserved a Best Picture nomination because the year gave us such a poor collection of decent shows, but it definitely did not deserve to beat out "Life is Beautiful".
Rating:
Summary: Very Enjoyable
Review: I thought this movie was very entertaining. It was witty, well-written and beautifully played by a talented cast.
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Summary: Forbibben Love
Review: Beautiful film about forbidden love wonderfully played by Joe & Gwyne. Excellent DVD quality,both picture & sound. Lovely musical score. Shell out the extra bucks for the collector's edition to see 30 min. featurette & a few deleted scenes - but really these extras should be included in the cheaper version - we call that GREED.PS - where was Joe's nomination/award - he was supreme!!
Rating:
Summary: Great film, DVD features could be better.
Review: If you love Shakespeare and period pieces, this is a wonderfully entertaining film. I enjoyed the twists and turns the story took in showing the development of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, Romeo and Juliet. Obviously, artistic license is the catchword here, but watching Shakespeare's inspiration unfold in this film is fun and exciting. It was amusing to hear lines from the play pop up throughout the film's story ("A plague on both your houses!") As for the players, Paltrow was fine (but an Oscar-winning performance, I think not), Ben Affleck is strong, Geoffrey Rush is hilarious, and Joseph Fiennes is an attractive Bard whose portrayal I found unexpected and interesting. As frequently noted, no one could surpass Judi Densch's Queen Elizabeth (though Cate Blanchett comes close). She surely does steal the picture! Unfortunately, this is such a waste of the DVD technology. Having just made the transition from VHS, I expect more features in a DVD. Other than the trailer, the only other features are a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of scenes, "Shakespeare Facts" and character biographies. Though the facts and biographies were interesting, why just text? No background music even! I would have preferred to see interviews with the screenwriters and actors presenting this information. And where's the director interview or commentary? What a gyp!
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Summary: It's good, but "Best Picture"? I think not...
Review: As "irresistable" as the common reviewer finds this film, it is not nearly the film that "Elizabeth" is, in spite of the latter film's historical inaccuracies. Shakespeare in Love IS a decent love story, but Gwyneth Paltrow reallys starts to grate after a while, and truly the greatest aspect of the film is the performance of Judi Dench as the Queen, in a supporting role (she steals every scene she's in). Worth renting (for most), but certainly not a masterpiece in any sense of the word.
Rating:
Summary: Dull
Review: Slow, and very looongg! As screenwriter William Goldman said, if this movie didn't have "Shakespeare" in the title, it never would have done as well as it did. But seeing a movie with "Shakespeare" in the title is like wearing an intellectual "Gucci" label. And Goldman predicted BEFORE the Oscars, that Gwyneth Paltro would win the Oscar. But he said, "If any other actress had played this part, SHE would have won the Oscar, too. It's the part that people voted for, not the actress." I thought her acting flacid, I thought both she and Joseph Fiennes both TOTALLY lacking in charisma. Tom Stoppard, as in all his writing, has a certain 2-dimensional wit, but no depth whatsoever in his writing (not uncommon among contemporary British writers, sad to say.) The Direction was weak. This is a 2 star film, but I'm giving it one star, because it IS one star, considering all the awards and money it did. And I love Shakespeare, and have played lead roles in his plays, as well as seen or read all his major ones. This movie insults his memory. Shakespeare would never have been as dull as Ralph Fiennes plays him.
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