Rating: 
Summary: Genius!
Review: This film was genius. Baz Luhrmann is amazing. He manages to team the original Shakespeare script with a modern setting and it works brilliantly! The actors and actresses are great and each character is portrayed really well. The soundtrack is really good as well! I enjoyed every minute of it. The language may be confusing at first, but you soon get used to it. The prologue is a brilliant start to it and very dramatic! Watch it!
Rating: 
Summary: Decent Remake
Review: This was a nice remake of Romeo and Juliet but not as moving as the 1968 version. The 90's time frame wasn't believable. Did Baz not understand what point he wanted made? He tried to have his cake and eat it too and it didn't work. You can't say you don't want Romeo and Juliet to dress like they did in Shakespeare times, then have them spewing Shakespeare's words. Come on this was 1996! Any director with talent could have rewritten the words. If he wasn't going to change the words he shouldn't have touched it. You can't have Romeo driving a Porsche while saying things like: " How thou art? " It just doesn't work.Okay anyone who's been born in the last two hundred years knows the plot so I won't get into that. I'd rather talk about the character's performances. Leo was wonderful ( as always ). I have respect for him and he brings believeable emotion to anything he does. The Capulet and Montague parents were led by veteran Brian Dennehy and Paul Sorvino ( fine actors! ). The scene was beautifully done and the costumes ( though didn't appear to be for the 90's ) were breathtaking. What more could anyone ask for? I'll tell you what...another Juliet. Claire Danes is not a good actress and I am tired of people saying she is. She's dry and she has a tendacy to make the dumbest facial expressions during a close-up. Juliet was dainty and beautiful in past remakes. Claire Danes maybe sweet but she has a gawky screen presence and she looked awkward and clumsy throughout the movie. She seemed too uncomfortable and insecure. She was very thin and seemed uncomfortable about her height because she kept stooping over weirdly during her scenes and she began to appear humped back. I don't know if this was for effect or what but it got on my nerves. Many of the other Juliets have been beautiful and brought spark to their characters. Claire Danes looked like a boy with bad hair implants ( it was some sort of bad wig they gave her ) and squeals when she gets loud. Danes was not the best choice for Juliet. Someone more fitting would have been Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Drew Barrymore or Liv Tyler. All eccentric beauties who dive into characters time after time and impressed. Danes is just another one from the 90's teen scene who got her start on television and tried to transfer that onto the screen. Maybe she would have been better in something else ( though I've seen her in three films and she acts the same in all of them ). Juliet wasn't her thing. She wasn't convincing and there wasn't anything that would make Romeo see HER out of thousands of other beautiful girls and fall in love. Especially someone as handsome as Leo DiCaprio. This used to be one of my favorite films but I've tired of it now. I barely watch it. It's a good movie if you can get past the terrible Juliet cast. The others do not disappoint. One good thing was that Danes wasn't shown that much. They could have devoted more air time to John Leguizamo. He's terrific whether he does comedy or serious roles. Nice movie to add to your collection.
Rating:
Summary: favorite movie of all time
Review: this movie (romeo & juliet- 1996 version) is the best movie ever made. It is one of my favorites along with good will hunting, and others. I watched this movie 6 times in a row one day, and i must say, being an actress, the acting and the movie itself is just AMAZING.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic-Ben N. at the movies
Review: This is a true love story that is set in modern time but has it classic storyline it shines with images of love and peace and at the same time we notice the streets the blood the anger the hate within us all yet there is true love that we hold on before the fall..... this was a great movie wonderful love story and Leonardo Dicaprio played a great Romeo and Claire Danes did a Great job playing Juliet i thought this movie was really great two thumbs up a DVD must buy
Rating: 
Summary: SHAME
Review: This film is a shame. It is not a question of being old traditionalists or conservative close-minded Shakespeare lovers (I'm 26 years old and very much open to modern versions of old classics). It is simply unacceptable that, justified by some sort of "freedom of interpretation", a director feels to be entitled to torture, rape and murder a masterpiece such Romeo and Juliet, turning a timeless love tragedy into a psychedelic, amphetaminic, rappy cross between a video-clip and and television advertisment, where the medieval beauty of wonderful Italian Verona becomes the depressing and violent misery of American Verona Beach (Verona Beach, would you believe it?!).
There might be "vibrant colors and costumes" and "kinetic widescreen cinematography" (AMG), but except for Craig Armstrong's wonderful score, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet is just rubbish. Even more upsetting is the Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction, which proves the fact that anything that is highly commercial, fast-moving, shot like a music video, utterly American and built to satisfy the needs of the miserable MTV - microwave dinner generation, will reach the Academy. What a SHAME!
Watch 1968 Zeffirelli's masterpiece Romeo & Juliet and see what I'm talking about.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare kickin it up a notch . . .
Review: If you like IKEA, if you're into pomo, if you know that Romeo and Juliet is not a book, but a play, you'll probably dig this remake. Absolutely hilarious and dramatic, from romeo and "his boys," to guns named "dagger," to ecstasy being the main cause of the lover's inital attraction, this is a great interpretation. Yes, it is in Shakesperian English, and yes, it rocks.
Rating:
Summary: Wacky but interesting
Review: This is probably biased, as I have a real weakness for modernised Shakespeare, and so really enjoyed this film just for that. There's been a lot of argument about whether it's any good or not, and most of my points have already been said, but I'm going to review anyway!
The main thing is that you'll probably only enjoy the movie if (a) modernised Shakespeare is something you're happy with (b) you can make the suspension of disbelief required to accept modern-day people talking in Shakespearean dialogue. If you don't feel like you could accept these things, then you'd probably be better renting another movie.
The camera work and overall presentation is extremely dramatic, sometimes over-dramatic, and again, enjoyment depends on personal taste. In my opinion, the camera work mostly produces a vibrant, emotional experience, but at times you do want to just grab the camera and stop it moving so you can take the scenes in more slowly! Again, though, if you are prepared to accept dramatic camera work, it isn't much of a problem - but if you prefer traditional filming techniques, this one would rather annoy you.
The actors are adequate - Claire Danes does well with the rather anodyne role of Juliet, DiCaprio is a tolerable Romeo, and Pete Postlethwaite is excellent as Friar Lawrence. Again, at times some performances dip into the melodramatic side, but others are surprisingly sensible.
I have taken a star off mainly for the hacking of the text, which manages to eliminate some of the most famous lines. This is a lot more bothersome when you actually know the play as it does jar quite a bit to notice omissions. This is the only thing that really annoyed me, however.
If you think you could enjoy this movie, I would definitely rent it - even if you don't like it, it'll probably be an interesting experience. Yes, it probably is slightly spoon-fed Shakespeare, but that's no reason to condemn it completely.
Rating:
Summary: A must see.
Review: I have NO idea how people can hate this movie! It's just so brilliant, so perfect. The cinematography is incredible! The movie was done in such an original creative way, with the music...just everything. The opening always gives me chills, very dramatic in an astounding way. The whole movie is just PERFECT. The acting is fantastic, Leo plays Romeo flawlessly...Claire Danes plays a gorgeous believable Juliet (she has such natural beauty, I don't think she was wearing any makeup or anything in the movie) and all the other characters are just perfection. I love how they kept the old Shakespeare vocabulary, its very interesting how well it ties into present day times. Such an artistic portrayal of the classic...you don't know what your missing if you haven't seen it.
Rating:
Summary: The most romantic movie scene ever...
Review: A beautiful movie from the director of Moulin Rouge. The key scene is when Romeo (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) spy each other through the glass fishtank. The look on Romeo's face is that of a man who has seen the stars for the very first time. The background music - "Kissing You" by Desiree - is perfect and this scene should go down in movie history.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Romeo + Juliet is a beautiful film. The camera work is so...diverse and completely artistic. And the story line is so lovely. I love the way they modernized it, but kept the old way of talking and the original script (though some of it was new). My favorite scene, by far, was the part after Romeo shot Tybalt and goes to Juliet's room to be with her. The passion and romance is completely there. You can feel it in your bones. All in all, I find this to be a very romantic movie. It's very lovely and you should definitely own it.
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