O

Rating:
Summary: good modern day version of Othello
Review: Mehki Phifer(8 Mile, Honey), plays O(or in Shakeaspeare, OTHELLO). Josh Hartnett is the evil and bad dude that tells O that his girlfriend, played by Julia Stiles(Mona Lisa Smile, Save The Last Dance) is sleeping with his friend, played by Andrew Keegan(Camp Nowhere, 10 Things I Hate About You). emotions erupt and friendships and relationships crumble..good movie..played out by Phifer and Hartnett's powerful performances. other actors incude Rain Pheonix(River Pheonix's sister), Elden Hensen(Idle Hands, She's All That), John Heard(Desert Blue, Snake Eyes) and Martin Sheen(Monument Ave, Truth Or Consequences N.M.). Directed by Tim Blake Nelson(starred in Minority Report, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Thin Red Line)

Rating:
Summary: absolutely amazing
Review: i saw this twice. originally i thought it was stupid but i liked it the second time around. wait scratch that i loved it from beginning to end. Tim Blake Nelson did a great directoral debut and he's an even better actor. thumbs up.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: O is the modern day remake of William Shakespeares Othello, a great play in it's own right. The movie is about a young high school student (Josh Hartnett) who is jealous of his basketball teamate (Mekiah Phiper.) His teamate, nicknamed O (short for Odin) is the star backetball player and Josh Hartnett's character wishes that he could get as much attention as Odin gets. So he decides to ruin his life. He decides to befriend Odin, and then lie to him. He makes Odin believe that his girlfriend (Julia Stiles) is cheating on him.

This movie is going to have to go down as one of my all time favorites. Unlike in Romeo and Juliet (a terribly done Shakespeare play to modern day movie) Othello (O) is done very well and deserves alot of credit. The acting, especially Mekiah Phipers preformance was absolutley amazing. The only preformance I thought was weak (and the only part of the movie I thought was weak) was Josh Hartnetts preformance. I dont know I just felt it to be mediocre, and I thought he couldve acted like he was more into ruining O's life. Even with Hartnett's weak performance I must admit the directing was well done. One thing I really liked is the transiton of making this a William Shakespere play in the Elizabethan Age to an excellent modern day movie.

Although Hartnett's performance was weak I still think this is one of the best movies on DVD and is definitly worth a buy.

Rating:
Summary: Josh Hartnett Is Excellent
Review: I Loved Josh Hartnett In This Movie I Love Josh Hartnett. He Is So Hot. How Could Someone Look That Good being bad. anyways. i loved this movie becausec even though there was violence, drug use, language, and [physical activity], it also had a good heart. it is based on the shakespeare novel "othello" if you had read it then you would know what it's about. ...

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good.
Review: It's a shame how Hugo was able to play on O's fears and feelings and drive him to do what he did. This is why it pays to think for yourself and don't let others get into your head. O and Desi seemed to have a trusting relationship...why the heck would she be messing w/his best friend? These are questions O should have asked himself.

This whole story is a tragedy and it was very well acted. You could just follow O's sinking into despair. I recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: A great adaptation!
Review: Some of the "negative" reviewers below either don't understand the basis of Shakespeare's Othello, or don't understand what an "adaptation" is. No, this isn't Othello. It is an adaptation based on Shakespeare's Othello. I found it well acted and very entertaining even thought I'm extremely familliar with Shakespeare's Othello. The reviewer who tells you the movie is so depressing that you'll never enjoy it.... well the film definitely achieves the goal of any good tragedy... It pulls you in and makes you feel all of it. Wonderful, and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: What the hell was that?
Review: I read othello in class right..so I decided to rent the movie so I would understand it better. Well let me tell you what this movie that is supposedly "Shakespeare" is all about. Okay Here we go. A bunch of teenagers have(ALOT OF NASTY) sex,drink,play sports,go to school,get high, and then ...THEY ALL DIE. THE END. I hope you get it. Dont watch this, it just plain stupid. If I could id give it ZERO stars.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: This movie is perhaps the worst adaptation of a Shakespeare play that I have ever seen. The solid acting cannot save this film from it's horrible script. It is simply an awful adaptation. All of the beauty of the orignial play is lost in the contrived unbelievable resetting of the story. It feels like a stupid teen movie meets Shakespeare and it results in a movie that just feels wrong.
An easy comparison is to the modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet which many people interested in this movie may have seen. R&J is an extremely stylized film and alhtough it is modernized, it retains the orginial location and manages to incorporate Shakespeare's beautiful words in some very creative ways. It comes off as a very faithful and unique adaptation.
This movie fails in every way the modern R&J succeeded. It rapes Shakespeare's original play.
I think the best way to watch this might be just to forget that it's based on Shakespeare's Othello at all. Then the story and acting might be bearable. Still, I could not help to find this movie simply devoid of entertainment value, realism, and faith to the play that inspired it

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite movie!
Review: I would definitly recomend this movie to you all. I was wondering if anybody knew,(because i'v been trying to figure it out for months now), does anybody know where this movie was filmed at? What is that school that they use as the school in the movie. I will be attending boarding school next year ( not because i'm bad or anything just because I cant find any school I like near me and we thought I would try boarding school)and i really like the school they have in the movie. If you dont know the name of it, please recomend other great boarding schools. Oh yeah, I will be a sophmore in highschool and I want a co-ed school. And dont forget to watch this movie if you have not already! It is great!!

Rating:
Summary: A solid updating of Shakespeare's classic tragedy to today
Review: "O" was originally scheduled to be released right after the Columbine High School shootings and since the film deals with violence and shooting in a high school setting it was pulled and not released for another two years. But like the episodes of television's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" that were pulled in the period following the Columbine tragedy, it is impossible to look at this story and see it inspiring a similar crime. Besides, did Mirimax (the original distributor, ultimately replaced by Lion Gate) ask schools to stop teaching "Othello" or have any of their other releases, which could also be accused of inspiring teenage violence, pulled from video stores? Somehow, I suspect not.

Obviously the film takes Shakespeare's play and updates it by transforming the story to a Southern high school and its star basketball player. Within that context I think the biggest change in the dynamic of the story is overlooked, because in "O" the big game is still to be played. In "Othello" the war is over and Venice has been saved by the Moor. This is a significant difference, because in this case Odin (Mekhi Phifer) has the pressures of sports working in tandem with the machinations of Hugo (Josh Hartnett) to fan O's jealousy towards Desi (Julia Stiles). I admit I have something of a problem thinking that Odin really cares about any woman more than he does about the game, but it is worked into the complex plot that Hugo is weaving toward the story's fatal climax.

There are obvious comparisons to be drawn between "O" and other version of Shakespeare in high school dress, such as "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" and "10 Things I Hate About You" (also with Stiles). Actually the film that came to mind first with me was "Cruel Intentions," another film where the classic plot line seems an absolute natural for being set in a high school, but the performances are justs a bit too stylized at times. Not that this version does not have its advantages. Certainly the motivation of Hugo is a lot clearer in "O" than what we find with Iago in Shakespeare, and O's final speech provides a fitting epitaph. By paying attention to the essence of Shakespeare's plays rather than the time, place, or words (several key moments in the film are carried entire by the significant looks characters give one another), "O" certainly keeps the commercial viability of such projects intact.

Ironically, I picked up this DVD along with a copy of Shakespeare's "Othello," only to discover that Disc 2 has a restored version of the 1922 silent film of "Othello" with Emil Jannings. Finding that movie was included in this package was certainly a nice treat.