Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Adaptation
Review: "Richard III" is actually my favorite Shakespeare play. I was always fascnated with the characters and the behind-the-scene actions by the title role, and this film manages to capture most of that in a fascinating, haunting setting.The setting is 1930's England, and Richard III is a nobleman with military powers who goes on to become a Fascist dictator. Now granted, every one knows that England didn't experience any Fascist dictator in the 1930's, and the War of the Roses alone was about a hundred years back, but the film's style manages to remind you this is all in itself a play. Ian McKellen himself carries the movie. His portrayel of Richard is on the mark, acting slyly to the other characters and grinning to the audience later. The only quarrel I had with this film was Annette Benning, who I don't think is that great an actress any way. Why you'd make her the Queen of England I don't know.
Rating: 
Summary: Shakespeare in a roller-coaster cartoon
Review: Richard III is retold in 1930s fascist England. McKellan did nice work condensing the play to movie length. (The play is actually Shakespeare's second longest, behind Hamlet).
To fully appreciate McKellan's masterful job as Richard Gloucester, read Henry 6 (Part III) and then Richard III. I lost count of Richard's victims - the body count was in the dozens. Additionally, the curses rained down on Richard by his victims' widows are hilarious ("Thou elvish-formed, abortive , rooting hog..."). The homework will be well worth it - do not be intimidated by reading the plays; these two are mostly killings, Richard's creepy monologues and hexes put on Richard.
As for the movie, it does play like a big cartoon, but it's a cartoon like no other. McKellan's asides directly to the camera are alternately amusing and appalling "I'm not made of stone...".
Jim Broadbent is effective in a highly oily way as Buckingham, Richard's ethically challenged chief facilitator, and Maggie Smith oozes venom as Richard's mother. Kristin Scott Thomas is suitably melancholy as a woman who picks the world's worst possible second husband.
This is a lovingly crafted update of Shakespeare, featuring modern touches, yet true to the spirit of the Bard.
Rating:
Summary: A work of genius
Review: Sir Ian McKellen's input to this movie (he starred, co-Executive Produced and co-wrote the screenplay) has yielded a true modern masterpiece and one of the most haunting interpretations of the Bard I have ever seen. With a supporting cast made in Heaven and truly inspired costume and set design, it was hard to go wrong, especially with a genius like Sir Ian at the helm. Just as Kenneth Brannagh has created many stunning interpretations of Shakespeare's plays (his Henry V being an utter classic) this Alternative History, set in Britain in the 1930s, manages to capture the elemental genius of the Bard's original work while presenting it in a form that is eminently accessible to a modern audience. It really doesn't get much better than this, folks.
Rating:
Summary: good
Review: the challenge facing anyone putting on richard iii is shrinking it down to size. it is almost 4000 lines long and would take 4 hours to act out the whole thing. luckily, the play itself was one of shakespeare's early efforts and it has many parts that can be shorn without mutilating the main story. mckellen has done a pretty good job doing just this. the result is a film that captures the essence of the play, which is nothing less than the essence of richard, the arch-villain, who is brilliantly played by mckellen. only quibble is that buckingham could have been better cast. the actor playing b didn't have the screen presence to carry the role which is more substantial in the written play.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare in the 30's
Review: William Shakespeare might approve of this, especially if he had been brought forward in time and acclimated to the world of the 1930's. From a modern day perspective, it manages to color the violence & evil depicted in the original in terms that we can (lamentably) better relate to.
Rating:
Summary: McKellen's Richard III makes you pay attention
Review: I have seen Shakespeare performed in the theater many times and have also seen various movie productions of the bard but this movie has to be one of the best adaptions I have yet to see.
Ian McKellen took his role as Richard III from the stage and helped adapt it to the big screen. Richard III is set in a ficticious 1930s England with Richard playing the role of a Hitleresque (sorry if I spelled it wrong) villan. McKellen transforms himself into the hunchbacked despot so perfectly it is a joy to watch the events unfold. A delightful convention taken by McKellen in his role in the theater is the acknowledgement of the audience.
The cast assembled for this movie is excellent. Yes...even Robert Downey Jr.
I would have given this DVD a higher rating but I wish there were more extra features included.
Anyone who wants to see Shakespeare but feels put off by a classical presentation should see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent cast and production
Review: This film is an almost flawless transfiguration of Shakespeare, taking as a setting 1930's fascist culture and plugging in Swing music and vivid color. The production values are high, and the logic of the film holds together. The setting does not appear forced nor is it a misguided attempt to make Shakespeare "hip." It does allow for the viewer to understand the timelessness of evil. Richard III is a devious fellow, vicious and cruel with a twisted mind to accompany his twisted body. Ian McKellen takes up this role with an evil zeal, enjoying the opportunity to flex his dark side. His acting goes with out saying these days. I only wish he would do more. Jim Broadbent (Harry Zigler in Moulin Rouge) is an excellent straight foil for McKellen's extravagance. Maggie Smith Nigel Hawthorne and Kristin Scott Thomas are good, as expected. Annette Benning does an admirable job. The only disappointment is Robert Downey Jr, who is in a mercifully small part. Definitely one of the best filmed Shakespeare plays. A whole lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: Smashing!
Review: This film couldn't have been better. It is truly a great work of art. The performances by such notables as Ian McKellen, Kirsten Scott Thomas, Annette Benning, Nigel Hawthorne, Jim Broadbent and Adrian Dunbar exceed all expectations. McKellen and co-scripter/director Richard Loncraine play with Shakespeare and all potential allusions to present day Britain (there are eerie echoes of today's young Princes William and Harry, as well as to the youthful Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth) and never lose their subject, but rather seem to engage the bard himself, and the audience, further. There is such assurance here that Shakespeare is still an intellectual and popular triumph that the production makes no distinction between the two. None is needed. This movie is simply one of the best.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant revisionist version of Shakespeare play
Review: Set in an alternate reality version of 1930s Great Britain, this updating of "Richard III" works brilliantly. Though it cuts out nearly half the original play, none of its power is lost. Famous scenes are reworked in the most interesting ways. Some would argue that the changes reduce Shakespeare to populist entertainment, but it should be remember that the Bard's most loyal audience members were, in fact, the masses. If he were alive today, I imagine this most innovative playwright would find traditional stagings of his plays to be often a bit creaky. The great Ian McKellan, who also starred in the revisionist stage version, is astounding as The Duke of Gloucester / Richard III. This most monstrous of Shakespeare's characters plots the demise of almost the entire royal family in his relentless quest to be king, and McKellan plays him to the hilt. "Richard III" is not so much a tragedy as it is a melodramatic thriller with comic overtones. Richard is no noble character overcome by one fatal flaw. This guy is bad to the bone and knows it. What makes it all so interesting is that only he and the audience knows just how dangerous he is. He has almost all his victims convinced that he's a benign cripple. Even his co-conspirators in rebellion don't understand his power. The dream cast also includes Maggie Smith, Nigel Hawthorne, Jim Broadbent, Kirsten Scott Thomas, Annette Bening and Robert Downey Jr. A great deal of the credit for the successful transition of the stage version into a film also goes to cinematographer Peter Biziou, production designer Tom Burrough, and art directors Richard Bridgland and Choi Ho Man. They have put together a visually stunning movie. "Richard III" manages to be great entertainment while also preserving and honoring the spirit and intent of Shakespeare, who I suspect would approve.
Rating:
Summary: My kingdom for this video
Review: Richard III was one of Shakespeare's first plays and as a result is not nuanced as his later works. The play tends to be too melodramatic for modern audiences so Ian McKellen and the talented cast of this film deserve full kudos for making the play and its characters both relevant and believeable. Ian McKellen deserves special honors for his portrayal of Richard III as both ruthless and oddly sympathetic. We can't help, but wonder, for example, if Richard's lust for power isn't the result of the lack of affection from his mother. The actor who played Buckingham was well-cast--talk about the "banality of evil". Kristin Scott Thomas gives a very fine performance as the tragic Lady Anne. Her portrayal of Anne as a woman who turns to drugs to escape her unhappy marriage gave the character a lot of motivation for her actions that is missing in the play. One of the things that is mentioned in the play, but really comes across on screen is the inability of the women, in a world when matters of life and death are decided by men, to protect their loved ones. Elizabeth Woodville (Annette Bening) is a devoted mother, but she is helpless to prevent the imprisonment and assassination of her two young sons. Robert Downing, Jr., by the way, does a nice turn as Elizabeth's good-natured, but dissolute brother, Rivers. The only thing I missed from the film was the mention of Owen Tudor which occurs at the end of the play. Tudor is a minor but important character because the irony of the whole play--the civil war, the in-fighting between families--is that a complete outsider (Owen) will eventually triumph and found the Tudor dynasty.
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