Rating: 
Summary: Brutal but beautiful
Review: An adaptation of what is perhaps the least regarded, least performed, and most shocking of William Shakespeare's plays, Titus makes Natural Born Killers look like Patch Adams -- severed body parts, orgies, torture, incest, rape, and cannibalism, oh my! Romeo + Juliet it ain't; it is, however, brilliant. Contemporary audiences are blithely accustomed to sex and violence. What takes theater director Julie Taymor's lush production to a higher level is her attention to aesthetics; the emotional power of Shakespeare's language is leavened rather than eclipsed by absurdity and dark humor. The sets are a hybrid of ancient Rome (swords, banquets) and modern day (techno, skyscrapers); the result is not confusion or artifice but a sort of timelessness that serves to highlight the raw drama of the events. At moments of peak brutality the mood veers into absurdist black comedy, aided by Anthony Hopkins' manic, intense, razor's-edge performance. The immediacy of the violence is sometimes hard to watch, but never casual or thoughtless. Tarantino's disciples could learn a thing or two from this Bill Shakespeare fellow.
Rating: 
Summary: Titus Slays All competitors
Review: With great extras, fabulous transfers, and sound that puts you into the action this film is by far the best Shakespeare adaptation to hit DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Blood, guts, and good acting
Review: This film is artistically well-done. The acting is top notch. It is also one of the most disgustingly violent films I have ever seen. It is so gory and disturbing that I couldn't get through the entire film. Only for viewers with REALLY strong stomachs.
Rating: 
Summary: Visually stunning but a real mess
Review: Like many people, I suspect, I was looking forward to this film for two reasons - Anthony Hopkins's acting and Julie Taymor's vision. Neither disappoints but the end result is not a satisfactory experience. It isn't enough to say that this is not one of Shakespeare's best plays; it is so bad that it is hard to credit it as the work of the same man who created Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. Even two talents as great as Hopkins and Taymor can't redeem this mess.Like Taymor's Broadway production of The Lion King, the movie is visually stunning and original in every frame. There are images that are so unexpected and satisfying in their own right that one is tempted to forget the reason they are on the screen in the first place. Then Hopkins appears and one has to turn the sound up again. But only for him. Jessica Lang, always a great beauty, has never been mistaken for a great actress and proves it in Titus yet again. Simply wrong for the part and no match for Hopkins. The supporting cast members are uniformly either weak or bad or both. It is a shame, but even great talent would have trouble breathing life into this story with its excessive violent horror and lack of human feeling. I wound up rewatching parts of the film with the sound off just because it is so much fun to look at. But try as I might on first viewing, I coulnd't get into the words or the story.
Rating:
Summary: It works, but how I'll never know.
Review: This movie is strange soup. Violent and decadent. Rape, murder, and plunder. Pity and revenge. Road Warrior meets Life Is Beautiful meets Conan the Barbarian sets. Hannibal Lechter meets King Lear title character. The score sounds at times like Interview With the Vampire, and the cinematography is top notch. The costumes are Cabaret meets Julius Caesar meets the Untouchables. But it works. This isn't for the sqeamish either. I don't think I'll be able to eat ground beef for weeks. But Taymor has given us a fast paced spectacle as entertaining as any action/adventure movie ever produced. The only thing that is disappointing is that she leaves Hopkins to play essentially the same characters he played in Dracula and Silence of the Lambs - uncontrolled where control would have served the material better. More emphasis is given to the look, feel, and pace than to character development. But for Shakespeare fans, this DVD is a welcome addition (if not departure) from the standard Shakespeare fare. I would still love to see Taymor take a stab at Macbeth.
Rating:
Summary: You Don't Have to Be Shakespeare Savvy
Review: This film is worthy alone for the magnificent and powerful performances by Hopkins and Lange. I will admit that I am not versed or extremely knowledgeable in the plays or stories of Shakespeare.Yet, the actors and the scenery (minus the gore) make Shakespeare "fun" and user/viewer friendly. ... .However, the modernized/retro styling of the sets and costumes was too great to avoid ! Even if the average layman does not understand the richly poetic dialogue from the play or film, the visuals and action will tell the story! This is almost like watching Mel Gibson in Hamlet;Some things may go over your head, but you get the general idea...In the end it's all about basic human emotions,needs, wants, and (darkest) desires ranging the gamut from romance to revenge from their most delicate and tender frail moments to sadistic, savage, and inhumane acts. The only question remains is if William Shakespeare were alive today would he be proud to see his works converted to modern film technology standards(or is he turning in his grave)? This one would do him proud !...
Rating:
Summary: A Smashing Debut Film
Review: Broadway stage director, Julie Taymor, makes a ferociously bold directorial debut in this free-hand adaptation of the Shakespeare play. Working with production designer, Dante Ferretti, Taymor's "Titus" is a visual dazzler, and may remind one of any number of efforts from director Peter Greenaway. And yet, unlike Greenaway, Taymor isn't exactly a cool customer, instead diving headfirst into Shakespeare's play, which includes vengeful double-crosses and several savage attacks as it follows the downfall of Titus (Anthony Hopkins), a soldier who returns from war and sets his family members plotting against each other and virtually everyone around them. In terms of her adaptation of the play, Taymor runs out of steam halfway through, but it hardly matters given the garishly inventive screen visuals that never cease to surprise. The cast plays it intensely, including Jessica Lange in a nicely nasty turn as a matron intent on settling scores, as well as Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who's vibrating, videogame-addicted bad-boy is genuinely startling. As for Anthony Hopkins in the title role, his scabrous screen authority has seldom been used so well. This may not be a "Titus" for the ages, and most consider it a lesser Shakespeare play, but it does illuminate a truly original, risk-taking director in Taymor.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding work by Taymor
Review: A year or so ago when I first saw previews for this movie, I knew it looked like something I would want to see. I finally did get to see it a couple days ago and images still linger in my head. There is so much to see in this movie. Everything's well developed and just awesome to watch on any screen. I just loved the dark humore and the acting! The acting's the best part about this movie. If this looks like your type of movie or you're even remotly interested in it go see it now!
Rating:
Summary: Highly stylized, visual, visceral.
Review: Judging by the state of modern adaptations, it's not possible to take Shakespeare literally anymore. Either you bump him up a couple of centuries, a la Branagh's Hamlet, or you set him in some strange alternate universe (the most recent Romeo and Juliet). Director Julie Taymor (Broadway's Lion King) opts for the latter with Titus, and brings feverishly heightened visual acuity to the larger-than-life story. The play Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare's first tragedy, and it shows. Though the dialog is top-notch, he hasn't got a handle on the mechanisms of tragedy yet. The action veers from bloody misfortune to misfortune without the internal logic of, say, King Lear. In modern terms, it's more "Nightmare on Elm Street" than "Fargo." None of that matters, however. Taymor has chosen a fantastic cast, including Hopkins as the titular Roman general drivin to the brink of madness, Jessica Lange as his sultry nemesis, the Goth queen Tamora (proving how smolderingly sexy middle age can be), and Laura Fraser skillfully underplaying a potentially histrionic nightmare. The superb performances thoroughly mask the creaks in the plot. More than anything, however, the production design is worth .... Taymor's absolutely insane in the best possible ways. Her Shakespearean Rome is an anachronistic stew -- jeeps and motorcycles share the roads with carts and horses, soldiers fight with arrows, knives, and guns. The costumes must be seen to be believed. Taymor keeps a firm reign on the disparate design elements, filling each frame with fever-dream colors and subtle symbolism. There are images in this film that will be permanently seared into your subconscious. I recommend this to everyone (over 17) except the usual crowd -- Shakespearean purists won't like it, the squeamish will lose their lunch halfway through it, short attention spans will balk at the 2:30 running time. If you're none of those, snag this DVD and watch a fantastic flick. Then watch it again with the director's commentary. Then devour the added material on the 2nd disc.
Rating:
Summary: A great DVD
Review: I thought I should say a few words about Titus as a DVD choice. This is not your high school Shakespeare, the story is DARK and brutal. A lot of Shakepeare is but this takes it to another level. I love how the director stages the Ancient Roman scene in a world that is strangely modern but holds all the ancient traditions. She uses 20th century Rome as her backdrop, an example is Mussolini's government building. The story is engaging and exciting and the performances are great, especially Anthony Hopkins and the other supporting leads. As someone who studied the Roman world throughout college and beyond and also as a fellow actor of the cast this movie was all around interesting to me. I was fully into the extra features on the DVD as well, the making of the movie, the interviews and the character drawings. Go out and buy this DVd, I rented it but it is next on the list as a permanent part of my movie library. PAX
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