Do you want to see ‘Hamlet’?

Hamlet (1990)

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Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 8

It may lack some of the depth and complexity of the play, but Mel Gibson and Franco Zeffirelli make a surprisingly successful team.

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 2

It may lack some of the depth and complexity of the play, but Mel Gibson and Franco Zeffirelli make a surprisingly successful team.

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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 37,250

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Movie Info

Franco Zeffirelli directs his third Shakespeare adaptation (after Romeo and Juliet and Otello) with this film version of the tragedy Hamlet. The titular prince of Denmark (Mel Gibson), returns home to his family's castle of Elsinore after years of attending school in Germany to find out his father has died and his uncle Claudius (Alan Bates) is the new king. To make matters worse, Claudius has married Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude (Glenn Close), whom he has unusually strong feelings for.

PG, 2 hr. 15 min.

Drama, Romance

Directed By: Franco Zeffirelli , Alan Bates

Written By: Franco Zeffirelli

In Theaters: Dec 19, 1990 Wide

On DVD: Feb 24, 2004

Warner Home Video

Hamlet Trailer & Photos

Cast

Critic Reviews for Hamlet

All Critics (34) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (8) | DVD (6)

Performances all fall in a middle range between the competent and the lackluster.

July 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

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Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

[Mel Gibson] is by far the best part of Mr. Zeffirelli's sometimes slick but always lucid and beautifully cinematic version of the play.

October 4, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

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Caryn James

New York Times

Top Critic

Gibson gives the melancholy Dane an earnest but pedestrian reading.

June 6, 2001 Comment

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

There's nothing embarrassing about Zeffirelli's brisk new version, nor anything particularly remarkable; it's an entirely credible, middle-of-the-road production.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post

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Hal Hinson

Washington Post

Top Critic

The style of Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, with Mel Gibson in the title role, is robust and physical and -- don't take this the wrong way -- upbeat.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Reduced to 'Master Pieces Theater,' Shakespeare's text nevertheless gains in force what it loses in integrity.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post

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Jeanne Cooper

Washington Post

Top Critic

Alas, poor Mel Gibson! I knew him when he was on top of the world.

February 19, 2012 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs

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Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

Mel Gibson emotes as the doleful Dane.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

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Randy White

Common Sense Media

Offers what amounts to a comic book intro to Shakespeare's classic, retaining few of the play's psychological complexities.

July 4, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

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TV Guide's Movie Guide

It's a surprisingly successful venture, decked out in Anglo-Saxon styles and with a brooding, robust castle setting which oozes horse muck.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

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Derek Adams

Time Out

In retrospect, it's a small jump from Shakespeare to God. What if Gibson had been stopped then?

June 23, 2004 Comment

Jake Euker

F5 (Wichita, KS) Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

Not only is Mel Gibson much better than you might expect, but Zeffirelli's Hamlet is often entertaining and rarely hard to endure.

October 4, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4

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Film4

Zeffirelli does an excellent job at juggling with updating Hamlet, while staying close to the classic play.

July 16, 2003 Comment

Alex Sandell

Juicy Cerebellum

Gibson and his ego fancy himself as an ideal Hamlet, which is tragic to the film in a different sense.

July 10, 2003 Comment

Greg Muskewitz

eFilmCritic.com

Gibson makes a fine, frenzied Hamlet, but Zeffirelli's direction leaves something to be desired.

March 2, 2003 Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

San Francisco Examiner

Gibson's Hamlet is more than respectable, but Helena Bonham Carter's the best Ophelia I've ever seen.

January 6, 2003 Comment

Widgett Walls

Needcoffee.com

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Audience Reviews for Hamlet

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This is a very faithful, even if exaggerated attempt to recreate a shakespearean play, centuries after the material. After the good, but less faithful DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, Mel Gibson tries his luck at playing the Prince in "Hamlet." I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the outcome of this

October 16, 2010

KJ Proulx

Super Reviewer

Hamlet: The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.�"Shakespeare's classic tale of vengeance and tragedy."I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare, when it comes to the movie adaptions or just the original plays, but I can enjoy a well made Shakespeare adaption from time to time. The only two I've

October 7, 2011