Hamlet Reviews
EmanuelLevy.Com
Starring Mel Gibson, Zeffirelli's Oscar-nominated version is colorful and mildly engaging, but lacking depth and poetry, and the two women are miscast.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Three Movie Buffs
Alas, poor Mel Gibson! I knew him when he was on top of the world.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Common Sense Media
Mel Gibson emotes as the doleful Dane.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Offers what amounts to a comic book intro to Shakespeare's classic, retaining few of the play's psychological complexities.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Top CriticIt's a surprisingly successful venture, decked out in Anglo-Saxon styles and with a brooding, robust castle setting which oozes horse muck.
[Mel Gibson] is by far the best part of Mr. Zeffirelli's sometimes slick but always lucid and beautifully cinematic version of the play.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Film4
Not only is Mel Gibson much better than you might expect, but Zeffirelli's Hamlet is often entertaining and rarely hard to endure.
Juicy Cerebellum
Zeffirelli does an excellent job at juggling with updating Hamlet, while staying close to the classic play.
| Original Score: 4/5
San Francisco Examiner
Gibson makes a fine, frenzied Hamlet, but Zeffirelli's direction leaves something to be desired.
| Original Score: 3/5
Needcoffee.com
Gibson's Hamlet is more than respectable, but Helena Bonham Carter's the best Ophelia I've ever seen.
| Original Score: 4/5
Spirituality and Practice
Zeffirelli's screen interpretation centers on Mel Gibson's deft portrayal of the intense emotions throttling the mind and body of this melancholy Dane.
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
