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Romeo + Juliet (1996)

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70

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 56
Fresh: 39 | Rotten: 17

Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive.

47

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 9

Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive.

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 494,959

My Rating

Movie Info

Shakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.

PG-13, 2 hr.

Drama, Romance

May 25, 1999

20th Century Fox

All Critics (56) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (18) | DVD (23)

A slick blast of ''decadence,'' the kind of violent swank-trash music video that may make you feel like reaching for the remote control.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Doesn't approach the emotional resonance of Franco Zeffirelli's immensely popular 1968 screen version.

June 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment (1)
Variety
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Where is the audience willing to watch a classic play thrown in the path of a subway train?

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment (1)
New York Times
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Puts Shakespeare's greatest romance in a choke-hold and takes it slam-dancing.

August 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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A monumental disaster.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment (1)
San Francisco Chronicle
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Luhrmann and his two bright angels have shaken up a 400-year-old play without losing its touching, poetic innocence.

May 12, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
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Luhrmann bombards us with startling images, audacious camera tricks and breathtaking action ... [in order to recreate] the overwhelming experience of adolescent love.

November 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Talk | Comment

Luhrmann would use the same techniques with better results in Moulin Rouge!

November 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

A sexy, innovative and memorable sumptuous feast for eye and ear.

July 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment (1)

It's a genuinely fresh take on an oft-told tale.

July 3, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

When the filmmakers decide to jazz it up with crazy camera angles and rapid cutting, along with screaming and shooting, it just gets lost.

July 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | Comment

Luhrmann's gleefully cinematic version of the play is so relentlessly inventive and innovative, it takes 20 minutes to get a grasp on how appropriate is his approach to the material.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Tries so hard to be hip that it loses the soul of the story.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | Comment (1)
Reeling Reviews

Despite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: 'timeless.'

June 6, 2003 Full Review | Comment
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

A psychedelic assault on the senses; a trip of unparalleled originality.

May 14, 2003 Comment (1)
Palo Alto Weekly

Keeps the integrity of Shakespeare's text, but mostly thanks to the actors speaking the very same lines of iambic pentameter as written four centuries ago.

May 7, 2003 Full Review | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

The hyperactive movie seems goofy and gimmicky at first, but it acquires real power when the cinematography settles down enough for Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes to do some excellent acting, helped by a superb supporting cast.

April 2, 2003 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | Comment
Christian Science Monitor

It's just a little too jarring to be top notch, but it sure is powerful.

March 16, 2003 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

An amazing feat of ambition and imagination.

October 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | Comment
Cincinnati Enquirer

Deeply entertaining, from the gripping opening to the breath-taking finale.

September 10, 2002 Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | Comment
Montreal Film Journal

Fast-paced and juiced-up version of this classic drama.

August 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Romeo + Juliet

A fresh, very enjoyable and engrosing adaptation of Shakespeare's classic play. DiCaprio and Danes are excellent.

September 22, 2011
Liam Gadd

Super Reviewer

To say the very least, ROMEO + JULIET is probably more brilliant and inventive than Shakespeare is himself. Set in a modern time period, this stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. Some of the aspects of this production tend to strike as humor: for example, if you look closely at Tybalt's gun

June 15, 2011
spielberg00
Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

Romeo + Juliet Quotes

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Latest News for Romeo + Juliet

June 21, 2011:
Douglas Booth Joins Romeo and Juliet
At last, Hailee Steinfeld knows wherefore art her Romeo.

June 8, 2011:
Kodi Smit-McPhee Joins Hailee Steinfeld in Romeo & Juliet
But he isn't playing Romeo.

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Foreign Titles

  • Romeo und Juliet (DE)
  • William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (UK)
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