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William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996)
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Reviews Counted:50
Fresh:35
Rotten:15
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive.
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: This ambitious undertaking, adapting William Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers and setting the story in a glossy music-video style in 1990s Florida. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire... This ambitious undertaking, adapting William Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers and setting the story in a glossy music-video style in 1990s Florida. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the famous lovers kept apart by rival industrialist families. Bookended by newscastsers reciting Shakespeare's prose as their copy, this clever glam updating of ROMEO AND JULIET is one of the most unusual adaptations of the Bard's work in the history of cinema. The stylish and colorful sets earned the film an Oscar nomination for art direction. John Leguizamo gives a memorable performance as a devilish Tybalt. [More]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Rudd, Diane Venora
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Story: William Shakespeare
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Reviews for William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
Doesn't approach the emotional resonance of Franco Zeffirelli's immensely popular 1968 screen version.
When the filmmakers decide to jazz it up with crazy camera angles and rapid cutting, along with screaming and shooting, it just gets lost.
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.
Despite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: 'timeless.'
Where is the audience willing to watch a classic play thrown in the path of a subway train?
A psychedelic assault on the senses; a trip of unparalleled originality.
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.
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.
It's just a little too jarring to be top notch, but it sure is powerful.
Deeply entertaining, from the gripping opening to the breath-taking finale.
Puts Shakespeare’s greatest romance in a choke-hold and takes it slam-dancing.
Latest News for William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
April 05, 2006:
Luhrman's Period Piece Gets Bumped from Production Slate
Baz Luhrmann, director of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, was planning to get his 1930's period piece underway this September, but budgeting woes, and the tenuous availability... More...
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