William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996)
70 %
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
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 Danes play the famous lovers kept apart by rival industrialist families. Bookended by... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau, John Leguizamo
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Reviews
Comment
Top Critic Top Critic
Doesn't approach the emotional resonance of Franco Zeffirelli's immensely popular 1968 screen version.
06/11/08
Top Critic
When the filmmakers decide to jazz it up with crazy camera angles and rapid cutting, along with screaming and shooting, it just gets lost.
07/22/06
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.
02/09/06
Despite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: 'timeless.'
06/06/03
Where is the audience willing to watch a classic play thrown in the path of a subway train?
05/20/03
Top Critic
A psychedelic assault on the senses; a trip of unparalleled originality.
05/14/03
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.
05/07/03
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.
04/02/03
It's just a little too jarring to be top notch, but it sure is powerful.
03/16/03
Deeply entertaining, from the gripping opening to the breath-taking finale.
09/10/02
Puts Shakespeare’s greatest romance in a choke-hold and takes it slam-dancing.
08/28/02
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06/05/02
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News
Luhrman's Period Piece Gets Bumped from Production Slate
posted by Scott Weinberg April 05, 2006
Baz Luhrmann, director of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, was planning to get his 1930's period piece underway this...
posted by Scott Weinberg April 05, 2006
Baz Luhrmann, director of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, was planning to get his 1930's period piece underway this...
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