Do you want to see ‘Romeo + Juliet’?

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

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All Critics
Top Critics

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.

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.

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

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Movie Info

The classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy is updated by director Baz Luhrmann to a post-modern Verona Beach where swords are merely a brand of gun and bored youths are easily spurred toward violence. Longtime rivals in religion and business, the Montagues and the Capulets share a page from the Jets and Sharks of West Side Story when they form rival gangs. Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) is aloof toward the goings-on of his Montague cousins, but after he realizes that Juliet (Claire Danes) is a

PG-13, 2 hr.

Drama, Romance

Directed By: Baz Luhrmann

In Theaters: Nov 1, 1996 Wide

On DVD: May 25, 1999

20th Century Fox

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio
Romeo
Claire Danes
Juliet
John Leguizamo
Tybalt
Harold Perrineau Jr.
Mercutio
Pete Postlethwaite
Father Laurence
Paul Sorvino
Fulgencio Capulet
Jesse Bradford
Balthasar
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Captain Prince
Brian Dennehy
Ted Montague
Vincent Laresca
Abra
Miriam Margolyes
The Nurse
Christina Pickles
Caroline Montague
Diane Venora
Gloria Capulet
M. Emmet Walsh
Apothecary
Jamie Kennedy
Sampson
Dash Mihok
Benvolio
Paul Rudd
Dave Paris
Carlos Martin Manzo Ortal...
Harold Perrineau

Critic Reviews for Romeo + Juliet

All Critics (56) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (18) | DVD (24)

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

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top 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)

Todd McCarthy

Variety

Top Critic

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)

Janet Maslin

New York Times

Top Critic

Puts Shakespeare's greatest romance in a choke-hold and takes it slam-dancing.

August 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

A monumental disaster.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment (1)

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Luhrmann and his two bright angels have shaken up a 400-year-old play without losing its touching, poetic innocence.

May 12, 2001 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

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

Jason Best

Movie Talk Source: Movie Talk

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

November 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

James Plath

Movie Metropolis

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

July 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment (1)

Film4

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

Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Goatdog's Movies Source: Goatdog's Movies

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

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

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

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews

| Comment (1)

Robin Clifford

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

Jeffrey Westhoff

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

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

May 14, 2003 Comment (1)

Jeanne Aufmuth

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

Dragan Antulov

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

David Sterritt

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

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

An amazing feat of ambition and imagination.

October 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

| Comment

Margaret A. McGurk

Cincinnati Enquirer

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

September 10, 2002 Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal

| Comment

Kevin N. Laforest

Montreal Film Journal

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

August 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice

| Comment

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality and Practice

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Romeo + Juliet

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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