Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 59
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 17
Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive.
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 9 | 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
My Rating
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
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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 -
-
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All Critics (59) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (45) | 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.
Top CriticDoesn't approach the emotional resonance of Franco Zeffirelli's immensely popular 1968 screen version.
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.
Where is the audience willing to watch a classic play thrown in the path of a subway train?
Puts Shakespeare's greatest romance in a choke-hold and takes it slam-dancing.
A monumental disaster.
Put simply: you're not likely to regard Romeo + Juliet as truly great cinema unless the song "Lovefool" stirs your soul.
Look back on your first love, without it making you wince.
One of the liveliest Shakespeare adaps of the past 20 years ...
Luhrmann bombards us with startling images, audacious camera tricks and breathtaking action ... [in order to recreate] the overwhelming experience of adolescent love.
Luhrmann would use the same techniques with better results in Moulin Rouge!
A sexy, innovative and memorable sumptuous feast for eye and ear.
It's a genuinely fresh take on an oft-told tale.
When the filmmakers decide to jazz it up with crazy camera angles and rapid cutting, along with screaming and shooting, it just gets lost.
Tries so hard to be hip that it loses the soul of the story.
Despite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: 'timeless.'
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.
An amazing feat of ambition and imagination.
Audience Reviews for Romeo + Juliet
Super Reviewer
-
- Romeo: Courage man the wound cannot be much.
- Mercutio: To observe ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man! A plague on both your houses, they have made worms meat of me! A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!
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Latest News on Romeo + Juliet
June 21, 2011:
Douglas Booth Joins Romeo and JulietAt last, Hailee Steinfeld knows wherefore art her Romeo.
June 8, 2011:
Kodi Smit-McPhee Joins Hailee Steinfeld in Romeo & JulietBut he isn't playing Romeo.
October 19, 2010:
Five Favorite Films with Baz LuhrmannFor a director whose films -- from the eclectic pop confection Romeo + Juliet to the...
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Foreign Titles
- Romeo und Juliet (DE)
- William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (UK)
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