A sexy, innovative and memorable sumptuous feast for eye and ear.
Comment
07/03/08
William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996)
70
%
Tomatometer
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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... [More]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau
Director: Baz Luhrmann
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Reviews for William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
If you like your Shakespeare waaaaaay over the top, don't miss the latest screen version of Romeo & Juliet.
01/01/00
It's a genuinely fresh take on an oft-told tale.
07/03/08
Dazzling, dizzying and sometimes overstylized
01/01/00
Shakespeare's name fills up the title, but this is clearly Luhrmann's vision and it's a genuinely inventive one.
01/01/00
Not surprising that it's occasionally silly - what may be surprising is that, at least as often, it really works.
01/01/00
Get thee to a video merchant.
03/11/02
Contextualized and alive in a way that Zeffirelli's more sober film version didn't quite manage.
01/01/00
While never dull, Romeo + Juliet is neither a complete success nor a miserable disaster, but something in between.
01/01/00
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
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
Fast-paced and juiced-up version of this classic drama.
08/28/02
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
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes couldn't be better matched.
01/01/00
Danes makes a breathtaking Juliet, merging strength and fragility into one.
01/01/00
Top CriticA psychedelic assault on the senses; a trip of unparalleled originality.
05/14/03
So overloud and overdirected and overproduced and so energetic that finally, you can't do anything except smile at it.
01/01/00
Top CriticDespite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: 'timeless.'
06/06/03
Leonardo DiCaprio, in particular, is a revelation as Romeo, recklessly theatrical and sensuous and unafraid to take acting risks.
01/01/00
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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