Romeo + Juliet Reviews
Antagony & Ecstasy
Put simply: you're not likely to regard Romeo + Juliet as truly great cinema unless the song "Lovefool" stirs your soul.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
Little White Lies
Look back on your first love, without it making you wince.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Total Film
One of the liveliest Shakespeare adaps of the past 20 years ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Movie Talk
Luhrmann bombards us with startling images, audacious camera tricks and breathtaking action ... [in order to recreate] the overwhelming experience of adolescent love.
Film4
A sexy, innovative and memorable sumptuous feast for eye and ear.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
TV Guide's Movie Guide
It's a genuinely fresh take on an oft-told tale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Top CriticLuhrmann'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.
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
Despite a flawed start, Romeo & Juliet proves the story deserves an adjective often attached to it: 'timeless.'
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
Palo Alto Weekly
A psychedelic assault on the senses; a trip of unparalleled originality.
| Original Score: 4/4
rec.arts.movies.reviews
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.
Full Review | Original Score: 7/10
Christian Science Monitor
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Laramie Movie Scope
It's just a little too jarring to be top notch, but it sure is powerful.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Cincinnati Enquirer
An amazing feat of ambition and imagination.
Montreal Film Journal
Deeply entertaining, from the gripping opening to the breath-taking finale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Spirituality and Practice
Fast-paced and juiced-up version of this classic drama.
Boxoffice Magazine
As perhaps the most kinetic and visually daring major studio film of the year, R + J is almost sure to be remembered as the turning point for a brazen new cinematic talent: Luhrmann's.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Slant Magazine
Purists may scoff, but the film is faithful to the Bard and its makers are thoroughly cognizant of the famous story's layers.
Filmcritic.com
Get thee to a video merchant.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
BBC
Luhrmann's flamboyant direction pumps new life into a well-known, much-adapted tale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
