Romeo + Juliet (1996)

good film but with many flaws

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The passage of time has not been kind to this film as far as IMDb's rating system goes. But can you picture the love struck couples who went to see this in the theater when it was originally released? I can just imagine the weeping that occurred at the end of the story, teenage girls clutching their boyfriends' arms in shocked and swollen grief. Ah yes, the saga of Romeo and Juliet.I actually had a pretty good time with this flick and I'm not really a Shakespeare buff. The modern day updating has a weird sensibility to it, pitting two warring families against each other - the Montagues and the Capulets. The only thing is, it's never really mentioned what started the feud off in the first place. It seemed kind of senseless, and appeared to be almost ethnic in nature, something I don't think will ever be overcome by people who see others as different from themselves. Shakespearean dialog in the hands of these hip-hop oriented thespians sounds oddly anachronistic, but serves well, especially during the comedic moments. I got the biggest kick out of the Montagues 'biting their thumbs' at the Capulets. I don't know if that was in the original play but I thought that scene was hilarious. Leonardo DiCaprio is far from a favorite of mine but he did a decent job here as Romeo, as did Claire Danes as Juliet. I'm pretty sure Shakespeare would not have envisioned Romeo in a shootout with the cops near the story's finale, nor would he have envisioned much of what else goes on in this latter day tale set in Verona Beach, with players attired in Hawaiian shirts and gang-banger threads coming at each other. But the essence of Romeo and Juliet is there, and if you've been predisposed to ignore the famous bard, a picture like this might just have you picking up a copy of Shakespeare.

For the love of god, do not make a movie set in modern day with modern infrastructure and guns with shakespearean language STRAIGHT OUT OF THE PLAY SCRIPT. IT IS THE MOST CRINGEY THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. oh and the drag queen would get kicked off rupaul's drag race in round 1. they got the pool scene right, and that's it.

It took me three viewings to realise that this movie is a damn modern masterpiece and miracle of cinema. It is SO unapologetically true to the vision of the director -- SO weird, so intentionally controversial, and unique. It pairs Elizabethan dialogue with the most glaringly 90's fashion, style, attitude, what have you - a huge, odd risk, but one that pays off I think. I wish I had the balls to make something so provocative and brash.This movie deeply insulted me the first time I saw it. I was actually infuriated. I thought it was terrible. The second time I saw it was by chance - it was showing on TV and I happened to catch it during the opening and thought 'Well, it's not as bad as I remember it', so I continued watching until the end. Finally, it was upon my third viewing that I absolutely fell in love with this movie. It is literally insane and all that I could ask for from a American adaptation in the 1990's of a late 16th century Shakespearean tragedy.

SPOILER IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE PLOT OF ROMEO AND JULIET Romeo is dramatic and goes to a party where he kisses an engaged girl he just met. They then become deeply in "love" and are really dramatic and threaten to kill themselves a lot. Romeo kills his girl's cousin and says its not his fault, it's fate's. Then they kill themselves in an annoying way.Everything was awful, over-dramatic to the max even though it was set in a modern setting. There was no Paris in the ending scene, what happened to him????Like if you could marry Paul Rudd wouldn't you? she knew Romeo for like an hour and killed herself when he died.Also Juliet saw Romeo kill himself and didn't speak up it was bad, too many candles.cinematography was so all over the place, it made me nauseous.What is with the neon crosses in the church?Where were her parents and nurse when she was "dead", it was like Friar Lawrence sneaked in and called the authorities?ALSO WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT 0/10 STARS, TERRIBLE, I'D RATHER WATCH AND READ THE FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY SERIES THAN REWATCH THISWATCH IT IF YOU HATE Shakespeare AND YOURSELF!