Exciting, Alive and Vibrant
Reviewed by criddic2 for Hamlet at 2009-08-24 03:43:17
This is the only uncut version of Shakespeare's play committed to film. As such, it is a relief to find it done so well. While not all of the star-studded cast fit too easily (Jack Lemmon is a bit ill-at-ease in a brief bit), but others fare quite well (Heston, Crystal). Excellent production design, and great performances from Branagh, Winslet, Jacobi and Christie. If you fear the 4 hour running time, the Gibson version is fine. But if you want great cinema, this is the best version.
Something's Rotten
Reviewed by shanahan for Hamlet at 2009-04-18 16:18:03
FOUR BONES? Have you been at the dognip? This thing is ghastly! Hamlet swinging on a chandelier across the room in the final scene? Give me a break - or a poison-tipped sword. This is like a Corman send-up of Shakespeare, without any of the humor. See Mel Gibson do his wired Prince, Nicol Williamson do his haunted Prince. (Skip Olivier's self-aggrandizing Prince-as-Young-Werther.) But stay away from this bizarrely inadvertent parody: Prince-as-Doug-Fairbanks.
Newspaper article from: Literature-Film Quarterly; 10/1/2009; Borlik, Todd ; 1952+ words...Shakespeare at the Cineplex: The KennethBranagh Era (2003), Samuel Crowl established...fare may still want to turn to Kenneth S. Rothwell's magisterial A...montage in the opening sequence of Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and...
Newspaper article from: Entertainment Newsweekly; 8/21/2009; 872+ words...director of The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie; Diablo Cody, writer and producer of the upcoming film Jennifer's Body; KennethBranagh, director and star of Dead Again; Mel Brooks, writer, director and star of the Hitchcock spoof High Anxiety...
Newspaper article from: Literature-Film Quarterly; 4/1/2008; Kranz, David L. ; 10366+ words...its effects in obviously manipulative scenes (for example, Branagh's Non Nobis after Agincourt in Henry the Fifth), but again...analysis (as opposed to unsubstantiated opinion) is concerned, Kenneth Rothwell perceptively points out that two of Rota's musical...
Newspaper article from: Literature-Film Quarterly; 4/1/2008; Vela, Richard ; 2039+ words...approach, Jess-Cooke, in effect, takes Kenneth S. Rothwell's "but is it Shakespeare...Kozintsev (1964), Zeffirelli (1990), and Branagh (1996) to demonstrate how a performance...repressed libido" (24). Finally, Branagh's Hamlet (1996) in the mirrored halls...
Newspaper article from: Literature-Film Quarterly; 4/1/2007; Cook, Patrick J. ; 4477+ words...confronting the makers of such a film concerns the use of the playwright's language. In what Samuel Crowl calls "the KennethBranagh era," Shakespearean films have fallen neatly into the two categories. Numerous spin-offs have fully modernized...