Romeo And Juliet

This has always been one of my favorite movies but I hadn't seen it in a while and only in DVD quality. When I couldn't find it streaming anywhere in HD I looked here and couldn't pass it up for $6.99! I was cautiously optimistic due to some luke warm reviews of the video and audio quality but not only was I pleasantly surprised but I was blown away! Watching on a 1080i projector with very large screen and DD5.1 surround sound was wonderful! The sound was amazing and I can't find any fault with the video quality. If you love this movie (or haven't seen it) and don't have it in HD then grab this!

Nice movie to have in my collection.

William Shakespeare's classic `Romeo + Juliet' is probably one of the most influential pieces of literature ever recorded. You can feel its presence and influence breathing life into just about everything we read, watch or listen to these days. With a tale this classic, this important to modern cinema it becomes something a bit wary to tackle it at its core and `remake' it from scratch. One may be a tad hesitant to embrace its new shape and form and rightfully so. When you look at the track record for remakes it becomes apparent that in general what was once golden should be left well enough alone. In Romeo + Juliet's case though this is a reimagining so magical it surpasses the original and becomes a momentous piece in the history books of cinema. Yes, Baz Luhrmann single handedly breathes a whole new life into this adaptation, handing to his audience a masterful and experimental film that never lets us out of its grasp.The first thing that Luhrmann did right was stick to the original text. A lot of people initially balked at the fact that the dialog was not updated along with the setting but I felt that artistically it was a much grander feat to have the original dialog kept intact. The fact that each and every actor slips into this way of speaking fluently and without issue is an ode to some great talent indeed. No one seems out of place of phoning it. Each and every actor handles the difficult wording marvelously. The next thing Luhrmann did right was trashing his setting. What I mean by this is that he didn't go the easy route and make this posh and beautiful but rather he played everything down, creating an almost gritty and dirty feeling to the surroundings. This is the future and the future is bleak.The best thing that Luhrmann did though was casting Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the lead roles. At the time DiCaprio was slowly becoming a credible actor and Danes was just becoming known. Neither of them were quote-unquote household names or completely bankable yet but they both had proven they could act. Here though we get to see how well. To this day I still firmly believe that this is Leonardo's finest performance. Both he and Danes masterfully command their characters. Never has Romeo or Juliet felt so alive, so real and so relatable. Their tragic love affair is so enthralling, so captivating and so breathtaking. There are moments between them of pure beauty and strength that I'm appalled their performances didn't garner more awards attention.The rest of the cast is equally as impressive, especially the likes of Harold Perrineau (of `Lost' fame) who plays Romeo's best friend Mercutio. His performance is outlandish and flamboyant and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the film. John Leguizamo is memorable as Tybolt, Juliet's cousin, and Pete Postlethwaite is wonderful as Father Laurence. Paul Sorvino stands out for me as Juliet's father Fulgencio Capulet. His performance is brutal and intense and sends chills down my spine in scenes.`William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet' has never looked as good as it does here, telling the story of forbidden love and tragic circumstance that brings two families to their knees and teaches us a valuable lesson about forgiveness and tolerance. Baz Luhrmaan outdoes himself here, delivering a modern twist on a genuine classic complete with a beautiful color palate and an impressive soundtrack that adds layers of emotion, whether soft and touching or crisp and exciting. It's not very often that the remake stands above it's source material but Luhrmann's masterpiece is just that film.

William Shakespeare's classic `Romeo + Juliet' is probably one of the most influential pieces of literature ever recorded. You can feel its presence and influence breathing life into just about everything we read, watch or listen to these days. With a tale this classic, this important to modern cinema it becomes something a bit wary to tackle it at its core and `remake' it from scratch. One may be a tad hesitant to embrace its new shape and form and rightfully so. When you look at the track record for remakes it becomes apparent that in general what was once golden should be left well enough alone. In Romeo + Juliet's case though this is a reimagining so magical it surpasses the original and becomes a momentous piece in the history books of cinema. Yes, Baz Luhrmann single handedly breathes a whole new life into this adaptation, handing to his audience a masterful and experimental film that never lets us out of its grasp.The first thing that Luhrmann did right was stick to the original text. A lot of people initially balked at the fact that the dialog was not updated along with the setting but I felt that artistically it was a much grander feat to have the original dialog kept intact. The fact that each and every actor slips into this way of speaking fluently and without issue is an ode to some great talent indeed. No one seems out of place of phoning it. Each and every actor handles the difficult wording marvelously. The next thing Luhrmann did right was trashing his setting. What I mean by this is that he didn't go the easy route and make this posh and beautiful but rather he played everything down, creating an almost gritty and dirty feeling to the surroundings. This is the future and the future is bleak.The best thing that Luhrmann did though was casting Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the lead roles. At the time DiCaprio was slowly becoming a credible actor and Danes was just becoming known. Neither of them were quote-unquote household names or completely bankable yet but they both had proven they could act. Here though we get to see how well. To this day I still firmly believe that this is Leonardo's finest performance. Both he and Danes masterfully command their characters. Never has Romeo or Juliet felt so alive, so real and so relatable. Their tragic love affair is so enthralling, so captivating and so breathtaking. There are moments between them of pure beauty and strength that I'm appalled their performances didn't garner more awards attention.The rest of the cast is equally as impressive, especially the likes of Harold Perrineau (of `Lost' fame) who plays Romeo's best friend Mercutio. His performance is outlandish and flamboyant and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the film. John Leguizamo is memorable as Tybolt, Juliet's cousin, and Pete Postlethwaite is wonderful as Father Laurence. Paul Sorvino stands out for me as Juliet's father Fulgencio Capulet. His performance is brutal and intense and sends chills down my spine in scenes.`William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet' has never looked as good as it does here, telling the story of forbidden love and tragic circumstance that brings two families to their knees and teaches us a valuable lesson about forgiveness and tolerance. Baz Luhrmaan outdoes himself here, delivering a modern twist on a genuine classic complete with a beautiful color palate and an impressive soundtrack that adds layers of emotion, whether soft and touching or crisp and exciting (one reason this `Music Edition' is so worth the upgrade). It's not very often that the remake stands above its source material but Luhrmann's masterpiece is just that film.

Pretty good movie

This movie is totally awesome! It's one of the best adaptation ever made. Who could imagine the story of Romeo And Juliet would happen in our time. The music, scenario, cars, police, guns instead of swords and knives, i love this movie. If you are a fan of William Shakespeare's plays, this is a must have.

It was not until yesterday, the tragedy of this film hit me. The first time I watched this film was September 2015 in my Year 11 English class when we just so happened to be studying Romeo and Juliet. I am so grateful for that day because not only did I discover my favourite song (Talk Show Host - Radiohead), I fell in love with Leonardo DiCaprio. This film just gets it right on so many levels. This film is of epic proportion. It is a tragedy come to life. The mise en scene is just breathtaking, the penultimate scene in particular just blew me away. The sight of Romeo and Juliet laying side by side in a sea of lights was absolutely beautiful. The plot itself seems ludicrous on paper but the way it manifests on screen is strangely believable. That brings me to the performances. There is a reason that this performance thrust DiCaprio into the limelight. He IS Romeo. Right now I struggle how to even put it into words. As soon as he looked up on that beach, my heart was stolen. Not only is he beautiful, but he is so naive about love, so infatuated with Juliet. When he says he never saw true beauty until Juliet, you are completely sold. He is spellbound. The lengths that he goes to just to be with her is absurd, but it breaks your heart. Speaking of hearts breaking, Claire Danes really makes you feel for Juliet. The scene in particular where her father threatens to disown her is heart - wrenching. Not because of the thought alone, but because we realise that the only person who shows her real love is her nurse. I commend this film for its boldness and for its frankness (did I mention it retains the dialogue!) It does not try to twist the ending or sugarcoat the story. While you do feel bittersweet afterwards, this is a film that you will find yourself revisiting time and time again.

A glance at the many previous reviews shows just how divisive this version is. The younger generation seems to approve, broadly-speaking, but how far this is down to the Shakespeare make-over and how far down to dishy Di Caprio (for the girls) or Claire Danes (for the lads) I cannot say. The one plus point I can find is that it does stick to the original text, on the whole, and the editing down to two hours of what is a three hour play works reasonably well.I do realise that this play is a matter of interpretation, for the simple reason that no two performances can be identical. The question is how far we should go. If we take a glance first at the celebrated Zeffirelli film of 1968 (Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting), all the important dialogue is retained, and wherever the action was filmed, it did look passably like Verona, which is where it is supposed to be. The acting is high quality, and the soundtrack is good. For Year 11 students wanting a version to help with their GCSE, this is the one I would choose every time.By contrast, this Di Caprio version is a kind of West Side Story (which does at least have the bonus of Bernstein's music) with the original Shakespeare text. It is a typical all-American presentation - brash, noisy, and grossly overacted, without a hint of subtlety, except, perhaps, in some of the love scenes. It took me all my time to stick with the first ten minutes or so, although it does settle down after a while, once Tibalt is out of the way.This version suffers the same dilemma of all modern remakes which transport the play to another time and place, yet retain the original script - the dilemma of marrying the old with the new. Here, the setting is "Verona Beach" - not, of course Italy, but (probably) California, yet Romeo is still exiled to "Verona", which turns out to be a kind of hovel in the desert. The weapon of choice is the pistol, so at least we are spared the hilarity of watching men in grey suits fight with swords.The acting is mediocre, to say the least. Some of the lines are delivered with such machine-gun rapidity, that it is difficult for the ear to keep up (another good reason why this film should not be embraced by Year 11 students).One final word of warning: Most of the "Special Features" of which this package boasts are not accessible without a DVD-Rom facility (not to be confused with CD-Rom). The film itself, of course, works on any DVD player.

I saw this at the cinema in 1996 and it really stood out for me. Since then I have seen Moulin Rouge (fantastic) and The Great Gatsby (interesting) so I was interested to see how this would stand up in the light of those. The visuals are fantastic as are many of the young cast. While the film takes certain liberties with the Shakespeare, the balcony scene becomes a swimming pool scene, it does so in a way that allows it to make the most of the medium of film. I think it retains the sense of Shakespeare's original in the hostility between the families and the romance and tragedy between the leads. Mercutio is wonderfully flamboyant, and the party is the root of later choreographed set pieces in later Luhrman films.

I bought this as a gift for my mother because I studied this version at school, I know she'll love it as much as me and we can watch it together on cold nights.When I found out I'd be studying this I was genuinely filled with dread. Nothing seemed less interesting than a tale about two lovers who failed to communicate effectively and ended up in a joint suicide. But the story is glorious, and this adaptation simply beautiful. I can't think of any other way to describe it. I know it takes a while for some people to get in to the use of language but it's so worth it.The onscreen chemistry really seals this, the cinematography, music, just everything. I'd go so far as to say it's one of Baz Luhrmann's best films. It's a must have for girly evenings and just curling up on the sofa and lamenting your own love life.

very pleased, thank you.