A work of tremendous personal ambition equipped with a budget nearly equal in magnitude.

| Apr 20, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2004

There are many ... instances when you want to run screaming from Elsinore Castle.

| Sep 25, 2002

With his handsome and compelling Hamlet, Kenneth Branagh brings the Bard's greatest tragedy passionately alive on the screen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2002

This Hamlet may not be perfect, but it is perfectly engrossing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2002

As star and ringmaster, Branagh gets to the heart of Hamlet and goes to admirable lengths to take his audience there, too.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Branagh's version moved me, entertained me and made me feel for the first time at home in that doomed royal court.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A true accomplishment.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

A vigorous, four-hour adaptation that's 100 percent Shakespeare and 100 percent cinema.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Glorious as it is, this unexpurgated workout is ultimately a movie of moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Kenneth Branagh directs and stars in a vibrant, full-text, full-hearted film from Shakespeare's most complex tragedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

The film equivalent of a lushly illustrated coffee-table book.

| Jan 1, 2000

Branagh confirms what was known from the opening shot of Henry V: he has fine cinematic skills.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Every little triumph seems to inspire in Branagh some accompanying act of bad taste or judgment.

| Jan 1, 2000

By looking to the box office and the classroom with equal respect, [Branagh] has kept himself a friend of Shakespeare.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000