A conditional victory.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2008

A consistently absorbing entertainment that never becomes either campy or facetious, given its inescapable exaggerations.

| Apr 27, 2007

A striking addition to the Shakespeare filmography.

| Feb 9, 2006

Hopkins unwisely echoes his performance as Hannibal Lecter, but Lange rises to the occasion with a mesmerizingly in-your-face portrait of mother love gone haywire.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 21, 2005

Along with everything else, the acting styles here clash, though the dissonance serves the drama's bellicose theme.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 25, 2003

Eager to allow Shakespeare's words to shine through as clearly as possible, Taymor shoots the dialogue scenes fairly straight, with a minimum of background action.

| Dec 2, 2002

Jessica Lange as Tamora, the captured Goth queen, seethes with sexuality and vengeance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 11, 2001

While (Taymor's) film version isn't exactly a solemn spectacle, neither is it much fun.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The film is striking and original and, in its clash of the brutal and the delicately poetic, supremely offputting.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

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

A brilliant production of a mediocre play.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A lugubrious and occasionally laughable two hours and 40 minutes.

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

Taymor's break from tradition combines the visual sense of Baz Lurhman's Romeo and Juliet with the stark sensibility of Zeffirelli's Hamlet, to exquisite and compelling effect.

| Jan 1, 2000

Taymor gives us the overwrought trials of these figures with a compassion that's surprising, given the lurid qualities of the script; the tragedy registers more deeply than maybe it should.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

It functions like a giant meat grinder, making hash of everything it depicts.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

It's a rage that suits a proscenium, but nearly chokes a screen with smoke.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 1, 2000

Julie Taymor has created a film that is as vulgar, obvious and glorious as the Shakespeare play it's based on.

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

This is the film Shakespeare's play deserves, and perhaps even a little more.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Looks like a jumble sale featuring the work of other directors and artists.

| Jan 1, 2000

The movie is often a lot of loopy fun -- it's just not very good.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000