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Title: Much Ado About Nothing (Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare, Peter Holland ISBN: 0140714804 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.66
Rating: 4
Summary: Solid and Enjoyable
Comment: Kenneth Branagh's always been somewhat contradictory. On theone hand, no one since Olivier has worked so hard to bring Shakespeare's plays to the big screen. And, yes, he's actually made Shakespeare profitable (you don't have to go to the art houses to his films). Of course, this profitability comes at a price. Branagh, deciding to make artistic concessions, sometimes makes some mistakes in casting.
Don't take me wrong. I understand that Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Robert Sean Leonard and Denzel Washington help broaden Shakespeare's appeal; at the same time, however, I wish Branagh would find popular actors who could also handle such classic material. Of the actors listed above, only Washington passes the test. Denzel is a talented actor and his status as African-American, Hollywood heartthrob makes for a perfect Don Pedro, the grand overseer of all the revelry and romance. Keaton tries his best, but his caricature of the oafish Dogberry seems like a leftover of Beetlejuice. Keanu Reeves, well, what can I say? Thank God that Don John has very few lines. Leonard, who was obviously cast based on his Midsummer Night's Dream performance in Dead Poets Society, cannot keep pace. Leonard seems out of place in this movie and his performance feels eerily similar to the one in Dead Poets Society--an amateur high school actor stumbling his way through sophisticated adult material. . .
Nevertheless, Much Ado is still an excellent movie and I recommend it--at the very least--for Branagh and Thompson. The Tuscany locale is appropriately lusty and lush (lots of those wonderful mauve tones). The opening sequence with the men riding back from battle and the women bathing before meeting them is a whole lot of sensual fun. And when Branagh and Thompson bicker back and forth on the screen, trading insults, the mediocre performances by some of the other cast members will simply fade into the background.
Rating: 5
Summary: HEY, NONNY NONNY! THIS WAS FUNNY FUNNY!
Comment: This, without a doubt, the funniest film that I have seen Kenneth Branagh do. True, it was no match for his four-hour masterpiece HAMLET, but MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is almost as great. Branagh shows us that his acting abilities can range from heroic to comedic. But please, let us not talk of the very bad performance he gave in the insanely crazy, and just as stupid WILD WILD WEST. Another thing that suprised me about the film: Keanu Reeves as a bad guy. This film also proves that Reeves, who plays the sinister John the B-----d, can play a wide variety of characters (from THE MATRIX's Neo, to BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE's Bill Es Preston Esquire.). The other supporting actors (Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Emma Thompson, Brian Blessed, among many others) gave what could be called their finest performances ever. The movie, which is insanely funny, also has some dramatic moments, so as not to make it too ludicrous. Anybody who has a thirst for Shakespeare, or just wants a good laugh, should see this movie. Trust me, you'll be singing HEY, NONNY NONNY 'til you die. Grade: A+
Rating: 4
Summary: An airy, elegant delight, except for one performance...
Comment: Kenneth Branagh has always had a fondness for stylization and stunt casting in his adaptations of Shakespeare, and one of his casting choices in Much Ado About Nothing is a serious irritant: Keanu Reeves, though looking malevolently handsome in black leather and beard as the villainous Lord John, recites the Bard's verse like a bored eighth-grader who was just smacked in the head with a volleyball. Reeves not only undermines the film as a whole, he also makes his fellow Americans in the cast--Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton and Robert Sean Leonard--look bad by association. This is really too bad, for Washington and Leonard's performances are thoroughly respectable, and Keaton is hilarious as the addled Dogberry. In general, Branagh bathes the production in warm Tuscan light and infuses it with an airy, gracious, warm spirit. He and then-wife Emma Thompson give faultless performances as Benedick and Beatrice, both giving lasting lessons on how to play light comedy and speak Shakespearian verse. Their repartee is so brilliant that it's too bad they didn't have a chance to do Noel Coward before their divorce. Personally, I will always think of Branagh and Thompson as the perfect theatrical couple, on a par with Lunt and Fontanne or Cronyn and Tandy, however dysfunctional their actual marriage.
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Title: Hamlet (Shakespeare Made Easy: Modern English Version Side-By-Side With Full origiNal Text) by William Shakespeare, Alan Durband ISBN: 0812036387 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: February, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Tragedy of Macbeth (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine ISBN: 0671722751 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (New Folger Library) by William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine ISBN: 0671722816 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: July, 1993 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: The Taming of the Shrew (New Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine, Folger Library ISBN: 0671722891 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Richard III (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) by Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, William Shakespeare ISBN: 0671722840 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: January, 1996 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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