Dom Robinson reviews
William Shakespeare's
Romeo & Juliet The greatest love story the world has ever known
Distributed by
Encore Entertainment
Producers:
Gabriella Martinelli and Baz Luhrmann
Screenplay:
Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann
Music:
Cast:
Romeo: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Man In The Iron Mask, Marvin's Room, This Boy's Life, Titanic, Total Eclipse, What's Eating Gilbert Grape? )
Juliet: Claire Danes (Home For The Holidays, Little Women, The Rainmaker, To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday )
Ted Montague: Brian Dennehy (Cocoon, FX, FX2, Presumed Innocent )
Tybalt: John Leguizamo (Executive Decision, The Fan, Spawn, Super Mario Brothersm Too Wong Foo... )
Father Laurence: Pete Postlethwaite (Amistad, Crimetime, Dragonheart, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Suite 16, The Usual Suspects )
Fulgencio Capulet: Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas, Money Talks, Nixon )
Gloria Capulet: Diane Venora (FX, Heat, The Jackal, The Substitute, Three Wishes )
Diva: Des'ree
Romeo And Juliet
So begins William Shakespeare's beloved play, Romeo And Juliet . These
famous lines and the vivid language of this cautionary tale drive director
Baz Luhrmann 's cinematic interpretation. But the setting has been moved
from its Elizabethan origins: Welcome to Verona Beach, a sexy violent
other-world, neither past nor future, ruled by two rival families, the
Montagues and the Capulets. Wealthy, selfish, ruthless and powerful, the
bitter enmity between the parents has become the unfortunate birthright of their
offspring.
The picture quality is excellent, bringing life to the extravagant colour
scheme used throughout in pin-sharp detail. The film has been transferred
at the original 2.35:1 ratio and when you watch it you'll realise it cannot
be viewed in any other form, due to the complexity and composition of each shot.
For the same price of this disc, some idiot at Fox has released a video boxset
in PAN-AND-SCAN which is the surest way to destroy the experience on display.
The sound quality is spot-on too, which is necessary for the soundtrack
masterminded by Nellee Hooper and spawned two soundtrack albums featuring plenty
of music from the film including The Cardigans "Love Fool" , a top
tune, although I preferred one of their earlier tracks, "Sick & Tired" .
Other excellent contributions include Gavin Friday 's "Angel" ,
The Wannadies ' "You And Me Song" , Prince 's "When
Doves Cry" , Radiohead 's "Exit Music (For A Film)" and
one of the most hypnotic records ever made, Stina Nordenstam 's
"Little Star" .
There are 25 chapters spread throughout the 115 minutes of the film. Not bad,
but it could use a few more. The disc also contains the original theatrical
trailer.
Overall, with its quick cuts between scenes and individual moments, on first
screening this doesn't make for easy viewing, leaving this viewer feeling
that while he's watching something very entertaining, it doesn't quite gel
together by mixing olde-style language with pop-style appearance.
Still, if you're a fan of the film this laserdisc certainly won't disappoint.
At the time of writing, Fox still haven't announced their UK DVD release
schedule, so who knows when this will be released on the new format.
FILM : ***
PICTURE QUALITY : *****
SOUND QUALITY : *****
EXTRAS : *
-------------------------------
OVERALL : ***½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
[Up to the top of this page]
Amazon.co.uk Widgets
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
