great movie

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2001)

The newest version of Romeo + Juliet was a brave action on Baz Luhrmann's part. He did a very good job at targeting teens, especially with the MTV-like filming. He really took Shakespeare to a new level with this movie. Since Romeo and Juliet are known as the ideal lovers, bringing them into our time has made them seem less fictional as if we can still find our perfect husband or wife. Keeping the poetry intact was rather jarring; however, without it it wouldn't be the same Shakespeare.
Some of the things that Luhrmann added were quite clever such as the names of "Sword" and "Dagger" for their guns. He also added in some puns from other works of Shakespeare as the advertisements in and on stores. The characters' archetypes were genius and easy to identify. However, someone could have done a little better of a job teaching Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes how to recite Shakespeare because they could have done a better job; on the otherhand, DiCaprio as a the charming Romeo was not a bad choice at all. Overall, this was a great movie and I think it succeeded in all of its efforts to capture the younger audiences eye and open up the wonderful world of Shakespeare.