Modernized Shakespeare? Good Intent, Terrible Movie

Rating: 1/10 (3 March 2000)

I have long been a fan of Shakespeare. It has always amazed me that a person could write an entire play as a series of poems. The man was a genius. Modernizing Shakespeare for the teens of today is a good idea - but this movie falls terribly short.
After seeing this movie (I can't believe I watched the whole thing - I guess I thought it would get better), I was thoroughly disgusted. There are several reasons. First, the acting itself was terrible, except for John Leguizamo as Tybalt, who did a magnificent job. Leo and Claire both seemed as though they were reading most of their lines from cue cards - there was little if any emotion involved. This movie also destroyed the true relationship between Mercutio and Romeo, it turns Romeo into a druggie and Mercutio into nothing more than his dealer. What kid of today who uses drugs would seek revenge for the death of his dealer? None. They would simply seek out a different one. I can understand trying to remain true to Shakespeare's words, however, there were many times in the movie that doing so did not make sense.
This movie would probably have been much better if it had not used Shakespeare's dialog. The cast itself isn't bad, but for the most part they did not seem comfortable with the original dialog. If they would have modernized the dialog along with the visual aspects, I might have enjoyed it more.