FUNNIEST MOVIE OF 1998

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 1999)

I know a lot of moviegoers will probably disagree with me but I really did think Shakespeare in Love was the funniest movie of 1998. You can tell the screenwriters, Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, had a lot of fun writing the screenplay. From the opening scene where Geoffrey Rush is having his feet bar-b-qued to the ending where Judi Dench says, "Too late, too late," after her servants fail to cover a puddle of water--I knew I was in for a "rollercoaster" of laughs. And it doesn't take an English major to get the jokes--that's another great thing about this movie. "Saving Private Ryan" may have been expertly directed, but "Shakespeare in Love" deserved the Best Picture Oscar for its humor, romance, theatrical and English history, and story on one of the greatest writers who ever lived: Shakespeare! The Academy Awards seldom acknowledge "arthouse" films--let's celebrate when they do.