Juliet & Romeo

[Antoni Bandzior]

A review. Not very promising

https://filmthreat.com/reviews/juliet-romeo/

[Antoni Bandzior]

Oh, gosh girls, save yourself... This is worse than Passionada. I mean... The only 3 good aspects of that crap are: Jason(his wig is really nice), Derek Jacobi and Dan Fogler.
Music is brainhurting, repetitive and just bad. Costumes are cringe, not accurate. Make up and hairdressing specialists did even worse job making it even less accurate. Scenario is boring and dialogues are just... Ygh. I want to burn my eyes and ears out.
Jason has at best 6 minutes of screen time.

[Anniemouse]

Oh that is such a shame as it seemed a great idea on paper; and I loved the idea of Jason in a musical.

[Antoni Bandzior]

He's not singing. Which we knew already.

[thunder]

Thanks for posting, I had a suspicion this wouldn't be my cup of tea when I watched the trailer.

[servalan]

It didn't get a very good review on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. One reviewer said because of the title change she had expected a story from Juliet's point of view, but it was mostly just the same old story, in spite of it supposedly being based on the Italian story which Shakespeare stole for his play.

They were not impressed with the music.

[Anniemouse]

I just feel that this is a oportunity missed, so I feel rather sad.

[Antoni Bandzior]

Romeo and Juliet is so well known story around the World, with plot so boring for the audience right now, overworked and done so many times, that it needs to be really new approach to the subject. Otherwise it's just repetitive and useless. Adding terrible songs and bad music isn't a solution to sell it.

[Anniemouse]

Shakespeare is such a gift but I sometimes worry that because he is out of copywrite it is somehoe an easy option to take in the industry.

I think the best projects add something to the plays.

My favourites fall into two camps.

Exceptional renditions done in a tradional manner.
Eg The Hollow Crown series.
The project consisted of
Richard II (Ben Whishaw & David Morrissey)
Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 ( Tom Hiddleston & Jeremy Irons)
Henry V (Tom Hiddleston)
Henry VI Parts 1 & 2
Richard III ( Benedict Cummerbatch)



They were without exception spectalular.

The other is when the production adds a modern twist.

My favourites
Romeo & Julliette (Baz Lerhman)
Coiolanus (Ralph Fiennes, Brian Cox & Gerard Butler) search this version out. It is an amzing piece set during the 1990's Balkin's War.
Richard III (Ian McKellen)
Henry V (Kenneth Brannaugh, Emma Thomson)
Hamlet ( Brannaugh, Kate Winslett)
Hamlet ( David Tennant and Patrick Stewart)
West Side Story
Any Orson Well production. He had such a gift with that voice.

I am a minority of one as I do not like the comedies.

I think the problem at school is that Shakespeare does not work with a shy 12 year old trying to read it on the page in front of the class. It need to be alive on stage and on screen. A great production brings his difficult poetry to life.

One day I hope that Jason can do a piece of modern Shakespeare. His voice alone suits that text.

[Antoni Bandzior]

Another Review
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/j ... re-musical


I love stage adaptation of Richard III with Martin Freeman few years back, really powerful. Properly bloody and violent. And he played it perfectly.
And Much Ado About Nothing with Hiddleston recently. That one was really funny. Very modern approach with few funny Easter eggs.
I've seen many Hamlets, and Mackbeths. Few good, few meeh... Sometimes even with high paid actors the best was a side kick actor playing few scenes only, not the main one(f.e. Cumberbatch Hamlet)

Plus my absolutely favourite Shakespeare movie is Titus Andronicus with Tony Hopkins.

[Anniemouse]

Have you seen Hopkins in the BBC version of King Lear? It is really good.

[Antoni Bandzior]

Not yet, but will look into it.