Instead of being a companion to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet (1996) , this can be filed under wasted opportunities.
Comment
03/08/01
Hamlet (2000)
56
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:84
Fresh:47
Rotten:37
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Stiff performances fail to produce any tension onscreen.
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Ethan Hawke stars in this modern update of Shakespeare's classic play. He portrays a young filmmaker in New York City who struggles to gain power of his deceased father's company, even as the new... [More]
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julia Stiles, Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Venora
Director: Michael Almereyda
Reviews for Hamlet
Top CriticJust not quite daring or spectacular enough.
06/12/01
Top CriticAlmereyda pares the drama down to its bloody core, leaving a potent tale of despair, madness and loss.
07/06/08
Top CriticAlmereyda modernises and streamlines without trivializing, and amplifies poetic melodrama with regular ingenuity and energy.
06/03/06
Top Critic[This is] an imaginative and exciting update, lacking only the decent swordfight the ending demands.
06/03/06
Visually the film is riveting, using the setting with real style and emotion.
12/10/01
Click to read the article
09/10/09
A disappointment because it failed to peak my interest like Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet did.
11/03/01
Shakespeare gets buried in a barrage of faxes, videos, jumpcuts, and product placements.
01/01/00
Almereyda's Hamlet is just a superficial treatment, uncomplicated and often unfathomable.
01/01/00
Hamlet is a drama that should be larger than life. This version plays like a Fox network soap opera.
01/01/00
You'll probably wish this 21st-century Hamlet will make his moves sooner than most previous incarnations, if only to cut short the droning.
01/01/00
Hawke is very trying as he spouts Shakespeare's 16th-century wisdom in the setting of 21st century New York in this Hamlet.
03/12/01
I guess Johnny Depp was busy, so they got the one that can't act.
06/03/06
Jitteringly paced and awkwardly edited with a brace of vapid performances. Only Sam Shephard gives a performance worthy of the material.
01/01/00
The picture starts out promisingly, but seems to lose scale and focus as it progresses; this could be the only production of Hamlet on record in which the bloody finale seems anti-climactic.
01/01/00
It could someday serve as a Y2K time capsule, far better than as a reading of the play itself.
01/01/00
If you want to see a cinematic Hamlet go see the Olivier or Brannaugh or even Mel Gibson. At least their versions make sense.
01/01/00
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