Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

gavin6942 Two minor characters (Tim Roth and Gary Oldman) from the play "Hamlet" stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and unable to deviate from them.Hamlet has been told time and time again, in countless films, television adaptations, theater performances. Not that this is a bad thing, but one thing the world hardly needs is another Hamlet adaptation. Luckily, this is not one of them, but rather a very clever send-up. Why not tell the same story from another character's point of view? And for laughs, let us choose the two most silly characters.Better yet, let us cast two of the greatest actors ever. With all due respect to Richard Dreyfus, who also appears here, Roth and Oldman are among the best out there and to see them team up is something of a dream.

BrockPace At my last movie night I watched the comedy Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. I have seen and loved other films by director/writer Tom Stoppard, such as Shakespeare in Love and, one of my favorite films ever, Brazil. I have always appreciated these films for the incredibly detailed writing and plot structure that sets them up, so I was pleased to find a film that he created entirely himself. This film was one of the most deftly constructed comedies I have ever seen. I struggled to keep up with the jokes as they jumped from Hamlet references to literature battles of wit to references to scientific properties. The writing was the best part of the film, as it felt like an extended series of in-jokes for the viewer, who would only understand the movie if they had read the play, Hamlet. For example, one of the main jokes in the film is that the characters are constantly getting their names mixed up. You would only understand why that is if you had read Hamlet, as in the play these characters are interchangeable, appearing only in a pair. There was nothing particularly clever about the camera angles or movements, yet the cinematography succeeded by including subtle references, such as the pages that can be found in each scene, containing text from the bible, or the Shakespeare portraits that are located all around the castle. Unfortunately, towards the end the film began to feel tired as the main plots and jokes were constantly repeated while the newer jokes all just seemed to be silly slapstick humor. Overall, I thought it was an interesting picture and a more important supplement to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Grade: C+

Jackpollins Based upon Tom Stoppard's novel, the comedy Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are dead delivers great performances from its three leads, a funny and witty screenplay, and a lot of fun. Gary Oldman is fantastic as Rosencrantz, and Tim Roth is equally as great as Guilderstern. Richard Dreyfuss plays The Player, the fellow they meet while stumbling around. The script is clever because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters from Hamlet so as they stumble around, they do not know about how they are scripted. The movie starts off in a clever scene in which Rosencrantz keeps flipping a coin and always gets heads. This is somehow clever. Yes, it's the old I always get heads coin trick. But they somehow cleverly do it. On top of all this, Richard Dreyfuss is great in all his over-the-topness. If you like smart and sharp dialogue, you'll love it. If you watch it expecting a stupid comedy, or a comedy where you don't have to think, however, don't expect to like it. However, if you can get into a sharp, smart, funny, and witty comedy, you should definitely seek it out. A true classic.

Jazzminxx A genuine must-see, the allegoric film where every joke and every action are so layered, that you can't even grasp it all. The original interpretation of the Shakespeare's Hamlet, told from the POV of two minor heroes who honestly have no idea how they got caught up in all that mess, trapped within the plot of the Author. The idea that "All the world is a stage, and we are all merely actors" is embroidered skillfully into the canvas of the story, entwined with the problems of choice, freedom, free will, justice, loyalty. Moreover the movie managed to avoid the pathos/affectedness so typical for intellectual films that usually turns us off, the story is told with such irony and lightness that it strikes all the right notes, making us happy or sad, sympathetic to the heroes. The brilliant actors' works are just the cherry on top. Too incredible for words.