Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Desertman84 Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich,John Leguizamo and Dakota Johnson star in this story based on the play by William Shakespeare of the same title that had its New York setting at present day modern times entitled Cymbeline.This Shakespearean film directed by Michael Almereyda takes us to a story of an on-going war between corrupt dirty cops and drug-dealing biker gang.Things become more violent when the drug kingpin becomes determined to take desperate measures.Well,Shakespearean plot does exist in the movie.When King Cymbelinew,who heads the Briton motorcycle gang in a decaying town,decides to resist Roman tax,with police official Caius Lucius the chief collector.On the romantic front,Cymbeline's protégé is Posthumus,a handsome but penniless skateboarder is the secret love of Cymbeline's daughter Imogen.Unfortunately,his second wife the Queen is pursuing a match between Imogen and her son Cloten instead. Then the main villain Iachimo enters.He shows up in town and thinks that Posthumus can deflower Imogen in just one meeting.Posthumus thinks is easy money but Iachime takes of a sleeping Imogen and sends him into extreme rage.One of the gang members Pisanio,a kind thug,is tasked with the task of Imogen's murder.But the truth is that Imogen was assisted to fake her death and to escape town disguised as a man.Later,she stumbles into Belarius and his sons,who happen to be the kidnapped sons of Cymbeline.Then things get complicated as the story progresses.As the plot is being retold,we get to see lots of confusion in the movie.Obviously,the viewers will have a hard time to keep track of the plot unless they are familiar with the Shakespearean play.Also,the modern retelling of the story seemed out of place especially in today's world considering that the screenplay made very little difference in telling the story.It is rather unfortunate that the director possesses a talent cast in this movie but these actors and actresses have a muddled screenplay to deal with and could not save it from being a bad movie.

paul jones I am giving this film 2 for the way the Company hoodwinked me into renting it as a DVD. At no point on the cover does it mention the word Shakespeare. I believed I was renting a good old biker gang vs. bent cops movie with a great cast of Ed Harris, Ethan Hawke etc. It took me a few minutes to realize with growing horror, that this was a Shakesperean play superimposed onto a modern story. Ironically enough, I went to watch a number of Shakespeare plays earlier this year, including Henry V. They were engaging, dramatic, exciting and entertaining. In fact, everything this film is not. I fast forwarded through most of this film which helped tremendously. I can understand what they were attempting to do, but the result is a mess. Ed Harris's status as one of my all time favorite actors has suffered a battering, based on the 20 minutes I did sit through. Ethan Hawke seemed to be struggling just to remember his dialog. Actually, it reminded me of the feelings that I had in school when they taught you Shakespeare. Somehow, you had a vague feeling that this is worthy, but they did'nt appear convinced themselves.

adonis98-743-186503 This film is really really bad it has a good cast and an awful idea for a movie it's like Game of Thrones meets Sons of Anarchy. The movie was called Cymbeline then changed to Anarchy and then to Anarchy: Ride or Die. Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Anton Yelchin, Dakota Johnson everyone is bad in this film but the biggest problem with the movie is not the script, the director or the cast is the dialogue the dialogue is so bad it's like someone went to them and told them say whatever it comes from your mind. Overall this film was a huge Disappointment when i saw the trailer i thought this will be OK and i was so wrong. Fina Verdict 3 out of 10.

madbeast Michael Almereyda once again stuffs a Shakespearean play into modern day society and comes up with an incomprehensible mess. His film of "Hamlet" at least used as its framework an enduring masterpiece with themes as relevant to today's world as when it was written. But "Cymbeline" is an obscure, rarely produced oddity from Shakespeare's canon which employs unlikely plotting centered on obsolete sexual morality which has no relevance to today's world. Why Almereyda thought this archaic chestnut needed to be set in the present day is baffling.It is up to the actors to inject some life into this dull mess and for the most part, they are not up to the task. Dakota Johnson is stunning to look at as the ill-used Imogen, but gives a one-note performance that is insufferable to watch. Ethan Hawke brings to the evil Iachimo the same dull monotone that he employed as Almereyda's Hamlet. And Penn Badgley makes the gullible Posthumus seem like a refugee from a boy band. Only Delroy Lindo and Ed Harris project the charisma necessary to make their characters interesting, although demoting Harris' Cymbeline from the King of Britain in the original text to the head of a motorcycle gang is unimaginably reductive.Almereyda seems to have a fetish for updating Shakespearean drama into the modern world and has no issue with pummeling it into a different shape to fit his concept no matter what the Bard's original intention was while writing it. The approach worked intermittently with "Hamlet" but fails completely with "Cymbeline." Almereyda would be well advised to seek out contemporary stories to make films of and leave Shakespeare alone.