Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

grantss Surprisingly light on substance.A Kenneth Branagh written-and-directed adaptation of the Shakespeare play. Set in WW2 for the movie, The King of Navarre and his three best friends have sworn off wine, women and song for three years, in the interests of studying. But then the beautiful princess of France, and her equally-lovely ladies-in-waiting arrive, and their oaths are quickly and sorely tested...Fun and funny at times but ultimately quite empty. It is short to begin with - about 85 minutes. Then you have the fact that this version is a musical and the amount of actual movie time is even shorter. In the end it just seems so full of empty schmaltz, fluff and padding. Reasonably moving ending though.On the subject of the music, I generally dislike musicals but the choice of music here is pretty good: George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kern and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin. While I would still have preferred no musical numbers - it just wrecks any plausibility and continuity - it could have been a lot worse.Decent cast - Branagh, Alicia Silverstone, Alessandro Nivola, Natascha McElhone, Emily Mortimer, Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall - who put in solid performances. Don't know what Matthew Lillard is doing there though (note that I didn't include him in the "decent cast" list). He is conspicuous by his lack of acting skills and should stick to C-grade frat farces.

SnoopyStyle Kenneth Branagh is attempting yet another Shakespeare play. This time he's adapting it as a 1930 era musical. The King of Navarre and his three companions swear a very public oath to study together and to renounce women for three years. Their honor is immediately put to the test by the arrival of the Princess of France and her three lovely companions. This one stars Alessandro Nivola, Alicia Silverstone, Natascha McElhone, Matthew Lillard, Emily Mortimer among others.I'm fine with a musical. It's not my favorite genre but I won't hold it against this movie. However, everybody is playing it so broad. At times, they act like it's a parody of a 30s musical. It was ridiculously annoying. The second problem I had was the story. Here we have a story about powerful kings and princess. But it takes place in 1930s when royalty have only nominal powers. It makes no sense. Again it's really annoying. The stagecraft is good but there's no way I can recommend this to anybody other than musical lovers.

cheshire551225800 I think this is one of the weakest of the Kenneth Branagh Shakespearian works. After such great efforts as Much Ado About Nothing, etc. I thought this was poor. The cast was weaker (Alicia Silverstone, Nivoli, McElhone???) but my biggest gripe was that they messed with the Bard's work and cut out some of the play to put in the musical/dance sequences.You just don't do Shakespeare and then mess with the play. Sorry, but that is just wrong. I love some Cole Porter just like the next person, but jeez, don't mess with the Shakespeare. Skip this and watch "Prospero's Books" if you want to see a brilliant Shakespearean adaptation of the Tempest.

glynyfaron ...but the film really doesn't work. It might be argued that trying to marry one of Shakespeare's weakest plays (a nonsense plot full of puns that no longer and apparent absence of an ending) with Golden Age musicals necessitates actor who can not only sing and dance but also recite Shakespeare. Branagh himself fairs best here but some of the performances are dreadful. Alicia Silverstone squeals every line as if experiencing a sugar rush and seems to have no understanding of the meaning of the words while Matthew Lillard flounders around hopping weak physical comedy will cover his lack of acting talent. The dancing and choreography is perfunctory at best, the seemingly effortless quality of the musicals of that era came from years of training and can not be replicated by sheer enthusiasm alone. It is always a delight to hear Branagh bring the Bard's word to life but this really didn't work. Commendation also to Richard Clifford's Boyet, he caught the warmth and subtlety of the character tempered by a sadness that he himself seems to be alone. He shone while everyone else senseless mugged into the lens.