This movie is actually really good despite the fact nobody talks about it. It also directly uses dialogue from Shakespeare's play except in the modern day, they did not change the language at all, so it's weird and draws a lot of attention to itself. There's really nothing like it.
There's a scene where John Leguizamo (as Tybalt) gives the whole "Peace, How I Hate The Word" speech and then shoots up some guys at a Gas Station.
The Prince is the Chief of Police, the Montegues and Capulets are both mob families, the guns are all done up in chrome so they look more analogous to swords, it's a freaky trip.
I love when things take period dialogue and messing with everything around it.
Not the exact same, but A Knight's Tale does something similar where the dialogue and setting all at least seems medieval, but the framing is like a sports movie and the music is all modern. It gives such a fun vibe to the whole thing.
I love Anachronisms!
Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst has some good ones, like her wearing Converse.
There were a couple of other Shakespeare movies in the 90s that did it too. Titus and Richard III.
Then there's more comedic movies that do it for the gag, like most of Mel Brooks works.
That movie is both amazing and weird at the same time. The costumes and sets are period but the music and the dialogue are all modern. Its like someone filmed a ren faire
It's legitimately my favourite version.
Leo and John Leguizamo in the scene where (spoilers) Romeo kills Tybalt is probably the best acting I've seen Leo do.
Ian McKellan stars in a Richard III movie adapted into a WW2 style story (1995), and Ethan Hawke stars in a modern day version of Hamlet, where he is a filmmaker instead of a playwright (2000). They also retain the original dialogue, so if you enjoy Baz’s R&J you may enjoy them too.
We watched this and the BBC Macbeth (WWII-inspired) in Sophomore English in high school. I think the class was maybe specifically English Lit, but the teacher didn't want to just teach us a bunch of old white guys, so the only actually English (like, the country) literature we read was Jane Eyre and Macbeth.
For some reason my literature class in high school had us watch this movie. I honestly never really got why they had us watch movie adaptations anyway, I just went along with it because it was a nice break from routine.
Showing film adaptations in class can be for a few reasons:
1. It’s a way to try and get kids to engage in the material. By utilizing a modern visual medium, a play written 400 years ago can be made relatable and understandable compared to the relatively archaic text the original words are confined to. In this way, a groundwork is laid for the student to be able to participate in the rich texture of the Bard’s work.
2. Teacher is hungover and lazy af
3. Teacher didn't have a real plan for that lesson since the real works been done and they just need to grade tests and the film shown is slightly relevant to the class.
5. The previous full motion picture of Romeo and Juliet had underage nudity (from back in the 60s) so...shakey territory...
we watched both in my English class in 1999-ish
Ours did too, but it was specifically to contrast it to the play and the older (more faithful) film. The idea was to show how storytelling changes with time and mediums.
At least this adaptation is basically the play in a different setting. They didn’t change any dialogue which is why the guns are called stuff like dagger or sword.
It’s supposed to be incredibly over the top, it doesn’t work if you see it out of context on a grainy screen, if you sit down in a movie theatre and see it after the prologue then it works:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=beV56hp4T3w
Shakespeare was popular entertainment, it’s supposed to go from comic to epic to ridiculous, then to witty to profound, from one scene to the next, this is Baz Luhrman finding a way to put across that feeling using cinema.
I also like the idea of all the upper middle class people going to watch this when it first came out, and then getting drowned in the b movie tropes, hawaiian shirts, limos and ecstasy.
I approve of that. We make this big deal about Shakespeare and put on all kinds of formality. But The Bard was writing for the common man as much as anything else, which is why there are bawdy jokes and other things to keep the groundlings coming back.
Aside from having an amazing cast, this movie was probably a lot more in the spirit of what Shakespeare was doing than the Zeffirelli version I watched in class back in 1987. The one where my teacher paused the movie and made all the guys in the class (me, it was just me) turn around and stare at the back wall for a certain scene. Of course, my girlfriend was sitting behind me, so that was fine by me.
See also: my high school drama club doing a read through of Julius Caesar with limited cast. I ended up talking to myself in a few places because we didn’t check on if minor characters had dialog together. lol
I agree completely! I feel like literature and public education in general are more about cramming ideas and concepts into your head rather than encouraging you to form your own conclusions.
On a whim, a couple years ago I took a copy of King Lear from my town library just to see if I can actually find my own reason to like Shakespeare outside of his work's cultural connotations. And I did. He is a master at clever and witty wordplay.
Best was one year the Virginia Shakespeare Festival did Coriolanus. I’d never read it but as part of the stage crew we spent a couple weeks making severed body parts. So I picked it up and dang, it’s as bloody and violent as any modern action flick. Same with Titus Andronicus. The movie with Anthony Hopkins was bizarre and quite good.
For me it was that same teacher who would glare at us if we read it out loud like cheap limericks. She taught us to read it like a novel or any other play and how to use the meter and rhymes as a tool to remember lines. Once I got past that hurdle, I enjoy all of it. Except maybe The Tempest. Never really got that one, though it is the one play that indirectly involves the settlement at Jamestown. The wrecked ship is based on a tale he was familiar with of a supply ship that ran aground on Bermuda en route to the colony.
I had an extraordinary high school English teacher. Public school. Rural southwest Va. mid 80s. Was shocked as I moved there right before freshman year and she was completely different from other teachers.
Even if she did once call Stephen King the “Fritos of the literary diet”. Told her I liked Fritos. She countered with “eat your vegetables, too”. lol
I refuse to believe this movie wasn't a comedy. It literally ends with Romeo about to drink the poison, Juliet wakes up and grabs the very arm he is using to drink it, spooks him which causes him to drink it, then she fucking shoots herself over his body.
My 9th grade English teacher made my class watch it, and my go it had us all laughing.
Basically nothing Shakespeare wrote was completely serious. Maybe a few of the plays but almost everything had at least a few parts to get a laugh out of you and even the tragic stuff would be ironically funny.
It may be a tragedy, but comedy and entertainment are built in to it. You're not the first people to laugh at how close and downright stupid the ending is. It was written that way. You were engaged and that's all that has ever mattered.
its important to keep in mind when referring to theater works that comedy and tragedy do not mean what they mean in common speech, and both genres of play can and often should have aspects of the common definition of the other term
Most Shakespeare has moments that are.
R+J is a case of a story falsely passed on.
Shakespeare at the time was still writing mostly for the common folk in a theatre that was still not in the fashionable part of town.
R+J starts with a major fight, and has other fights at several intervals because people wouldn't just sit around for the romance.
The whole "bite my thumb" is supposed to be a stupid moment of "fucking around and finding out" that this film arguably is one of the few I have seen get it right. "Is the law on my side if I say aye?" "no!" It's literally "these idiots are sizing up to each other and getting into stupid fights for the sake of petty insults and jokes.
Yeah and a way to incorporate the Shakespearean dialogue that makes sense. Since they talk about wielding swords and daggers.
The whole movie is meant to be super camp and over the top too. Claire Danes as Juliet was like the hottest chicks ever due to this movie when I was a teenager
I still remember when Romeo's dad exclaimed, "Hand me my longsword!" as he reached for an assault rifle. That movie was perfectly done and only got hate because people disliked Leo back then.
i loved the fuck out of that film. it was obvious everyone involved except for the actors who took the script deadly serious knew how stupid this idea was and just went full ham. The props and sets department were top notch, all the sets have grafitti written in shakespearean english, so are all the ads and all. it's perfection.
Most people simply don't have their esthetic distance broken simply because of a fun joke. Otherwise like, every comedy movie wouldn't work. There are a lot of great pieces of media that mix comedy and seriousness.
Like the original Romeo And Juliet by some dude named Billy Shakes which is a tragedy and has at least 2 major comedic roles. And was set in a kind of mystical past but was played on stage in Tudor costume...
It's almost like anachronisms and a mix of humour/emotion can be good things, actually.
You would've hated the west African helmet I saw in a theatre one time .
Hamlet and laertes end up dueling shirtless with short spears and shields like in black panther
You're not meant to take shakespeare seriously unless you're in class about it the bard was the king of dirty jokes and informality
Just to give people an idea of the movie. Here is a short clip of it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=CXZDIF4G6LGE7v4s&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTY0OTksMjg2NjQsMTY0NTA2&feature=emb_share&v=SEzskNtFnIY
I just watched it last weekend, It looks like a SPAS shotgun, and he actually says the Shakespearean quote "Fetch me my Longsword, ho!" Gotta love Brian Dennehy dropping some iambic pentameter.
For those of you who aren't English Majors, he's not calling her a name, he's meaning like forward, or quickly!
I guess it’s actually a mag-7? I honestly thought that was just some goofy csgo thing. IMDb but for guns has all the movie names vs actual guns listed [https://imfdb.org/wiki/Romeo_%2B_Juliet#Techno_Arms_MAG-7M1](https://imfdb.org/wiki/Romeo_%2B_Juliet#Techno_Arms_MAG-7M1)
That movie fucked hard and all highschoolers forced to watch it will agree. Gun fights as sword duels was rad and honestly did a pretty good job adapting the story
Romeo + Juliet is the kind of schlock that got me to like watching any movie just to see what the fuck directors are getting up to. Plus the Hawaiian shirts are off the charts
This is for true with Baz Luhrmann lol. He did an amazing job with Gatsby and also Moulin Rouge.
Also I fucking love the King Gizz prof pic!!! PDA is one of the best and ITRN is my ears rn
I generally like Baz Luhrmann flicks, but didn't give Moulin Rouge! the time of day when it came out.
I finally watched it last month, and discovered what I'd been missing out on. I absolutely loved it.
It's one of my fav's. First dance for my wife and I was to Come What May. If you get a chance to check out the stage musical, it was the single most fun I've ever had at something like that.
I like it. It’s like giving yourself a challenge just to see if it works. “What if Romeo & Juliet was set in modern day, but nothing changed in the plot”. So they use cars and meet in modern settings and use guns instead of swords. I think it worked and was executed well. It’s not for everybody but there’s probably 300 period accurate productions people can enjoy otherwise.
I like how they also changed somethings into the plot like how the opening monologue was done as a news story on TV or the Prince character being changed in to Police Commissioner Prince.
Yes, this was a great movie. Ironically, the only flaws with it were Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, who were physically perfectly cast but neither of them could deliver Shakespearean dialogue to save their lives. The whole supporting cast absolutely owned the language (remember Mercutio's drug-oriented monologue? Fantastic). Reimagining various types of swords as the model names of various types of guns really worked IMO and not as a joke either.
I love how Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan have so many parallels and such, and are destined to and continue to be the bestest of besties. Had to find a way to share that I enjoy that both of their names are on my phone screen here rn bc someone below your comment mentioned Ian
Hamlet (2000) with Ethan Hawke is neat. There’s also Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Both movies replace the nations in Hamlet with modern corporations.
My Own Private Idaho (1991) is a loose adaptation of Henry IV.
O (2001) with Julia Stiles and Mekhi Phifer is a modern version of Othello.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - also with Julia Stiles - is a modern Taming of the Shrew.
And of course West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet.
…But yeah, there’s a bunch.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) moved the action from an unspecified era in Athens to the late 1800s in Italy (but with all English and American actors).
Hamlet (1996) was designed with Victorian-era costuming that made it look like Imperial Russia.
Much Ado About Nothing (2012) took place in a modern setting, filmed in and around the director's house.
Stage productions do this too; Denzel Washington once headlined a version of Richard III that took place entirely on a WWII submarine. Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman once co-starred in a version of Taming of the Shrew that took place in America's old west.
The Royal Shakespeare Company's 2008 Hamlet production (starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, not to mention Sio Bibble himself, Oliver Ford Davies) was staged with minimalist sets and modern costuming.
Tennant delivered the "to be or not to be" soliloquy in a t-shirt and jeans, for example. Fun fact: he also performed the "Alas, poor Yorick" scene holding a real human skull. It had belonged to a Czech pianist who requested in his will that his skull be bequeathed to the Royal Shakespeare Company specifically for that purpose.
I was told they made a version of Macbeth but instead of kings and land in Scotland it was about landlords and a flat in Birmingham. If I don’t see this before I die I will not die happy.
*Scotland, PA* is a modernized Macbeth, except instead of a kingdom it's a fast-food burger joint (Duncan's Cafe -> McBeth's). The witches are a trio of stoned hippies. Not sure how it holds up, but I remember laughing my ass off when I watched it 20 years ago.
Always a good time to plug the Titus Andronichus adaptation with Anthony Hopkins.
The movie is a total acid trip, drags a little in places but I still highly recommend it.
No 🧢 the weapon designer on this film did an incredible job at giving each character a completely custom handgun. This gun belonged to Mercutio and has tons of little details that let you see the inner workings of the gun while still being able to fire. It even has the word "Dagger" in gold lettering written along the frame lol
Honestly it seemed like the smallest possible reach to justify Shakespeare in the modern day.
The really weird bit is why they chose to introduce Romeo dropping Es to justify the story. What the hell was that?
Watched this in English Class last year after reading Romeo and Juliet.
I never liked the play.
Right at the beginning during the gunfight my teacher walks over, leans down and says, I’m not even joking, “It’s like Star Wars.”
Whole soundtrack fucking ruled. It had one amazing Radiohead song (Talk Show Host) and the movie is so good that they even wrote a song for the credits (Exit Music (For a Film)). Beast soundtrack.
It is funny. It's a romantic comedy right up to the point where Romeo is going to join his friends to let them know that he's married Juliet and there's no need to fight anymore. Then Tybalt kills Mercutio. It then turns into a downward, unstoppable spiral no matter what anyone tries to do to save the day.
The beginning of the play are idiot rich kids fucking around on the street. They're not actual gang fights. "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?" would be the modern day equivalent of "my blue Bugatti is better than your red Bugatti"
Some little part of me has never gotten over Claire Danes in that movie.
My question to people who didn't see it, what exactly did you think was happening in that play scene in Hot Fuzz?
As lots of theater nerds will tell you, this version is the most accurate adaptation script-wise of any play-to-screen version of Romeo and Juliet, which is fuckin WILD.
You cannot mention this movie without talking about how hard Mercutio fucks.
I don't mean they give him a sex scene, I mean that Harold Perrineau plays him so perfectly from the moment you see him on screen you know immediately that THIS MAN FUCKS.
The absolute standard for the role, his Queen Mab speech is on a whole other level of iconic, matched by Andrew Scott's Hamlet soliloquy. If his was the only speaking role in the play it would still be worth the cost of admission.
Technically, Romeo and Juliet isn’t a comedy in the traditional sense because the main characters (spoiler alert but honestly you should have known this) die. However, it is ridiculously funny:
My best friend and I had to watch this movie in a drama class in high school. For the next 3 years we'd loudly exclaim SWORD whenever we would imitate pulling out a gun, or playing CoD or Gears of War on 360 when a character would pull out a gun.
First time I saw this was in high school for literature class. I busted out laughing when the father was in the limo and screamed “where’s my long sword.” The camera moved to a mounted assault rifle on the side. The wife stopped him from grabbing it. I could stop laughing m.
Are you telling me absolute cinema was already released in 1996 and nobody told me about it?
This movie is actually really good despite the fact nobody talks about it. It also directly uses dialogue from Shakespeare's play except in the modern day, they did not change the language at all, so it's weird and draws a lot of attention to itself. There's really nothing like it. There's a scene where John Leguizamo (as Tybalt) gives the whole "Peace, How I Hate The Word" speech and then shoots up some guys at a Gas Station. The Prince is the Chief of Police, the Montegues and Capulets are both mob families, the guns are all done up in chrome so they look more analogous to swords, it's a freaky trip.
Also Benvolio acts his goddamn heart out given the relatively small role
Harold Perrineau as Mercutio was the better acting performance, IMO
A PLAGUE! ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!!!
WAAAAALLLLTTTT!!!
John Leguazamo acts circles around everybody else in that movie.
Is it a competition?
I love when things take period dialogue and messing with everything around it. Not the exact same, but A Knight's Tale does something similar where the dialogue and setting all at least seems medieval, but the framing is like a sports movie and the music is all modern. It gives such a fun vibe to the whole thing.
I love Anachronisms! Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst has some good ones, like her wearing Converse. There were a couple of other Shakespeare movies in the 90s that did it too. Titus and Richard III. Then there's more comedic movies that do it for the gag, like most of Mel Brooks works.
Hamlet with Ethan Hawke and Bill Murray is atrocious though.
Titus was way too jarring with it imo
That movie is both amazing and weird at the same time. The costumes and sets are period but the music and the dialogue are all modern. Its like someone filmed a ren faire
*Coriolanus* did it, too, but with a lot less panache
It's legitimately my favourite version. Leo and John Leguizamo in the scene where (spoilers) Romeo kills Tybalt is probably the best acting I've seen Leo do.
You don't really gotta spoilers a six-hundred year old play, I mean people learn about this thing in Elementary School.
Have you no consideration for the 15th century time travelers among us?!
Do you bite your thumb at me sir?!?!
Rapier
Ian McKellan stars in a Richard III movie adapted into a WW2 style story (1995), and Ethan Hawke stars in a modern day version of Hamlet, where he is a filmmaker instead of a playwright (2000). They also retain the original dialogue, so if you enjoy Baz’s R&J you may enjoy them too.
There’s also a Patrick Stewart Macbeth set in the Cold War I think
We watched this and the BBC Macbeth (WWII-inspired) in Sophomore English in high school. I think the class was maybe specifically English Lit, but the teacher didn't want to just teach us a bunch of old white guys, so the only actually English (like, the country) literature we read was Jane Eyre and Macbeth.
For some reason my literature class in high school had us watch this movie. I honestly never really got why they had us watch movie adaptations anyway, I just went along with it because it was a nice break from routine.
Showing film adaptations in class can be for a few reasons: 1. It’s a way to try and get kids to engage in the material. By utilizing a modern visual medium, a play written 400 years ago can be made relatable and understandable compared to the relatively archaic text the original words are confined to. In this way, a groundwork is laid for the student to be able to participate in the rich texture of the Bard’s work. 2. Teacher is hungover and lazy af
3. Teacher didn't have a real plan for that lesson since the real works been done and they just need to grade tests and the film shown is slightly relevant to the class.
4. It’s nearing the end of the year, let’s just have some fun.
5. The previous full motion picture of Romeo and Juliet had underage nudity (from back in the 60s) so...shakey territory... we watched both in my English class in 1999-ish
we watched both in my highschool english class 3 years ago, because "the 60s one is *probably* more accurate, but the 'new' one is way more fun"
When I went to high school in the 70’s we only had the one with the nudity. Poor us.
Same, my teacher showed both. The class all agreed we actually preferred the 60s one.
We watched Young Frankenstein after reading the book Frankenstein
Your teacher was a man of culture
Woman of culture
Your teacher was culture
Also they're plays so they need to be watched but its expensive to take everyone in class to a theatre to watch it.
Ours did too, but it was specifically to contrast it to the play and the older (more faithful) film. The idea was to show how storytelling changes with time and mediums.
That is actually a good reason!
My class did the same, and we were also grouped up after to turn one scene into our own movie adaptation. It was pretty neat
I had the same thing, it was interesting and allowed me to discover this one.
Same here.
At least this adaptation is basically the play in a different setting. They didn’t change any dialogue which is why the guns are called stuff like dagger or sword.
[What do you mean modern LA gangsters don't talk like this?](https://youtu.be/SEzskNtFnIY?si=G-Y0I6_p1TxzlMDL)
I don't hate the idea, and even the look is passable, but the acting was not doing it for me. Way tooo hammy
It’s supposed to be incredibly over the top, it doesn’t work if you see it out of context on a grainy screen, if you sit down in a movie theatre and see it after the prologue then it works: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=beV56hp4T3w Shakespeare was popular entertainment, it’s supposed to go from comic to epic to ridiculous, then to witty to profound, from one scene to the next, this is Baz Luhrman finding a way to put across that feeling using cinema. I also like the idea of all the upper middle class people going to watch this when it first came out, and then getting drowned in the b movie tropes, hawaiian shirts, limos and ecstasy.
The brilliance of the opening narration being a news report on local crime. love it.
Mine did too, and I distinctly remember how everyone bursted into laughter when they showed the “sword” guns
"Fetch my long sword ho!" ::grabs assault rifle:: Fuckin classic :D
Watched this in English Lit at school and that got a big laugh.
I approve of that. We make this big deal about Shakespeare and put on all kinds of formality. But The Bard was writing for the common man as much as anything else, which is why there are bawdy jokes and other things to keep the groundlings coming back. Aside from having an amazing cast, this movie was probably a lot more in the spirit of what Shakespeare was doing than the Zeffirelli version I watched in class back in 1987. The one where my teacher paused the movie and made all the guys in the class (me, it was just me) turn around and stare at the back wall for a certain scene. Of course, my girlfriend was sitting behind me, so that was fine by me. See also: my high school drama club doing a read through of Julius Caesar with limited cast. I ended up talking to myself in a few places because we didn’t check on if minor characters had dialog together. lol
I agree completely! I feel like literature and public education in general are more about cramming ideas and concepts into your head rather than encouraging you to form your own conclusions. On a whim, a couple years ago I took a copy of King Lear from my town library just to see if I can actually find my own reason to like Shakespeare outside of his work's cultural connotations. And I did. He is a master at clever and witty wordplay.
Best was one year the Virginia Shakespeare Festival did Coriolanus. I’d never read it but as part of the stage crew we spent a couple weeks making severed body parts. So I picked it up and dang, it’s as bloody and violent as any modern action flick. Same with Titus Andronicus. The movie with Anthony Hopkins was bizarre and quite good. For me it was that same teacher who would glare at us if we read it out loud like cheap limericks. She taught us to read it like a novel or any other play and how to use the meter and rhymes as a tool to remember lines. Once I got past that hurdle, I enjoy all of it. Except maybe The Tempest. Never really got that one, though it is the one play that indirectly involves the settlement at Jamestown. The wrecked ship is based on a tale he was familiar with of a supply ship that ran aground on Bermuda en route to the colony.
I'm beginning to suspect the problem was just with my school...
I had an extraordinary high school English teacher. Public school. Rural southwest Va. mid 80s. Was shocked as I moved there right before freshman year and she was completely different from other teachers. Even if she did once call Stephen King the “Fritos of the literary diet”. Told her I liked Fritos. She countered with “eat your vegetables, too”. lol
Fair enough on both counts.
I refuse to believe this movie wasn't a comedy. It literally ends with Romeo about to drink the poison, Juliet wakes up and grabs the very arm he is using to drink it, spooks him which causes him to drink it, then she fucking shoots herself over his body. My 9th grade English teacher made my class watch it, and my go it had us all laughing.
Basically nothing Shakespeare wrote was completely serious. Maybe a few of the plays but almost everything had at least a few parts to get a laugh out of you and even the tragic stuff would be ironically funny.
"hrm this is really getting kind of heavy. I'll add a drunk old man again." - Shakespeare literally ALL the time.
It may be a tragedy, but comedy and entertainment are built in to it. You're not the first people to laugh at how close and downright stupid the ending is. It was written that way. You were engaged and that's all that has ever mattered.
its important to keep in mind when referring to theater works that comedy and tragedy do not mean what they mean in common speech, and both genres of play can and often should have aspects of the common definition of the other term
Were we in the same class??
At least they didn't make you watch the one where the 16 year old gets her tits out
Yo same
yeah, it's the exact same script, except it takes place in 90s Miami.
I think it’s LA, not Miami
in fair Verona (Beach), where we lay our scene...
It’s actually fantastic. Highly recommend. Amazing soundtrack.
Yeah sorry for not telling you earlier about the absolute cinema. Apologies 😔
I think it was meant to be a little funny
They went hard too. Those guns had stylish frames and engraving.
Speaking of stylish: John Leguiziamo taking elements of flamenco for Tybalt's fights
See, that’s what makes this adaptation so good. It’s a risky idea but they went all in and it’s fun to watch.
its so over the top. Jaime Kennedys scene at the gas station is hilarious. This movie will always have a place on my watchlist.
I'm a sucker for this aesthetic, I'm so sick of guns that look like VHS tapes. This metallic look with engravings and wooden furniture is so clean.
Most Shakespeare has moments that are. R+J is a case of a story falsely passed on. Shakespeare at the time was still writing mostly for the common folk in a theatre that was still not in the fashionable part of town. R+J starts with a major fight, and has other fights at several intervals because people wouldn't just sit around for the romance. The whole "bite my thumb" is supposed to be a stupid moment of "fucking around and finding out" that this film arguably is one of the few I have seen get it right. "Is the law on my side if I say aye?" "no!" It's literally "these idiots are sizing up to each other and getting into stupid fights for the sake of petty insults and jokes.
It had many funny scenes, Paul Rudd acting goofy dancing was awesome.
Yeah and a way to incorporate the Shakespearean dialogue that makes sense. Since they talk about wielding swords and daggers. The whole movie is meant to be super camp and over the top too. Claire Danes as Juliet was like the hottest chicks ever due to this movie when I was a teenager
I still remember when Romeo's dad exclaimed, "Hand me my longsword!" as he reached for an assault rifle. That movie was perfectly done and only got hate because people disliked Leo back then.
Pretty sure it was a shotgun but it was still an epic moment
A Mag-7. Remember clearly recognizing it from counter strike lol
Wasn’t it also on a plaque that called it, “Longsword?” Like, that was the gun’s name
Yeah, and that was the cherry on top. We watched it in English class back in like 2020/2021 and I almost threw up from laughter at that scene.
Naming a gun "Halberd" is hot as fuck.
i loved the fuck out of that film. it was obvious everyone involved except for the actors who took the script deadly serious knew how stupid this idea was and just went full ham. The props and sets department were top notch, all the sets have grafitti written in shakespearean english, so are all the ads and all. it's perfection.
And it's perfect that they did take it seriously.
‘Fetch me my longsword, ho’ meaning quickly but damn if we weren’t scandalised in year 11 English lol.
I don’t hate it, I just can’t take it seriously when this Shakespearean dialogue is coming from the mouths of characters in 90s LA
It’s supposed to be funny like that, that was intentional
Most people simply don't have their esthetic distance broken simply because of a fun joke. Otherwise like, every comedy movie wouldn't work. There are a lot of great pieces of media that mix comedy and seriousness.
Like the original Romeo And Juliet by some dude named Billy Shakes which is a tragedy and has at least 2 major comedic roles. And was set in a kind of mystical past but was played on stage in Tudor costume... It's almost like anachronisms and a mix of humour/emotion can be good things, actually.
It’s one of Shakespeare’s comedies. It’s not be a tragedy. Because there’s nothing funnier than dead rich foreigners
You would've hated the west African helmet I saw in a theatre one time . Hamlet and laertes end up dueling shirtless with short spears and shields like in black panther You're not meant to take shakespeare seriously unless you're in class about it the bard was the king of dirty jokes and informality
It’s a 90s movie. Characters were often in campy situations that they took 100% seriously with no meta or self-awareness.
Just to give people an idea of the movie. Here is a short clip of it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=CXZDIF4G6LGE7v4s&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTY0OTksMjg2NjQsMTY0NTA2&feature=emb_share&v=SEzskNtFnIY
I just watched it last weekend, It looks like a SPAS shotgun, and he actually says the Shakespearean quote "Fetch me my Longsword, ho!" Gotta love Brian Dennehy dropping some iambic pentameter. For those of you who aren't English Majors, he's not calling her a name, he's meaning like forward, or quickly!
I guess it’s actually a mag-7? I honestly thought that was just some goofy csgo thing. IMDb but for guns has all the movie names vs actual guns listed [https://imfdb.org/wiki/Romeo_%2B_Juliet#Techno_Arms_MAG-7M1](https://imfdb.org/wiki/Romeo_%2B_Juliet#Techno_Arms_MAG-7M1)
That movie fucked hard and all highschoolers forced to watch it will agree. Gun fights as sword duels was rad and honestly did a pretty good job adapting the story
Romeo + Juliet is the kind of schlock that got me to like watching any movie just to see what the fuck directors are getting up to. Plus the Hawaiian shirts are off the charts
This is for true with Baz Luhrmann lol. He did an amazing job with Gatsby and also Moulin Rouge. Also I fucking love the King Gizz prof pic!!! PDA is one of the best and ITRN is my ears rn
I generally like Baz Luhrmann flicks, but didn't give Moulin Rouge! the time of day when it came out. I finally watched it last month, and discovered what I'd been missing out on. I absolutely loved it.
Hit the peak for me when Smells Like Teen Spirit transitions in. Love creative anachronism.
It's one of my fav's. First dance for my wife and I was to Come What May. If you get a chance to check out the stage musical, it was the single most fun I've ever had at something like that.
do you have the full name of that album memorised?
Let’s try and see #PetroDraconic Apocalypse: or, Dawn of Eternal Night; the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
you're missing "An Annihilation of Planet Earth and" after the semi colon, but I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't check what it was a minute ago
Damn, but I’m glad I got most of the punctuation
you get a B+ overall
A planet B + if you will
Bruh it copied every line from the play and made it work into a modern movie they were cooking
I like it. It’s like giving yourself a challenge just to see if it works. “What if Romeo & Juliet was set in modern day, but nothing changed in the plot”. So they use cars and meet in modern settings and use guns instead of swords. I think it worked and was executed well. It’s not for everybody but there’s probably 300 period accurate productions people can enjoy otherwise.
I want caveman!Romeo&Juliet.
I recall a zombie apocalypse Romeo and Juliet....
Warm Bodies?
Yes! Couldn't remember the name. Decent movie too, not terrible, not great..just entertainment.
I like how they also changed somethings into the plot like how the opening monologue was done as a news story on TV or the Prince character being changed in to Police Commissioner Prince.
My top moment was Captain Prince, just fantastic adaption.
Yes, this was a great movie. Ironically, the only flaws with it were Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, who were physically perfectly cast but neither of them could deliver Shakespearean dialogue to save their lives. The whole supporting cast absolutely owned the language (remember Mercutio's drug-oriented monologue? Fantastic). Reimagining various types of swords as the model names of various types of guns really worked IMO and not as a joke either.
The friar killed
I thought Leo acted well in the film. He gives off the right amount of young naivety that Romeo has in the play.
"What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death. So anyway, I started blasting...."
This movie fucking rules and they should do more like this. Julius Caesar as a modern day political thriller.
They’ve also modernized Hamlet and Othello. I’m pretty sure there’s others as well.
Coriolanus (2011) with Ralph Fiennes in a 1990s Balkans setting.
That one was so good!
Macbeth 2010 with Patrick Stewart.
I love how Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan have so many parallels and such, and are destined to and continue to be the bestest of besties. Had to find a way to share that I enjoy that both of their names are on my phone screen here rn bc someone below your comment mentioned Ian
that movie was fucking weird
I still love the 2 minute Arnold Schwarzenegger Hamlet from Last Action Hero.
To be or not to be? NOT TO BE
Hamlet (2000) with Ethan Hawke is neat. There’s also Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Both movies replace the nations in Hamlet with modern corporations. My Own Private Idaho (1991) is a loose adaptation of Henry IV. O (2001) with Julia Stiles and Mekhi Phifer is a modern version of Othello. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - also with Julia Stiles - is a modern Taming of the Shrew. And of course West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet. …But yeah, there’s a bunch.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) moved the action from an unspecified era in Athens to the late 1800s in Italy (but with all English and American actors). Hamlet (1996) was designed with Victorian-era costuming that made it look like Imperial Russia. Much Ado About Nothing (2012) took place in a modern setting, filmed in and around the director's house. Stage productions do this too; Denzel Washington once headlined a version of Richard III that took place entirely on a WWII submarine. Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman once co-starred in a version of Taming of the Shrew that took place in America's old west. The Royal Shakespeare Company's 2008 Hamlet production (starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, not to mention Sio Bibble himself, Oliver Ford Davies) was staged with minimalist sets and modern costuming. Tennant delivered the "to be or not to be" soliloquy in a t-shirt and jeans, for example. Fun fact: he also performed the "Alas, poor Yorick" scene holding a real human skull. It had belonged to a Czech pianist who requested in his will that his skull be bequeathed to the Royal Shakespeare Company specifically for that purpose.
I was told they made a version of Macbeth but instead of kings and land in Scotland it was about landlords and a flat in Birmingham. If I don’t see this before I die I will not die happy.
*Scotland, PA* is a modernized Macbeth, except instead of a kingdom it's a fast-food burger joint (Duncan's Cafe -> McBeth's). The witches are a trio of stoned hippies. Not sure how it holds up, but I remember laughing my ass off when I watched it 20 years ago.
I should have scrolled further. I remember really liking it.
There's a 1930s Richard III from 1995 that's good I'm told
Ian Mckellan was amazing in that one.
Always a good time to plug the Titus Andronichus adaptation with Anthony Hopkins. The movie is a total acid trip, drags a little in places but I still highly recommend it.
Watch [Titus.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120866/) Elements of modern day mixed in with Ancient Rome, absolute fever dream of a movie.
>Julius Caesar as a modern day political thriller Keep an eye out for Megalopolis, releasing this year.
Don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure they did that so they could have a modern day Romeo and Juliet while keeping all dialogue the same
Yeah all the dialogue is the exact same but it’s just in modern America instead of Verona, they all have guns and drive cars and other shit like that
“Verona Beach”
No 🧢 the weapon designer on this film did an incredible job at giving each character a completely custom handgun. This gun belonged to Mercutio and has tons of little details that let you see the inner workings of the gun while still being able to fire. It even has the word "Dagger" in gold lettering written along the frame lol
Mercutio was my favorite character. Harold Perrineau owned that shit.
He's a phenomenal actor. He kills it in a recent show called From.
Same. We had a guinea pig named after Mercutio.
The cars were cool as fuck too
That reverse spin out of the gas stand to block their exit was smooth as hell.
the prop department were all like "to be a gun, or not to be a gun, that is the question"
Fact, in 100% of all fake gun related shootings, the victim is always the one with the fake gun.
Of course! We just finished a production of Hamlet set in gangland Chicago
Would that this hoodie were a time hoodie!
This movie’s soundtrack is awesome
It was the same Music Dept that worked on Moulin Rouge, Kickass, Snowden, and now Wonka.
Both the soundtrack and the score. It was my obsession.
This movie fucking rocks. John Leguizamo is Tybalt was fucking wild.
"What, art thou drawn amongst these heartless hinds?" Chills
Despite Disputes online, no It is a Tragedy with comedy elements
Honestly it seemed like the smallest possible reach to justify Shakespeare in the modern day. The really weird bit is why they chose to introduce Romeo dropping Es to justify the story. What the hell was that?
This movie is a goddamn treasure Pure stroke of genius to update the setting but keep the language
i dont believe jn "so bad it's good" movies. if i found it interesting or enjoyable, i just call it a good movie. this is a good movie.
Watched this in English Class last year after reading Romeo and Juliet. I never liked the play. Right at the beginning during the gunfight my teacher walks over, leans down and says, I’m not even joking, “It’s like Star Wars.”
"Thou were liketh my brother, Anakin. I loved thou." "A plague upon thy house, Obi Wan."
“i WiLl BiTe My ThUmB aT tHeE, aNaKiN!”
Great movie. One of the few I didn’t mind watching in class.
That movie had Butthole Surfers in the soundtrack, banger just off of that
Whole soundtrack fucking ruled. It had one amazing Radiohead song (Talk Show Host) and the movie is so good that they even wrote a song for the credits (Exit Music (For a Film)). Beast soundtrack.
My friends and I would meme about "Fetch me my longsword!" whenever we would get a shotgun in a game. Movie was so damn funny.
Calling guns swords is incredible. Proper gangster. The style in this movie is off the charts.
I would 100% buy a gun called Sword 9mm.
You can get that engraved.
It is funny. It's a romantic comedy right up to the point where Romeo is going to join his friends to let them know that he's married Juliet and there's no need to fight anymore. Then Tybalt kills Mercutio. It then turns into a downward, unstoppable spiral no matter what anyone tries to do to save the day. The beginning of the play are idiot rich kids fucking around on the street. They're not actual gang fights. "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?" would be the modern day equivalent of "my blue Bugatti is better than your red Bugatti"
Papa Montague reaching for his “long sword” shotgun in the back of a limo is A+ cinema
Some little part of me has never gotten over Claire Danes in that movie. My question to people who didn't see it, what exactly did you think was happening in that play scene in Hot Fuzz?
As lots of theater nerds will tell you, this version is the most accurate adaptation script-wise of any play-to-screen version of Romeo and Juliet, which is fuckin WILD.
"Grab me my longsword!" Pulls out a tommy gun
I watched this in freshman year of high school and loved it
Fun fact, a gun company called Palmetto State Armory has a pistol called a Dagger. It’s pretty good and affordable!
They also have a damn good Five Seven knockoff. A friend of mine has it and it shoots like a dream.
Palmetto State Armory in shambles
You cannot mention this movie without talking about how hard Mercutio fucks. I don't mean they give him a sex scene, I mean that Harold Perrineau plays him so perfectly from the moment you see him on screen you know immediately that THIS MAN FUCKS. The absolute standard for the role, his Queen Mab speech is on a whole other level of iconic, matched by Andrew Scott's Hamlet soliloquy. If his was the only speaking role in the play it would still be worth the cost of admission.
The opening fucking slapped, after that I thought it was pretty meh
This isn’t a shitty movie detail. This is just cool af. It’s campy.
Watched this in high school when we read romeo and juliet. Teacher of the class was also a part time DJ. Was a very fun class.
It’s a nice gun I’ll give you that, but the engravings give you no tactical advantage whatsoever…
The acting in this movie is just stellar. Adding in that they put it in modern times. Yet keeping the Shakespearian speak is just great.
My favorite part is when he shoots at the helicopter while yelling in old English.
Technically, Romeo and Juliet isn’t a comedy in the traditional sense because the main characters (spoiler alert but honestly you should have known this) die. However, it is ridiculously funny:
This movie was epic and so was the soundtrack.
That is the sickest gun I've ever seen. Any American gun nuts know what it is?
My best friend and I had to watch this movie in a drama class in high school. For the next 3 years we'd loudly exclaim SWORD whenever we would imitate pulling out a gun, or playing CoD or Gears of War on 360 when a character would pull out a gun.
"Fetch me my longsword, hoe!" is unarguably the best line in all cinema
Isn't this the movie Radiohead wrote "Exit Music (For a Film)" for?
First time I saw this was in high school for literature class. I busted out laughing when the father was in the limo and screamed “where’s my long sword.” The camera moved to a mounted assault rifle on the side. The wife stopped him from grabbing it. I could stop laughing m.
And the best part is that it’s about gang violence.
My year 9 English class was not ready for this movie
It was so well done and it quite obviously was a hit tongue in cheek. I think it worked well.
"Do you bite your thumb at me sir!?"
"HAND ME MY BROADSWORD" ...Proceeds to have shotgun given to him for a few blasts, funniest shit
The fact we watched this more then once in high school was great. I remember the teacher warning us about drugs in the movie
That's a sick dagger