Richard III Rating: Release Date: 14 August, 2001 Retail Price: $14.94 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $3.95! Cast: Ian McKellen Annette Bening Kristin Scott Thomas Richard Thomas Complete Cast (16 total)

Richard III Reviews

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Witty and wicked adaptation
The jazz version of "Come live with me and be my love" still plays in my head. The director creates a fictitious but a very convincing world of fascist England. The 30s fashion is very appropriate, because it's flamboyant, gaudy and elegant at once, perfectly appropriate for a political drama. The female leads are fantastic - the innocent queen played by Annette Benning and the scheming mistress played by Kristen Scott-Thomas.

Tale of a slimy King
This neatly trimmed down; nicely packaged film is a great vehicle for fans of the story to enjoy. The tale fits nicely into the World War I environment and nothing ever betrays that. Ian McKellen is stunning in the title role.

But, with all the praise, I have to detract from the 'perfect' rating because much of the original text is trimmed (not such a bad thing), but the result is that several of the relationships are confusing and a cursory understanding of the story is required before viewing to make any sense of it. This is not so apparent with any of the immediate relationships to RICHARD, but a first time viewer can get frustrated, moreso then in the other more recent Shakespeare adaptations.

Considering this is based on a Shakespearian play, this DVD with its great video capture actually has an incredible active surround channel, something unexpected from a movie based on the work of a wordy playwrite.

Still, this is a wonderful film and a terrific document.


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