Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

ken-583 I love this film -- to my mind it has only one flaw and that's the otherwise delicious Jennifer Saunders' off-the-mark attempt at an American accent.Well, there's a second flaw: This film isn't available on DVD -- and my VHS copy is nearly worn out! This is a film that will be funny to just about anyone, but it will have special resonance for theatre folk. The only other film to so expertly skewer a genre of the dramatic art is "Waiting for Guffman": What that did for community theatre, this does for Shakespeare.Branagh did an extraordinarily fine job of casting the film using a mix of actors ranging from the VERY well known to the soon-to-be well known. Each of them is playing at the top of his or her game.

jambalayaval Nobody does Shakespeare better than Kenneth Branagh, and this time, he's taken it to a whole new level. Putting together one of the Bard's best works with no money in a cold, damp church at Christmas may sound like a greater tragedy than the play itself. The frustrated actor/director, the cast composed of a band of merry misfits, Joan Collins playing an agent (!) and the god-awful ideas for unique sets and costumes only add to the already engaging tale of passion and deception that is Hamlet. You can't take it too seriously. But the script is intelligently funny, the experienced cast hits their marks, and even those who don't like Shakespeared will be entertained. It's a comedy, it's a mystery, it's a classic...all rolled into one.

Sally_Kirkland This is a brilliant, totally overlooked film.If you are new to Shakespeare and do not get the passion for his works, this is the one to see. A fine introduction to the various people that are touched, moved and amused by Shakespeare.Brilliantly written, brilliantly acted, brilliantly photographed. The best Christmas film ever.10/10

Puppetmister I saw this is France in midsummer. It was a profound embarrassment, especially as the French audience saw it (like many other reviewers here) as a "charming little film" that essentialises their perception of Englishness. This is correct only if you accept that England is entirely populated by middle class amateur dramatists. I warn you now, this film features the most punchable cast in all British cinema of the 90s: Michael Maloney, who's jaw-droppingly excruciating performance in 'Truly Madly Deeply' will not be forgotten on Judgement Day; Richard Briers, who desperately wants his son to love him despite his homosexuality, resulting in an astonishingly lame reunion scene at the end. Briers plays the straightest gay man ever, but still manages to fall back into shocking tics of campness. The less said about Julia Sawalha, Celia Imrie and Jennifer Saunders' "hilarious" cameo the better. Let's face it, this cast is just Branagh's chums having a private love-in. And Branagh, as temporarily blind critics and audiences will one day realise, is the man who has managed to churn out a whole series of Shakespeare adaptations which strip the original texts of all their allegorical, subtextual or political functions in his quest to make them "accessible". Is anyone else patronised by the fact that the boy thinks that the most widely-read author in history needs to be made "accessible"? And how appropriate that, with this film, he should find empathy with a group of talentless amateurs, secretly yearning to crack Hollywood, who reduce Shakespearean tragedy to a stilted pile of family entertainment. RICHARD BRIERS: Ken, where are you? KENNETH BRANAGH: I'm in the kitchen. RICHARD BRIERS: Can I be in it too?