Cymbeline (2015)

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The opening sequence was hypnotic, but why are we forced to read line after line after line of some bizarre story about a king and a motorcycle gang, and....I already didn't care and was bored out of my mind.Then the first main scene started, and we get to see 2 people kissing. for bout 5 minutes. ..... And nothing else........Wow. Gripping.The Ed Harris enters the scene and starts reciting Shakespeare, in a monotone voice that could only have come from massive amounts of drugs.Then his wife (the Queen? Whahhhh ???) joins the gang on screen, and sounds even more lifeless and bored than Ed Harris did.Computer-generated voices, reading the phone book, are far more interesting than whatever this is.If I watch the rest of this flick, I will surely have to kill myself, so I'm stopping now. Fifteen minutes in and it's already the worst movie I've seen in years.You've been warned.

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.

At least that's what the German distributor would like you to believe that is. What it is though, is a Shakespeare piece thrown into the modern world, but with the same dialogue you'll find in his books. So some words may seem inappropriate considering the time it plays, but that's up to the viewer to decide if he or she will fall for that.The actors are decent actually and they know their Shakespeare. But that might not help the viewer actually enjoying this. It does seem amateurish at times too. And again not the actors fault. Having said that, I'm not sure "real" dialogue would have changed my perspective on the movie overall. The drama is there (it was in the book), but the delivery script and shooting wise lacks a lot ...

"I live in fear, though this Heavenly angel, Hell is here." Cymbeline (Harris) is the leader of a biker gang and the ruler of his family. His daughter Imogen (Johnson) is sought after and is loved by her family. When rivals attempt to seduce and steal Imogen away from her family and the one she loves things take a tragic turn. This leads Cymbeline on a quest for revenge. Going in I didn't realize this was a Shakespeare play. When I found that out I was nervous. I am not a big fan at all. I did like the Romeo & Juliet with DiCaprio and Coriolanus with Ralph Fiennes but other than that I have not really enjoyed the recent adaptations. This falls under that category. It could be because I'm not a fan and the whole movie is done in the old English but I found it very confusing to determine what was going on. Fans of Shakespeare will most likely not have this problem but as for me I was just too confused and uninterested to really pay attention to and get involved with. Overall, Shakespeare fans will get into this, I just could not. I give it a C+.