Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There are many good moments in this movie, which by the way I like. Alica Silverstone gives a very performance - even in many scenes suggesting real majesty, Kenneth B is also good as might be expected. Nathon Lane is wonderful - especially in the musical numbers, which should be no surprise! He even makes something out of nothing with the poorly written comedy routines.But the rest of cast for me was very uneven. I did like and I thought was brilliant the use of news reels to add an extra depth to the action. And they were well chosen to boot. also the songs were like the great hits of American song writing. I wish the performances were as good.They were not. especially 'On the Way you Look Tonight" And "I've got you under my skin.' But the goodbye scene when nothing is resolved with them singing "They Can't take that away from Me" were truly moving and sad. The war scenes in black & white wee excellent and the end when they reunited was truly moving - especially the headline "Victory!" For its faults this is a film well worth seeing. Just don't expect it to be a typical film.

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.

I've read comments that you shouldn't watch this film if you're looking for stirring Shakespearian dialogue. This is true, unfortunately, because all the stirring dialogue, this wonderful play contains, has been cut, and replaced with songs. I've read this play, and recently was lucky enough to see it performed, at it remains one of my favourite Shakespearian Comedies, but this movie seems to take all that I like about it away. The Princess, though no doubt doing what she was directed to do, had no regal bearing, and all the girls seemed to lose the cleverness of their characters - also affected by unwise cuts, which not only took away the female characters already sparse dialogue, but took comments out of context - it was a little unnerving to hear the Princess proclaim; "We are wise girls to mock our lovers so!", when mocking had not taken place at all. The news reels throughout the film also disrupted the flow, and took away many excellent scenes, as they showed the information in the scenes after them, and were in modern phrasing. In conclusion, an excellent play, ruined by an odd concept, and unwise cuts. Kenneth, I usually love what you do. What were you thinking?

From actor/director Kenneth Branagh comes another William Shakespeare tale, just four years after his four hour version of Hamlet. The story is an update based in the 30s/40s where the King of Navarre (Jurassic Park III's Alessandro Nivola) and three companions, Longaville (a miscast Scream's Matthew Lillard), Dumaine (Adrian Lester) and Berowne (Branagh) swear an oath to stay away (and obviously not fall in love) with women for three years. Unfortunately this plan fails when they are immediately acquainted with The Princess of France (also miscast Alicia Silverstone) and her three chums, Rosaline (The Truman Show's Natascha McElhone), Maria (Carmen Ejogo) and Jacquanetta (Stefania Rocca). They form close friendships and almost bonds, and they have other people to talk to about their concerns, including an all-star cast: Emily Mortimer as Katherine, Richard Briers as Nathaniel, Nathan Lane as Costard and Timothy Spall as Don Armado. With some fantastic actors and memorable songs mixed in, this is a great almost modern adaption to a Shakespeare tale. Kenneth Branagh was number 25 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, and he was number 6 on Britain's Finest Actors. Good!