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Reviews
ShakespeaRe-Told: Much Ado About Nothing (2005)
an excellent adaption with many laughs
I've just watched this aired on BBC1 as part of a series called Shakespeare-Told. I was only mildly interested in watching, but it gripped me from the start and held my attention to the end. You don't need to know the original text to enjoy the quick comedic dialogue and the story lines of deceit and love are relevant in any period of history. This adaption puts the characters in a television studio of Wessex Tonight with Beatrice and Benedick as the presenters, Hero as a weather girl and Claudio as a reporter. The relationship of B & B was explored and explained well with both actors giving excellent performances. Looking forward to sitting in next Monday evening for the next helping of Will's tales.
Starkweather (2004)
Hoping for more insight, I got little!
Lets look at the plot outline to start with, which refers to 16 year old Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend. Whilst I thought Brent Taylor and Shannon Lucio played their roles adequately, they do not pass as these age groups. If you research the facts of the film you find that Starkweather was actually 19 and Caril had just turned 13 therefore, I don't understand why they cast two obviously older actors. There should have been more of a 'Lolita' scenario. The poster refers to Natural Born Killers, etc and suggests this is the story that inspired these films. This film inspires no one. It dwells on the 11 killings but at the same time does nothing to broaden our understanding of the characters. The events leading up to the first murder are brushed over. 'Lets just give an idea of who they are and move on to the gore!' But the violence is just lame and it becomes monotonous seeing Starkweather moving on to the next kill. The character who stood out was the Sheriff but for all the wrong reasons. If he smokes in real life then he has a funny way of holding a cigar. His dialogue was laughable and every time he came on screen I cringed. Don't go out of your way to watch this film, you'll regret it.