"Titus", a psychotic makeover of Shakespear's epic tragedy, is so surreal as to make it laughable. Hopkins gives a powerful performance but even his mesmerizing portrayal of the title character could not keep us from being distracted by the explosion in props and costumes, a creative staff on LSD, or whatever it was that turned a powerful drama into a joke. The ubiquitous and always vocal pious aficionados who think everything atypical is creative will applaud this flick as inspired genius. However, the purists will more likely loathe it. Some things don't need Hollywood glomming them up. Shakespeare is one of them.
