Cymbeline (2014)
6/10
Not the action packed crime drama I was expecting...I got a little bit more
15 March 2015
I knew I was going to see it when I saw the poster in my local theater, and when I read the summary, I was hooked.

Ethan Hawk as a cop at war with a biker gang who's leader is played by Ed Harris. That sounds like a winner.

The movie had the gritty tone of an early 80s action movie thanks to the electronic music that simmers through the picture. Someone is definitely paying homage to the 80's which is in right now.

Than the Shakespearean dialog begins to break out, which started to make what I thought would be just a mediocre gritty tale with an all-star cast, far more interesting.

What I like about this adaptation of William Shakespeare is that the actors were reading the lines with their own dialect. It was not done like it was a stage play they made it like a movie.

Best example is with John Leguizamo who delivered the lines of big Willie with the attitude of the Latino raised New Yorker he is. Too bad he did not have more lines in the movie, after all this is not his first time adapting Shakespeare to the big screen.

Like the Leguizamo starring Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline is a bit sir-realistic. This was done as a way to stay true to the play it was adapted from and yet give it the modern day twist of being set in the present, with Rome being portrayed as a contemporary metropolitan and Ed Harris character status as the leader of the biker gang being treated like Royalty.

I think I would have preferred a little more looseness with the adaptation in order to make it more original, but that's a small pet peeve to an otherwise entertaining movie.
13 out of 24 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed