The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000) (TV)

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Director:

Paul Kafno

Writers:

Adam Long (writer)
Reed Martin (additional material)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Three guys, one dead playwright, and 37 plays, all in under two hours. In this universally acclaimed theater experience...

Plot Keywords:

Theater | Rap | Professor | Drag Queen | William Shakespeare

Cast

Adam Long	...	Himself / others
Reed Martin	...	Himself / others
Austin Tichenor	...	Himself / others

Runtime:

88 min

Language:

English

Trivia:

The music played by 'Adam Long' as he plays the guitar during the epilogue of the Romeo and Juliet sketch is the main theme from Romeo and Juliet (1968/I), directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

Quotes:

[the confrontation between Romeo and Tybalt]
Tybalt Capulet: Romeo! The love I bear thee can afford no better term than this: thou art a villain! Therefore turn and draw!
Romeo Montague: But Tybalt, I have not harmed thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise!
Tybalt Capulet: Oh, wretched boy, I am for you! OH, I AM SLAIN!
[Tybalt takes a bow and storms offstage. Confused, Romeo and the Narrator ramble through the text to figure out where they are]
the Narrator: ...Moving right along...

Movie Connections:

References Hamlet (1990/I)

My back still hurts

Oh . . . my . . . god. I just saw this movie last night and it was the best and the hardest laugh I'd had in a long time. My back was killing me by the time the movie was over. The costume changes (if you could call them that by the end of the movie) are great, the vomiting is great, and the digs at academia are great. Even though it warns that this movie is not meant for English majors (I'm an English major and I can't wait to see this movie again), I think that they really mean that it's not meant for those who take Shakespeare way too seriously, who view Shakespeare as some sort of demi-god.

Only two complaints: The director cuts to the audience a little too much. You can hear that they're having fun, they're laughing, they're getting into the play, we don't need to see their reactions as well. The action goes by so quickly, I wonder if I'm missing something on stage when they cut to the audience. The other complaint: my friend sitting next to me who was viewing it for the fifth time ("Oh, this is great," "watch this," "Oh this part's funny.")

Definitely for anyone who's read Shakespeare (which would be everyone) and thought that it could never be anything but dull and boring (which in reality his plays are very rich, but then again I'm biased). :-)

10/10