Juliet & Romeo

Two households botched alike sans dignity, In fair Verona, where we waste our scene, From pop-song folly and false mimicry Of love, thus butchered on a streaming screen.

"O teach me how I should forget to think," Cries Romeo, yet I remember still The cringèd tunes, the cuts that made me blink, A tale of woe refashioned void of skill.

What light through yonder edit breaks? 'Tis cheap.

The soul of Juliet drowned in soulless gloss; And Romeo doth pout, but cannot weep- For depth and verse are both a grievous loss.

This trash, a mirror of our addled age: Where meme is king, and fools deface the stage.

My name is Juliet so is naturally made sense for me to go see who would be my Romeo. I LOVE THIS MOVIE I LOVE THAT IT IS A MUSICAL AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE!!!!! My Romeo is very handsome. The songs were great, I am literally all of them saved to my playlist and the music, the lighting, the background, everything in this movie is just absolutely outstanding. Clara Ruggard made a great to Juliet and Jamie Ward made a great Romeo. I wish Jamie Ward was my real life, Romeo. Everything is exactly like the story. It's set in Verona, the friar and nurse support the love of Juliet and Romeo have for each other. It's *Chef's kiss* beautiful.

You'll either love or hate this movie, based on the reviews it's getting. It's only loosely based on Shakespeare's play so throw that expectation out. On the positive side, the production value is good and it has Derek Jacoby in a major role, a good sign. But you know it's sus when the writer, director, and producer are the same person (a Bogart) and another Bogart is an additional producer as well as responsible for writing all the songs, of which there were way too many and they sounded all the same. At one point one of the main characters was unconscious and I was thinking "well at least she won't sing now" but I was sadly disappointed. If you like a lot of pop songs mixed in with the plot, you might go for this. Personally I enjoyed a silent car ride home after the movie. Tip: Ask for a subtitle machine at the theater because otherwise you might not be able to catch all the dialogue.

This film seemed to have come out of nowhere. I'm pretty up to date on all the latest releases but I had never heard of or seen a preview for a musical film about Romeo and Juliet. I was curious but also had pretty low expectations.

My friend and I saw the film on opening night with two others in the theater including the elderly gentleman who works there. The first 20 minutes were a bit rough, but then I got into it and am happy to report that this is a very good film.

I was impressed by the lavish production and period details. I loved how the film told the story of Romeo and Juliet using proper language but language that could be understood by all. The music had a contemporary pop feel and was both listenable and effective within the context of telling the story.

There are some well known actors who added to the intrigue for me, including Rebel Wilson and Rupert Everett. I enjoyed their performances and felt the acting was strong overall. I did feel Romeo was a bit bland. Perhaps that's why it's called Juliet and Romeo. But the two still had strong chemistry and the actress playing Juliet was terrific.

I wondered who the audience might be for this. It had a bit of a Moulin Rouge vibe so maybe there's a younger audience who might eventually discover it? I recommend this film to anyone who likes musicals and can appreciate the spectacle and an original take on a classic.

This film is a bit all over the place and never quite hit on what I think it intended to.

First, the cinematography is often jumbled and rushed. The angles are off and the lighting is awkward, many scenes leaving you feeling almost as if you're watching an older person play a first-person open-wolrld video game for the first time. Additionally, it appears that they have chosen to add cold air breath effects to almost every person speaking, even in daytime scenes. This became very distracting for me.

The writing in the movie seemed way off. Many times the characters used Shakespearean speak for dialogue, then other times it was modern, felt like the writing of a high school play. Then all of the songs were lyrically written in completely different form of speaking than the way the characters normally spoke in dialogue.

On the topic of the songs, they felt completely out of place from the rest of the movie. In many musicals, the songs fit in with the scenes and they feel connected, relevant, and as if it is a continuation of a scene, not a break from it. In Julie & Romeo, the songs feel like a break from the scenes. They feel very much like an odd music video in the middle of watching this movie. Many odd music videos. Every song sounds so musically busy and over-produced and it is very obvious the characters are lip-syncing.

The only good parts about this film are the set and then some of the costumes (some costumes felt like costumes, maybe even from Spirit Halloween). Also the storyline, while different from the actual story of Romeo and Juliet, was overall fun and interesting. However, with all of the other poor choices and challenges the writers and director took with this movie, it left me really disliking the movie. It seemed like the film was majorly suffering from an identity crisis and didn't know if it should be a retelling of the original Shakespeare play, a musical in movie form, a musical in theatrical production form, a modern day love story, etc. Seems like they tried to include it all, jumble it together, and hoped for the best. This movie was a mess and I was counting down the time for it be over from the first song.

For anyone reading this and then going to see the film, good luck. Hopefully you'll feel differently about the movie and actually enjoy it.