Hamlet
Director: Michael Almereyda
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 0.5
I can't seem to come up with anything to say that's remotely positive - Hamlet never struck anyone as a play that should be revamped in any form, especially not with Ethan Hawke, who, despite being younger than Kenneth Branagh, is still too old for the role (what is he, in his thirties?). And the play certainly does not need to be set in industrial glitz New York City with television cameras everywhere and Hamlet himself as a filmmaker (the film, however, never really goes all the way with its statement about capitalism and postmodernism). Being silly (but to a point - it never steps over the boundary line to become a parody), poorly performed and ridiculous, Almereyda has unnecessarily succeeded in bastardizing a classic of the language.
