Review of Shakespeare In Love

Introduction

Shakespeare in Love got a lot of publicity and I can see why it won so many awards, but personally I wouldn`t have given it so many.......

A big cast, some good moments, some nice jokes, some in-jokes, a reasonably good story, cross-dressing, sword fights, death and poetry make up what is pretty much a normal Shakespeare outing.

Video

The 2.35:1 transfer is very good, and you definitely get the feeling that you`re in Elizabethan England.

I can`t really say much more, there are no special effects to speak of, but the costumes do look good (if you like that sort of thing !)

Audio

A 5.1 audio track is provided, but a 1.0 one would have sufficed. There`s not much work for the speakers to do, it`s mainly dialogue which sounds fine coming from the centre channel.

Features

As for extras, you get 2 commentary tracks (one from the director, who points out some things that you might have missed, and one from the cast and crew. There are also 21 TV spots, some deleted scenes (which didn`t seem to add much anway in my mind), and a mini documentary.

Perhaps I`ve been spoilt by some other discs, but I felt that some of the extras could have been better presented. The cast and crew commentary is peppered by a voice reminding you who is speaking next (some discs simply flash up a caption on screen instead).

The long stream of TV spots are all in one long segment, as are the deleted scenes. Not too hard to put chapter stops in is it?

I know these are minor niggles, but if you haven`t really enjoyed the film they seem to be amplified a bit. In reality we should be grateful for so many extras on a region 2 disc !

Conclusion

It`s not a bad film, most people will like it, but I felt there was something lacking, and some bits were too predictable, but then I find myself thinking that with quite a lot of films...... Maybe it was because a lot of it reminded me of a Blackadder episode......

I hate to generalise like this, but maybe this is what studios describe as a "Chick Flick". It just didn`t appeal enough to me!

In the end, probably worth a rental though as you`ll really need to make up your own mind on this one.