MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

leonblackwood Review: What the hell is going on in this film?  I'm not one for Shakespeare, so the script really got on my nerves, right from the very beginning. The only bit that I understood is that it's about a girl and a boy who are in love, against her dads wishes but thats about it. I also got the bit about the bet with Ethan Hawke who said that he could bed the boys wife but that didn't make that must sense to me either. Basically, I thought that it was a terrible adaptation of Shakespeares writing and I can understand why it got bad reviews. There are some major stars in the movie, like Ed Harris, Delroy Lindo, Ethan Hawke, Milla Jovovich, John Leguizamo and Anton Yelchin so I was expecting a half decent film but I really didn't enjoy it. They should have changed the script to fit the writing but the director chose to stick with Shakespeares words, which just made it hard to understand. I know that there are people out there that will think that it's a very straight forward movie but I personally couldn't get into it. The random events that happen throughout the film just made it worse but on the plus side, the performances weren't to bad. Awful!Round-Up: Because this movie had the tagline of Anarchy: Ride or Die, I was expecting something like the other Anarchy movies but it has nothing to do with them. Once they started to speak in that thy and thee language, I knew that the film was going to be rubbish but I chose to give it a chance because the Romeo and Juliet movie with Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't bad. Once the movie gets going, I lost all interest in trying to understand the plot so I think you can tell that this movie gets the thumbs down from me.I recommend this movie to people who are into their Shakespearean action/drama movies about a married couple who is split up by her father, for some unknown reason. 1/10

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . with the help of Mr. Grey's "Anastasia" (Dakota Johnson) is sure to attract more involuntary attendees (that is, students forced to see CYMBELINE by their teachers) than Uncoerced paying customers. The fact that this adaptation, reset to a modern environment featuring the use of ubiquitous TV screens (Barack Obama makes a cameo appearance), note pads, GPS, iPhones, and Selfies at every turn, cannot hold a candle to "Gandalf" (Ian McKellen) as RICHARD III a few years ago in a similar "updating" probably is more the fault of the Bard having provided lesser source material than it is of Ms. Johnson's lackluster "Imogen" here, or any other miscasting decision. I mean, if CYMBELINE is supposed to be a tragedy, LOTS of heads should roll, not just the jester's. The plot is rife with tons of chances for unwitting incest, or at the very least a Romeo\Juliet-style slew of ill-timed suicides, but we only get one self-snuffing, paired with the single rolling Noggin'. Worse yet, both victims deserved to die. Where's the pity in THAT?!

lor_ Going to the theater to watch CYMBELINE reminded me of times spent being selected to serve on a jury: I had to throw out all my preconceptions and concentrate on the case as presented. Thanks to generally earnest and well-measured performances by the cast, the piece is gripping but by its conclusion is unconvincing and somewhat an empty exercise.There's no denying director Michael Almereyda's creativity in slashing the play's contents to manageable length while retaining the beauty and power of the Bard's language. But this is familiar territory for film buffs, poaching on maverick NYC director Abel Ferrara's vision of a nihilistic parallel world New York, which he explored most successfully in influential films KING OF NEW YORK, MS. 45 and BAD LIEUTENANT. Almereyda's style is quite different, adopting an ultra-serious mood of foreboding, while Abel's explosive approach was far less wimpy, often pushing or breaking through the limits of X-rated (now NC-17) filmmaking.Leavening this heavy, self-important mood is almost non-stop relief (almost comic) provided by anachronisms, with a NY setting imposed awkwardly on the war between ancient Romans and occupied Britons. (Abel would have cast Brits w/their distinctive accents vs. Italian/Americans with Bronx or Broroklyn twangs, but Almereyda employs a disparate ethnic mix on both sides of the equation which I found completely arbitrary apart from its "urban ethnic" slant.) This brand of humor was pioneered by the late British powerhouse Ken Russell in the '60s and '70s with works ranging from THE DEVILS to LISZTOMANIA, and is channeled by Almereyda by way of Russell's only current imitator in cinema, Baz Luhrmann (of ROMEO + JULIET fame or infamy).Strong portrayals of the key adversaries by Ed Harris (Briton Cymbeline, as a meth drug/gang leader king) and Vondie Curtis-Hall (as the local Roman officer by way of upstate NY) are further enhanced by an even greater gravitas displayed by Delroy Lindo as the tough but kindly protector of the king's two missing sons, who he has raised and sheltered to adulthood.Rest of the cast is variable, starting with chief protagonist Posthumus played as a handsome but rather wan figure by Penn Badgley. Overshadowing him in a memorable turn is current It girl (of 50 SHADES OF GREY) Dakota Johnson as Cymbeline's daughter Imogen, the princess, in love with Posthumus. She is very empathetic throughout the film and morphs handily into a Shailene Woodleigh lookalike in later reels when hiding out with hair cut off as boy in the usual Shakespearean cross-dressing mode.Top-billed Ethan Hawke (who previously was a NYC HAMLET for the director) is riveting and thoroughly immersed in the text as the villain of the piece, who sets much of the melodrama in motion via his creepy wager with Posthumus that he can deflower Imogen easily. The film is at its audience-involving best during Hawke's dominant segment, and becomes rather wearisome in later reels as his importance is sidelined.Similarly John Leguizamo commands the screen and steals most of his scenes as an ambiguous go-between character who transitions much of the action. Other standouts in small roles include a surprisingly serious Bill Pullman and sudden songstress (singing Bob Dylan no less) Milla Jovovich, cast against type as the evil step-mother queen. One of the weakest elements is Anton Yelchin as her crazy son, a role I didn't get into at all though he is a key element of the play.So after an hour or so enjoying the intriguing upstate NYC locations and practical interior sets plus oddball elements (apt use of All Hallow's Ever/Halloween imagery throughout but silly American culture references like President Obama on TV), the final reel was quite poor, perhaps due as much to Shakespeare's intricate plotting devices as to the director's adaptation. Like plays or great novels of the period (see Fielding's TOM JONES) the disparate loose ends of the play come way too neatly together for the climax and resolution. I guess the pernicious trend in cinema in the past couple of decades of the so-called Chaos Theory screenplays justifies this sort of dramatic nonsense (CRASH and BABEL come to mind) but the quickie payoffs of a convoluted storyline are unsatisfying to a contemporary (and thinking) audience, and easy outs that give one a "much ado about nothing" final response.

David Ferguson Greetings again from the darkness. The writings of Shakespeare are certainly timeless and it's often quite fun to watch filmmakers or stage directors bring The Bard's stories into a contemporary setting. A fine example is director Joss Whedon's modern and quite enjoyable twist on Much Ado About Nothing a couple of years ago. Director Michael Almereyda had success with his modern day Hamlet in 2000, and here he re-teams with his Danish Prince from that one (Ethan Hawke) to bring one of Shakespeare's lesser known "problem plays" to screen.This modernization turns King Cymbeline into a Biker gang leader (Ed Harris) as he battles not the Romans, but rather a corrupt police force led by Vondre Curtis-Hall. As one would expect there is no shortage of deceit, violence and love of the "wrong" person. There are numerous sub-plots intertwined with the desire of the King and his Queen (Milla Jovovich) to marry her daughter (Dakota Johnson, 50 Shades of Gray) to his son (Anton Yelchin). Before your stomach turns, it should be pointed out that both kids are from previous marriages. It's not surprising to discover that the daughter is really in love with someone of whom the Royal parents don't approve – a brooding skateboarder (Penn Badgley).The assembled cast is quite impressive. In addition to those previously mentioned, we also have Peter Gerety, Bill Pullman, Delroy Lindo (always great), John Leguizamo, Spencer Treat Clark (the kid from Gladiator) and Kevin Corrigan. The issue here is not the acting talent, but rather that some seem more comfortable with Shakespeare speak than others. Hawke, Yelchin and even Ms. Johnson seem to embrace the dialogue, while Leguizamo, Harris and especially Badgley are fish out of water. And for some reason, Ms. Jovovich is mostly wasted despite adding much appreciated spirit to a couple of scenes.Describing this as Shakespeare's "lost masterpiece" is quite a stretch, but there is always some pleasure in hearing his words spoken. It's just a shame when the project lacks energy and is lethargic in pacing … two elements that prevent us from ever connecting with any character. Still, any film that features a sky blue AMC Pacer can't be all bad.