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

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

david-sarkies I have never really been that impressed with the BBC Shakespeare and it is not so much because of the low budget but because the characterisations generally have not been all that good. Take for instance the Nunn production in 1996, the way the characters acted, and the expressions on their faces, added so much more life to the production than did the actors in this rather tired rendition. It seems as if the whole purpose was that they were simply acting out a Shakespearian play, and simply tried to let the fact that it was Shakespearian carry the day rather than the actors carrying the play. In a way, for all of Shakespeare's brilliance, the play will not carry itself, and even the best play will fall flat on its face if the actors do not actually give life to the play.One of the things that stood out was that it was quite clear that Viola was a female, however I suspect that the reason that she was able to get away with having long hair was because the rest of the cast had long hair as well (with the exception of Olivia's drunken family members). What differentiated the sexes was not so much their hair but rather their dress, and by dressing as a male, Viola was able to pass herself off as a male, though it was quite clear that when she attempted to speak in a low voice she was putting it on. Fortunately her brother, Sebastian, also had long blonde hair, since one of the things that really does carry the play is when Olivia confuses Sebastian for Viola, but one again, the way Nunn did the play made it so much better.Another thing that I noticed about the play (and not so much the film) was not only how Shakespeare is the master of the double entendre, or how Shakespeare can be incredibly dirty when he wants to be (and sometimes I wonder if the more sophisticated audiences actually get some of his cruder jokes) but how the saying 'being well hung', generally referring to the size of one's member, has been around as long as Shakespeare. Then again, there has been a bit of research done on the history of crude jokes, and I even have a book called 'Dirty Shakespeare' which goes through all of Shakespeare's dirty jokes.As for a film, I probably would not recommend it. The Trevor Nunn version is actually available free on You Tube, so if you really have a hankering to watch Twelfth Night, then I would refer you to that play. This version can pretty much remain sitting on the dusty shelves of a forgotten corner of the video stores (though this one is on Youtube as well).

Alain English One of Shakespeare's best known romantic comedies (how modern romcoms could do these days with more mix-ups and mistaken identities), this one nevertheless fails to deliver.It's studio-bound setting severely constricts the action, it's sheer obviousness hampering the suspension of disbelief. Micheal Thomas and Felicity Kendal play the separated twins Sebastian and Viola, but they look too dissimilar to really convince in their roles, Thomas being at least two inches taller than Kendal - it is stretching the plot too much to believe that somebody could mistake one for the other.Alec McCowen plays humiliated manservant Malvolio. He speaks nicely enough but his entire performance is far too restrained. The scene where he is dressed in cross-gartered yellow stockings in a failed bid to impress Olivia (Sinead Cusack) lacks the punch it needs to make it truly hilarious. The other comic characters such as Robert Hardy's Toby Belch cannot compensate. Trevor Peacock has been excellent in other roles in this series but his Feste here is completely ineffective.A worthy effort as ever, but a modern setting and better casting would have much improved things.

tonstant viewer Generally, this space gets lists of good points, lists of bad points, a few irrelevant personal details, and if we're lucky, the reviewer's pet's reaction.Well, this video is as close to perfect as you could hope for. A strong cast without a weak link, excellent pacing, gratifying visual design.... What am I going to complain about? Um...Sir Andrew Aguecheek didn't have to go up into falsetto quite so often. Ah...the sound engineers had trouble keeping up with the shouts and murmurs; perhaps if they had lowered the shouts and raised the murmurs....Oh, just go ahead and watch it. It doesn't get any better than this.

Joannah Hansen This movie was absolutely delightful. It was a lovely introduction to Shakespeare, for ( if I remember correctly at a distance of 20-something years ) the 12-or-13 year old that I was back then. ( I stayed up way past midnight so that I could see the end of it - it was lucky that I was on holiday at the time! )The casting was excellent, especially the actors chosen to play Viola and Sebastian ( they looked like they were related! ), and Malvolio. The sets were well done, and the costuming ( again from the distance of too many years ) was good. The entire production was just charming.I would dearly like to see this movie again, if anyone knows where to get a copy of it. ( Video or DVD )