- Critic Score
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100The acting is smart and gritty, Almereyda's visual style has a raw immediacy found in few films with Shakespearean pedigrees, and an eclectic music score adds atmosphere and surprise every step of the way.
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100Almereyda excises big chunks of plot to shape his vision, but retains Shakespeare's language and pays such rigorous attention to meaning and subtext that what's missing isn't missed.
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100If this Hamlet weren't so perfectly conceived visually, it would probably stand solidly on the basis of its acting alone.
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100Almereyda imagines Hamlet taking place in present-day Manhattan with such vigor, insight and originality that the power and immediacy of his film makes Shakespeare accessible in an exciting and provocative manner beyond all expectations.
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100New York becomes a complex character in this vital and sharply intelligent film.
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90A marvelous feat of re-imagination.
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88Almereyda's smart, streamlined adaptation is full of such neat little ironies.
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83Fresh, vibrant and vital, this interpretation reminds us why Shakespeare is timeless.
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80Cast for fun, and the whimsy is enjoyable both for its parody of heavy-handed "relevant" updates of the play.
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80Thou wilt be dazzled.
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80New York City has never looked so slick and shallow as it does in Hamlet, an innovative, contemporary adaptation.
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80These are great, primal stories that pull you in, make you care and put you on the edge of madness and violence.
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Almereyda's respect for his audience and his queasiness about the present register with equal weight, reinventing the poetry in the most relevant ways possible.
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75Both a distraction and a revelation.
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75Hamlet finds in Hawke's greatish performance a Great Dane for this, or any other, modern moment.
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75This is a sizzling, invigorating Hamlet.
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70Stylish, funny, and smart...but only up to a point.
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70It goes without saying that the film is worth seeing simply for Bill Murray's Polonius.
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68Almereyda never plays up the gimmickry at the expense of the performances, and as a result, his movie largely succeeds, despite an overabundance of pretentious pokes at our consumer culture and the risky casting of Ethan Hawke in the lead role.
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67Bill Murray's Polonius is so delightfully coy and self-satisfied that this performance is reason alone to see the picture.
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63As Almereyda unrolled his modern Gotham version, the story became gripping, the characters fascinating, the events mesmerizing, the resolution shocking and piteous.
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63Some of the contemporary winks are questionable, but others are undeniably sharp.
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63Almereyda has done a splendid job of rendering Hamlet as expressive visually as it is verbally.
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60Has an interesting look, several sensational performances (notably from Kyle MacLachlan and Liev Schreiber) and in general works far better than it has any right to.
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60Despite the few good performances, this Hamlet is not a keeper.
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60This slacker prince (Hawke) comprises a sinkhole at the center of adaptor-helmer Michael Almereyda's otherwise compelling contempo update.
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50It commits the only crime that can be committed against Shakespeare: It makes him boring.
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50But all the devices and upgrades do little to bring the poetry's meaning into clearer and more relevant focus for today's audiences.
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50Hamlet, like its title character, is a mopey, dopey thing that you just want to scream at: Do something!
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40A darkly interesting distraction but not much more.
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38May well be the dullest and most pointless version ever filmed, thanks to a stunningly bad lead performance by Ethan Hawke.
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38Hamlet has audacity, intelligence, a provocative visual and musical style, virtually no poetry, a garbled story line weakened by savage cutting of the play, and a great yawning hole where a Hamlet ought to be.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 3 out of 8
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Jim0Shakespeare's Hamlet had psychic balls. Ehtan Hawke has none.
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AmyJ.0This film is so poor. It is completely void of anything worth watching.
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JacquelynM.8