A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream
by Michael Hoffman

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DVD details

Actor: Calista Flockhart, Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci
Director: Michael Hoffman
Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
Producer: Michael Hoffman
Writer: Michael Hoffman
Producer: Ann Wingate
Producer: Arnon Milchan
Producer: Leslie Urdang
Producer: Nigel Goldsack
Writer: William Shakespeare
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 2.35:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox

DVD Reviews of A Midsummer Night's Dream

DVD Review: Amazon Review
Summary: 5 Stars

Thanks for sending me this movie in excellent condition, there was no damage to it and it played well from start to finish.

DVD Review: THE LOSS OF ELOQUENCE
Summary: 3 Stars

I am not a Shakespearian purist, though I love his plays, and sonnets, but this rendition of The Bard's play is so butchered it is almost indecipherable. It looks more like SHAKE-AND-BAKE than Shakespeare. The cast was obviously chosen for looks, and that's sad because in the right roles with the right material most of them are fine actors. Hoffman seems to have decided that if he put enough bare bodies, and sight gags into the blender he'd come up with a pablum that most movie-goers could stomach, obviously believing that none of us are capable of understanding polysyllabic words, or the higher aspirations of the heart, and mind.

If you can detach your gray cells for a while, three actors do stand out in this thing. They are Kline, Flockhardt, and Pfeiffer, and kudos to them for overcoming this banality! They are the only reason I was able to get through this pretty mess, and actually enjoy a bit of it.

DVD Review: Come on, carpers! Let Shakespeare be fun!
Summary: 5 Stars

First, the stars. No, not the astrologer's stars, the movie stars, goofy! Some of those high priced people can act! Of course, I'm in luck in that I see so few Hollywood movies that I don't recognize them, so it's easy to suspend disbelief. The one I did recognize was Stanley Tucci, the star of Big Night. Tucci was spectacular in the role of Puck; he stole every scene he appeared in. That guy Kevin Kline did a similar heist on all his scenes; he made Bottom the prime character of the story, with a little help from the editors and cinematographers, who played on his face - his foolish integrity, his dreams - almost any time when the script allowed. Whichever leading lady it was who played Helena was also "picture" perfect, and her scenes of squalling with Hermia were side-splitting funny. The only flop, as an actress, was Michelle Pfeiffer as the Queen of the fairies; luscious looking, yes, but she delivered her lines more stiffly than a seventh-grade cheerleader in English class.

The setting in Italy was completely convincing; after all, most of the Eizabethan comedies were based on Italian models, with commedia dell'arte roots, and Elizabethans knew rather little about settings in Athens. The little touches of Italian opera - both visual and in the soundtrack - were deft and charming. The whole air of opulence suited the magic of the midsummer night like the smile on a pretty child's face.

Oh yeah, and then there was the script. That Shakespeare guy has a future. [Yes, there were cuts, but the shortening of the play served one very useful purpose. It allowed the actors to defy the current notion that every line of Shakespeare has to be spoken so fast that no one can understand it well enough to be bored. Honestly, it was delightful to be able to follow every word for a change. True, the accents were a hodge-podge of Brit and American, but I for one didn't much mind.]

A film of a play by Shakespeare should be at least as enjoyable for a modern audience as we all assume the Globe Theater production was for the flesh-and-blood Elizabethans.
Bottom's bottom line: What fools these purists be!

DVD Review: Very Enjoyable
Summary: 5 Stars

Shakespeare would probably roll over in his grave but we both really enjoy this version of the classic. Funny throughout and well done.

DVD Review: Great Late Summer Night Mood Movie
Summary: 3 Stars

I know this version gets panned all the time. And I have seen better versions, (the 1935 version with, of all people, Jimmy Cagney as Bottom was amazingly good). But I love to watch this film. If you love Shakespeare comedies when they go into the woods and things go topsy turvy, then this will be a fun DVD to play on a late Summer night when you can't go to sleep.

Description of A Midsummer Night's Dream

A stellar cast, headed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline, bring Shakespeare's romantic comedy to life. When two pairs of star-crossed lovers, a feuding pair of supernatural sprites and a love potion gone awry all come together in an enchanted moonlit forest, the result is a delightful mix of merriment and magic. Also starring Calista Flockhart, Stanley Tucci and Rupert Everett.

Imagine a work by Shakespeare reduced to one of those pretty, glossy coffee-table picture books that have only a dollop of text alongside its sumptuous photographs, and you might have Michael Hoffman's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This all-star version of Shakespeare's comedy is gorgeously shot in Tuscany, complete with a magical forest, breathtaking landscapes, beautiful villas, picturesque villages, stunning period costumes--oh wait, there's supposed to be a story here, too! Hoffman hijacks Shakespeare's basic premise but doesn't instill it with much more than surface shine and transplants it to turn-of-the-century Italy. Ergo, it's left up to the actors to find the heart and soul of this classic play, in which the fairies of the forest play mix and match with four young lovers, courtesy of a magical love potion. Hoffman couldn't ask for better (or better looking) actors to play Shakespeare's dreamlike love games--Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, Christian Bale, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline, Anna Friel, Dominic West, the list goes on and on--but he sure as heck doesn't know what to do with them, aside from putting them in various states of undress. Only Flockhart (as the lovestruck Helena), Tucci (a sprightly Puck), Pfeiffer (dazzling and funny as the queen of the fairies), and especially the sublime Kline (as weaver-turned-donkey Bottom) seem to connect with their characters in ways that make this adaptation occasionally soar; the rest are inexplicably left to flounder. Hoffman does seem to set himself right with the film's climax, when Bottom's amateur acting troupe hilariously enacts the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe (it helps that the troupe includes Roger Rees, Sam Rockwell, and Bill Irwin). Those searching for a more in-depth exploration of Shakespeare's farce might do better to look elsewhere, but if it's gorgeous actors and scenery you're in the mood for (along with an evocative opera soundtrack), and an all's-well-that-ends-well ending, this Midsummer Night will give you pleasant if weightless dreams. --Mark Englehart

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