The Merchant of Venice

if you are a life long simpsons fan like i am this movie is a must see, the best part is there is lil things in the movie referencing old simpsons shows that only a true fan would pick up on........ Full review

an expensive production though made little effect on public,hitoric thriller,custumes perfect,need a glass of wine to support the era,Al Pacino wears the man... Full review

this movie was iight but i didnt like it cus it didnt show violence j,l'kjkjkkjk kkllklk lklkl kl klk klkl kl klkl kl klkl kl kl kl kl kl klk l kl kl kl klkl kl kl kl klk l l... Full review

i think that i slept through most of this movie and if i didnt i was using the rest room... or eating sour patch kids in the rest room.so basically i didnt appreciate all the non action violence this movie had... Full review

This is the worst Shakespearean screen adaptation I've ever seen. Nobody involved seems to understand Shakespeare, from the actors to the director. The scenes drag as actors simply stand and give their lines, rather than actually do anything with them. I... Full review

The movie is darker than the 'comedic' play, but is at the same time faithful to Shakespeare's words, themes, and characters. I watched this after studying the play in my school, and was very satisfied with the various angles taken, from... Full review

I knew I would never like this movie from the looks of the cover. I didn't know what it was all about because of the shapearian language they spoke. Why can't they just put normal english in it? I am a... Full review

Shakespeare usually doesn't transfer to the screen that well. (K. Brannagh's Henry V is a major exception.) This film makes great use of its locals to take away the stagebound feeling that many Shakespeare films suffer from on the screen. The... Full review

Al Pacino is suberb as Shylock. This is a play that I do not believe has been filmed before & is rarely staged in these too politically correct days. It is superficially antiSemetic. But Shylock is one of the greatest characters... Full review

What a wonderful production of a difficult play -- especially in our PC world today! Pacino wins in every way. Yet, it is the visualization of Venice and telling the story so true to the text that really wins. Portia's speech... Full review

despite being in the original dialogue, it is neatly trimmed to a satisfying 90 minutes of intense drama.....Jeremy Irons (an actor some find wooden) is a good strong foil as Antonio....Director Radford has also done well with the feel and locations.....English director Michael Radford ( Il Postino , White Mischief ), however, has gotten a very different performance from the great actor here..... ... Full Review

Jeremy Irons is quietly mesmerizing in the title role, a creature of mysterious melancholy whose soul seems at once pure and rotted. The movie really belongs to Lynn Collins, who gives Portia her rightful wit and charisma, and makes her play's cruel and lovely moral center. ... Full Review

When Shakespeare Dallas' The Merchant of Venice is good, it is very, very good. Only a few decades ago one of the most popular Shakespeare comedies, The Merchant of Venice has slipped into near oblivion because of its treatment of its most famous character. ... Full Review

Starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins, the film joins the long line of Shakespearean adaptations with brilliant actors and lackluster box office numbers. Despite the financial hit however, the film went on to critical success at the BAFTA, David di Donatello and Satellite Awards. ... Full Review

The rest of the cast is excellent also. For this rich and accessible adaptation, director Michael Radford has enlisted a perfect actor in Al Pacino. Irons imbues Antonio with a faintly homoerotic melancholy, and Collins, an American newcomer ... Full Review

Al Pacino as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice.""We've got to stick together," George says, or the truly evil banker Henry Potter will gain control of everything. ... Full Article

For those of you who didn't read the Cliffs Notes in school, here's a brief synopsis: Bassanio needs to raise some money in his efforts to woo Portia of Belmont. ... Full Article

August 1, 2005 -- "William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice" is a classy adaptation of the classic play with a powerful performance by Al Pacino in the central role of Shylock. ... Full Article

There had never before been a big-screen version of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice -Orson Welles had given up in the middle of rehearsals, and Laurence Olivier did a stage production but could not raise enough money to make a... ... Full Article

English GCSE students can breath a collective sigh of relief that rather than reading one of Shakespeares most complex plays they can simply bung on a DVD. ... Full Article

By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Yes, Michael Radford's "The Merchant of Venice" is a movie . Though an intelligent, supple adaptation of Shakespeare's play, it betrays no particular whiff of the stage or page. ... Full Article