Best Shakespeare Film Adaptations

by joakuncai | created - 18 Feb 2012 | updated - 20 Aug 2012 | Public

List of Shakespeare film adaptations that I like the most.

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1. Hamlet (1996)

PG-13 | 242 min | Drama

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet

Votes: 40,064 | Gross: $4.41M

2. The Merchant of Venice (2004)

R | 131 min | Drama, Romance

63 Metascore

In 16th century Venice, when a merchant must default on a large loan from an abused Jewish moneylender for a friend with romantic ambitions, the bitterly vengeful creditor demands a gruesome payment instead.

Director: Michael Radford | Stars: Al Pacino, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons

Votes: 38,266 | Gross: $3.77M

3. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

80 Metascore

Young lovers, and soon to wed, Hero and Claudio conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles, Benedick and Beatrice, to wed as well.

Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Kate Beckinsale

Votes: 52,025 | Gross: $22.55M

4. Twelfth Night (1996)

PG | 134 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman he loves.

Director: Trevor Nunn | Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Imogen Stubbs, Steven Mackintosh

Votes: 6,406 | Gross: $0.59M

5. Coriolanus (2011)

R | 123 min | Drama, Thriller, War

79 Metascore

A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.

Director: Ralph Fiennes | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Lubna Azabal

Votes: 33,523 | Gross: $0.76M

6. Henry V (1989)

PG-13 | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History

83 Metascore

In the midst of the Hundred Years War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.

Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Simon Shepherd, James Larkin

Votes: 31,665 | Gross: $10.16M

7. Richard III (1995)

R | 110 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, War

86 Metascore

The classic Shakespearean play about the murderously scheming 15th-century king is reimagined in an alternative setting of 1930s England as clouds of fascism gather.

Director: Richard Loncraine | Stars: Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Christopher Bowen, Edward Jewesbury

Votes: 15,577 | Gross: $2.60M

8. Othello (1995)

R | 123 min | Drama, Romance

The Moorish General Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his Lieutenant Michael Cassio, when in reality, it is all part of the scheme of a bitter Ensign named Iago.

Director: Oliver Parker | Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh, Irène Jacob, Nathaniel Parker

Votes: 10,180 | Gross: $2.11M

9. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

61 Metascore

Lovers' lives are complicated by city law, feuding faerie royalty, and... love.

Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci

Votes: 26,984 | Gross: $16.07M

10. Macbeth (I) (1997)

129 min | Drama

A ruthlessly ambitious Scottish laird seizes the throne with the help of his scheming wife and a trio of witches.

Director: Jeremy Freeston | Stars: Jason Connery, Helen Baxendale, Graham McTavish, Kenneth Bryans

Votes: 254

11. Macbeth (I) (2006)

Not Rated | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy

51 Metascore

A contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" set in the ganglands of Melbourne.

Director: Geoffrey Wright | Stars: Victoria Hill, Lachy Hulme, Gary Sweet, Sam Worthington

Votes: 2,279 | Gross: $1.11M

12. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

70 Metascore

A high-school boy, Cameron, cannot date Bianca until her anti-social older sister, Kat, has a boyfriend. So, Cameron pays a mysterious boy, Patrick, to charm Kat.

Director: Gil Junger | Stars: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik

Votes: 385,638 | Gross: $38.18M



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