Part of the amusement in this story – besides the lawnmower races and absolutely everything about Featherstone, the lawn flamingo – is the soundtrack, which features many of Elton John’s biggest hits. The story is retold through garden gnomes living in the backyards of feuding neighbors, Mr.

I picture this one as a My First Shakespeare kind of movie since it’s a fun, wildly entertaining version of the classic tale that you can watch with children. Romeo & Juliet is free with ads on YouTube if you would like to give it a chance. The architecture of the old buildings makes for gorgeous backdrops, and the actors’ costumes and actions stand out in front of them. The film was shot in Italy, switching between Mantua, Rome, and even Verona, where the play was originally set. Most of the dialogue is taken directly from the play with little to no colloquialisms. Additionally, this live-action version of the classic tale is visually stunning and true to the time period in both art design and language. During filming, the actors’ ages were a lot closer to the intended ages of their characters, unlike many other adaptations like Romeo + Juliet where they were both adults. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet and Douglas Booth as Romeo. Golden Globe Winner and Academy Award Nominee Paul Giamatti was cast as Friar Lawrence, and Ed Westwick – aka Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl – was cast as Tybalt. The New York Times calls it an “old-fashioned adaptation that follows the play’s general outline without ever rising to the passionate intensity of its star-cross’d crazy kids.” Yet, there are many gems in this movie, one of them being its star-studded cast. Romeo & Juliet received low ratings mostly because of a lack of heat and chemistry. This is the truest adaptation on the list. The following three movies are adaptations that either flew under the radar, are laughable until you give them a chance, or hid their similarities to the original so well that the reveal might surprise a viewer. Finally, there’s me, a hopeless romantic in quarantine who just wants an enjoyable retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

Contrastingly, there are critics who recognize the Bard’s influence and hold movie adaptations up to the standard of West Side Story, or even higher.

Some people still gasp when they are told that The Lion King was based on Hamlet, that 10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming of the Shrew, that She’s the Man was a retelling of Twelfth Night, so on and so forth. Theatre and film adaptations alike have retold Shakespearean tales to the point where they are sometimes unrecognizable to the untrained eye. Shakespeare’s plays have endured centuries in the public mind.

All type of romeo and juliet movies