Overrated

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I was so delighted that I watched this movie many times. How do you introduce many to a masterpiece of a genius? Pacino searches for him in England's history, at the streets, at the stages and rehearsals, with British actors and scholars, in a beggar that taught us about feelings, feelings in words, not only in gestures, actions, while showing the noble drama in its political subtleties. It shows the beauty not only of a language and story, but a great actor's view of a great play. Surely one of the best movies I have ever seen about a play of Shakespeare. A film that anybody who likes Shakespeare and poetry will watch many times in order to fully understand its beauty

Wow! I just found this. Been out of the country for a long time and I seem to have missed a lot. I love Shakespeare and have seen many, many productions and films. I find this fascinating and could have watched more. Some say it was laughable, I don't see it. It is a learning experience and Pacino captured Richard perfectly. Better then most I have seen. There is a lovely mix of the scholarly, the actor's processes and a good bit of fun. I felt as if I was discovering new views along with the actors. Maybe it isn't to everyone's tastes but it beats out the pablum that is the usual fair in these times. I too greatly regret the whole film was never made and released in conjunction with Looking for Richard. It would have been magnificent.

With what seems to be inadvertent coherence, film is both a performance of selected scenes of William Shakespeare's Richard III and a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture. The movie guides the audience through the play's plot and historical background.Pacino plays both himself and the title character, making it an absolute essential for fans of Al Pacino, people like me, who cannot get enough of the guy's presence. His energy is infectious, his spirit is enviable.Combines crowd-pleasing with the widespread cultural turn-off Americans have with the challenge of Shakespeare. What an incredible cause. Kids seeing this film first may well end up with a better understanding of the Bard's work, because Pacino has made an informative, engrossing and hugely enjoyable movie that stands as a work of pure entertainment as powerfully as its inspiration, the very mixture he intends to apply to complicated historical potboilers like Richard III. And he does not condescend the masses by focusing entirely on the negligent view of Shakespeare as obligation. Stars who turn to directing rarely or never do things like this.

Al Pacino is one of the most dynamic and charismatic film stars ever; yet he has always been hampered by his inability to pick good projects other than his hits for Coppla and Lumet. This film gives some clue as to why: he appears to be as stupid as a block of stone. A big screen version of Henry "Fonize" Winkler's Shakespeare T.V. show, "Looking For Richard" is a harebrained idea run into the ground. "Richard The III" is one of the easiest to follow of all the Bard's works, that the dark prince is the bad guy stabbing everybody in the back is about all you need to know. Yet Pacino begins with the idea that the play is impossible to bring to modern audiences, it's just too complicated. His solution? Only do the juiciest bits with his Hollywood pals. Unintentional hilarity ensues. Beyond that, Pacino is a ceaseless bore, surrounded by sycophants who encourage him to make a behind of himself. In one scene, Pacino seems to be suggesting to young people that Shakespeare is cool because you get to seduce Wynona Ryder. In another, he keeps interrupting a bored John Gielgud. It's never mentioned that Pacino's on stage Richard III was an infamous production laughed off Broadway in about a week. Maybe it wasn't Al's fault. But the critics were a lot kinder to this silly film than they were to Pacino when he really took a crack at the Bard.