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Oct 07, 2011

Madeline rated it:

Hamlet, abridged:

GHOST/DAD: Hamlet, your uncle killed me and married your mom. I want vengeance, so best get to murdering, plzthnx.

HAMLET: EEK!

OPHELIA: Hamlet, are you okay?

HAMLET: Get away from me, skankwhore!

OPHELIA: WTF? *goes from zero to crazy like that*

GERTRUDE: Kid, you need therapy.

HAMLET: And you need to be less of AN ADULTEROUS WHORE!

POLONIUS: OMG so rude!

HAMLET: Eavesdroppin More...

28 comments like (186 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2010

Paul rated it:

The Skinhead Hamlet - Shakespeare's play translated into modern English. By Richard Curtis. Yes, that Richard Curtis!

Note : those offended by the F word - LOOK AWAY NOW! And Georgia, if you've stumbled on this review by your funny old dad - this is ANOTHER Paul Bryant. Not me!

*********

ACT I
SCENE I
The Battlements of Elsinore Castle.

[Enter HAMLET, followed by GHOST:]

GHOST: Oi! Mush!

HAMLET: Yer?

GHOS More...

23 comments like (41 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

Ian rated it:

A Young Lawyer’s Guide to "Hamlet":

Head Note

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark – Young Hamlet still mourns his father’s death – doesn’t like King Claudius marrying his mother, Queen Gertrude, so soon

Ophelia's brother, Laertes, warns her not to fall in love with Young Hamlet - her father Polonius fears she will be hurt

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern investigate Young Hamlet’s strange behavior – Polonius believes he loves Ophelia
More...

29 comments like (20 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Manny rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

11 comments like (17 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Bird Brian rated it:

[Edit: originally written Saturday 22 October 2011]

CELEBRITYHR DEATH MATHC REVIEWS [Edit: Link ]

HALMLET V. WINNIERTTHE POYHH

Ghost of marrry popplins: See ho! there be the hell-toad which dispatched me last round@! Be not indecisive! Make fair thine blasde!
Hamlet: (plunging swormd into Winne the Posh): Worms meat of you!~ VILLAIN!!!
Winnei ther Pooh: (much honey leaking out the swrod) OHMY GOD! CALUMNEY, SAVE ME WALT DISNEY!!!!
Walt Disney More...

31 comments like (16 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2011

Keely added it

Shakespeare is an adept poet and master of the language. He layers on jokes, puns, and references everywhere. He has a massive output of work, and a number of different plots. When we compare him to other authors, it is difficult to find anyone who stacks up. This is usually because we compare him to the wrong people.

Shakespeare didn't write books or pamphlets or epics, he wrote plays. Short pieces of drama that were meant to be fast-paced and exciting. That they are mainly experienc More...

4 comments like (13 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

I read most of this on a plane last night. There is something quietly magical about closing your ears to outside distractions and reading under a small light while people all around you sleep or stare at computer screens or otherwise pretend that they are also alone in this small, tight space. We ignore each other as much as possible as a courtesy. It isn't a time to share a story with the stranger next to you; it isn't polite to get loudly drunk. It's quiet, no cell phones (yet), and dark, and More...

81 comments like (48 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2011

Sandybanks rated it:

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, Hamlet vs Winnie-the-Pooh

…

Sometimes Winnie-the-Pooh likes a game of some sort
when he comes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit
quietly in front of the fire and listen to a story. This eve-
ning—
"What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.
"What about a story?" I said.
"Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"
"I suppose I cou More...

17 comments like (11 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2011

Chester Brown rated it:

A CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH REVIEW AND CONFESSIONAL

Hamlet vs. Winnie the Pooh
by Alex DeLarge

____________________________

Sit back and be comfortable, oh my Droogs, and I will pour out a history for you so wretched it will make your heart heavy with sighs and groans. Those of you who know me well may have come to regard me as a sort of demon, possessed of no sympathy or compassion. And very well this is too! For this gulliver of mine is filled with the stories More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Final body count = 8

Got the hots for your sister-in-law? Wanna be king? Just bump off your brother and marry his wife! Then your nephew will be your stepson, but you will call him "cousin." Very soon, you and everyone around you will be dead, and some Norwegian dude will plop his dimply butt in your throne.

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Anastasia rated it:

Ma che cos'ho che non va.

Ma porca miseria, se continua così comincerò a credere alla possibilità che il mio DNA sia stato alterato, per cui non sono come il resto dei lettori. Non so, magari ho un cromosoma che mi sballa tutto e non mi permette di impazzire per Shakespeare come fa il resto del mondo. Se è veramente così, dovrò dimenticare l'educazione e dirne tante a mamma e papà.
Non è che l'Amleto non mi sia piaciuto, è che, appunto, non sono riuscita ad innamorarmene, come v More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Trevor rated it:

I’ve always meant to talk to my mate George about Hamlet and I guess this is as good an opportunity to do so as any.

There are different things I would say to different people about Hamlet – and as this is the near perfect play I guess there ought to be many and various things one could say about it.

The oddest thing about Hamlet is that people always tend to say the same thing – they always say, “Oh yes, Hamlet, the man who hesitates”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say i More...

5 comments like (22 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Troy rated it:

CELEBRITY DEATHMATCHES!!!

THIS WEEK'S EDITION:

HAMLET TAKES ON WINNIE THE POOH AND HIS GANG!!!

It’s 100 Acres Wood Grand Slam Slapdown!!!

ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLEEEEEE???

Winnie jumps at Hamlet, with his bear claws flashing through the air.

Suddenly, ABBA appears and starts grooving out to their 1974 hit “Honey, Honey”.

Winnie the Pooh is mesmerized, and Hamlet’s blade goes straight through him!
More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2011

Mariel rated it:

Celebrity Death Match tournament review versus The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. (Once I thought I was out...) Edit- Whoops accidental alternative pairing! It was supposed to be MACBETH versus Sherlock. Oh well, those wins are givens anyway.

"To do anything, is there even a point? To die, to eat and sleep, is that all there is? Fuck. No, to sleep, to dream, to fuck, there it all goes down the fucking toilet. Bitches, liars and whores. Assholes, fucktards and sons of bitches. I'm More...

8 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2011

Brad rated it:

Is there a better artistic expression of death's myriad manifestations than Shakespeare's Hamlet? I say no. In my counter-factual universe I see William Shakespeare as a Lieutenant at the First Somme. Imagine the war poetry that Shakespeare could have written. Perhaps one such war sonnet would have gone something like this:

My subaltern’s eyes will ne’er again see the sun,
Exposed hearts are more red than whores lips are red;
If we go o’er the top we are sure to face the gun; More...

28 comments like (11 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2007

Dmitry rated it:

Just taking a stab here. Feel free to comment or dismiss.

I'd like to suggest that "Hamlet" was the first work of "high" or "serious" literature, by which I mean the first publically disseminated text written in a common language that was difficult for its contemporary audience (as opposed to, for example, texts like DaVinci's notebooks, written in code, Thomas Acquinas's "Summa Theologica," written in Church Latin, and texts like "The Bib More...

23 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Bill rated it:

I don't really have any important insights to share from this last of god-knows-how-many readings, but this time through I was really struck by: 1) what a damn fine piece of stagecraft this is, from the suspenseful, moody opening on the castle battlements to the solemn dead march carrying the prince offstage, and 2) how Shakespeare seems to want Hamlet's personality--particularly the wellsprings of his actions (and lack of action)--to remain an enigma, and that he achieves this by infusing More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

Marvin rated it:

Written for the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament

Atticus Finch waited quietly in front of the sheriff's office. The word as out that a vigilante mob would attempt to take his client out of the jail and lynch him. Atticus was sipping his lemonade when he heard a rustle in the bushes.

"Who is that." He shouted.

"It's just Me." replied Scout.

"Why Scout. What are you doing here. You should be in bed. This is no place for yo More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

Exposes the ultimate conclusion of female passivity as death. However, I'm suspicious of Ophelia's fate. How did Gertrude know she was singing? That bitch must have been witness. At least. ;)

*engages angry mob for justice*

'Angry Mob for Justice' is gonna be the name of my organisation.

*nods*

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Simona rated it:

"O Amleto, mi hai spaccato il cuore."

O sono io che in questo periodo sto sviluppando un folle amore per il teatro, o è che questo Amleto mi ha davvero toccato l'anima.
Da amare per la profonda disperazione che emerge dai suoi versi, una disperazione cieca, nera come l'oblio, ma pur sempre velata d'ironia; per l'intensità dei sentimenti dei personaggi, per la loro forza e la loro deboleazza, e per la loro storia, storia di intrighi, peccati, vendette: ed infine per la loro More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Jonathan rated it:

I've read a few of the more popular Shakespeare texts and still have many more to read. I would love to fully complete his entire collection due to the brilliance of the bard. But you didn't want to read about my meetings with Shakespeare did you? You want a review of Hamlet. And a review you shall have as soon as I...

Here we are. Review generated.

When I first picked up Hamlet I thought to myself: 'This will be just like every other of Shakespeare's plays. I'll enjoy the More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2007

Jim rated it:

I've discovered the Signet Classics Shakespeare editions to be satisfying versions of the Old Man's stuff. They're thoroughly glossed and annotated, the editorial decisions are explained and reasoned out for the reader, and the supplementary criticism is insightful. I found the Signet Classics editions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night to also be of this high quality.

I've never read Hamlet -- ah, bless my public education -- and I fell asleep about forty-five minutes More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2007

Steven rated it:

Obviously the plot is so well understood that there is nothing I can add. Some of my favorite lines are as follows:

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

This above all — to thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2009

Gztaylor5 rated it:

What could I say of Hamlet that hasn't already been said? It's place in the literary canon is absolutely necessary. Hamlet, the prince, is the deepest, most complete character in literary history, unsurpassed previously and ever since. What makes Hamlet so special is his ability to see the world around himself, and to question his own existance within that world:

To be, or not to be, — that is the question: —
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The s More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2010

Alex rated it:

Shakespeare's masterpiece. What sets Hamlet apart from other WS plays I have read is its realistic flow: the plot in not contrived (ala Macbeth), the time-frame not quickened (ala Romeo and Juliet), the climax not hollow (ala Julius Caesar). Even the ghosts scenes work. The depth of Hamlet's character, expressed so poignantly in his numerous soliloquies, and the intricacy of the supporting roles further solidify this masterpiece's greatness.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Andreea added it

The more times I read Hamlet the more unhappy I become with the idea of a weepy suicidal Hamlet crippled by indecision that we've been so accustomed to.

And at the same time I can't help asking myself more and more who does Hamlet belong to? Does it belong to me because I'm white and European (by some standards, in any case) so Shakespeare and I are in many ways related? Does it belong to me because I can speak English and thus understand and are able to relate to the play in a manne More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2012

Stella ☢FAYZ☢ rated it:

Update: I'm changing this from 4 stars to 5 because I did well on the assigned essay. ;) Just kidding.

I thought someone should have told Mr. Shakespeare to cut a whole chunk out of this play. I recommend someone to rewrite this play with the ghost actually a demon. Oohhhh~

This play had some highs and some lows. Overall, a decent play.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2011

Elliot rated it:

Hamlet is an extraordinarily frustrating text, a play whose fundamental ambiguities (and, occasionally, contradictions) say more the literal content of the work ever could. We expect Hamlet to confront standard themes of revenge, or the corruption of the state, or whatever, but, upon close reading, I find it hard to justify those interpretations.

The principle movements in the play are distractions from the revenge supposedly so significant to plot, and the revenge itself was impossib More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2011

Austin rated it:

"Hamlet is the finest of all the plays in the English revenge tradition," says Roma Gill, editor of the Oxford School Shakespeare edition of Hamlet. Some would call that an understatement, since Hamlet is frequently invoked as the greatest play in any tradition. (Flaubert said, "The three finest things God ever made are the sea, Hamlet, and Mozart's Don Giovanni.") Hamlet is, however, a revenge play, a fact which often seems to go unappreciated by directors and actors and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2010

Mark rated it:

The longest play by the greatest playwright is his most famous work. Everything in this play means something, from the opening stance of the soldier through it's conclusion. It is ultimately about identity: trying to understand who you are in the world. The opening scene for example, is a soldier disturbed by a noise. He questions the darkness with the opening words:
"Who's there?"

This is a play filled with questions but perhaps none more thematically relevant than th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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