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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Admirable film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Excellent. But I found that I had to use the English subtitles on the DVD.Stands head & shoulders over the usual Hollywood pap that is pumped out.Shakespeare's critique of democracy? 'Pressure Group' politics shown. Confusion about who should Lead, be the CEO.Warfare scenes in early part of movie seemed very realistic - urban battles, house to house. Also, a group similar to the modern 'Occupy Wall Street' movement seems to be portrayed demanding bread & confronting the army of General Martius.Also, General Martius has an Arch-Enemy, the leader of a nearby terrorist nation, who threatens the modern 'Rome' of the 21st century .Kept my interest (thanks to the help of the subtitles) all the way. IF YOU WANT TO SEE GOOD ACTING, i.e., EXCELLENT ACTORS AT WORK, SEE THIS.SPOILER ALERT: Shakespeare's tragedy could have been called 'From Hero to- Enemy of Rome - to Zero'

This movie is boring. Too much talk and old unused talk.I never really got why Shakespeare is so widely regarded. Seeing such a script put to modern times just really shows how pretentious it really is. This movie at no time seemed genuine or even normal. The movie took it self way too seriously.Shakespeare uses hundreds of words just to express something i could do in several. Im no expert but there is no beauty in the words or the way they form and half the time i wish the characters would just shut up.If you like poetry and Shakespeare then maybe you will like it, i do not know.Maybe someone one day will explain to me how to appreciate Shakespeare. Until then from the general exposure i have had, Shakespeare just sucks.

There's a reason this is a lesser-known Shakespeare play: the plot is pretty dull and pointless. Ostensibly a revenge movie, the movie starts very slowly and tiresomely. It sketches the background, Coriolanus' career and rise to power. After the reversal of fortune it looks like the movie is going to kick into another gear, and it does, briefly. After this temporary entertainment, it subsides with a whimper.I didn't mind the modern setting, and thought director Ralph Fiennes did a good job in modernizing the play. However, I also felt that some of the plot didn't translate well into the modern day, especially the speed of communication and news. (Aside: as a great example of how to modernize a Shakespeare play see Richard Loncraine's 1995 version of Richard III. Richard III is, however, a much more interesting drama to begin with...).The wordiness of it all (it is Shakespeare, after all) also slows things down, and doesn't help the dullness factor.Good performance by Ralph Fiennes in the lead role. Gerard Butler, whom I generally don't rate as an actor, puts in a fine performance as Aufidius. The most powerful performance, however, comes from Vanessa Redgrave as Coriolanus' mother.Good support from Brian Cox. Jessica Chastain seems a bit out of her element in a Shakespeare play.Hard to dislike Shakespeare, so this is a rarity.

Coriolanus is a long way from being one of Shakespeare's most accessible plays. The Roman plays in general have a not entirely fair reputation for being full of long speeches and low on plot; it's tempting to meet the title with a shrugged 'who' (or 'what'?); it's not a very regularly performed play anyway, so it doesn't have many opportunities to make a bid for the limelight. So on the face of it this is strange choice of material for Ralph Fiennes on his directorial debut; especially when you consider that he's also the star. In Fiennes and his adapter's hands the play becomes a sleek, streamlined political drama with visceral action sequences Transported to "a place calling itself Rome" that plays more like a wartime Bosnia. Coriolanus is heroic general, feted with praise and encouraged, or forced, by his mother (Vanessa Redgrave) to seek the powerful position of Consul. He finds himself unable to play the political games with the people required to get the post; his anger on not getting the position leads to a riot and exile. In exile he forms an alliance with former enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) in order to take revenge. It's a tense and gripping watch; the new setting lends greater immediacy and sense of threat, the edits give clean lines a plot that fairly zips along. The action sequences are fine; not outstanding, but suitably brutal to maintain the law of the jungle sense of ancient Rome. The air is suffused with testosterone, with men not backing down from each other. The female characters are cleverly dressed to look more military, if not masculine then at the least not emphasizing femininity. This is a male environment, with the smoke of combat never far away. That approach explains the choice of Gerard Butler for the role of Tullus; which would make sense if he didn't appear so dramatically out of his depth. He alone amongst the cast doesn't seem comfortable with the language, brooding too much and forgetting to back-up his physical presence with words that are threatening or venomous. Which is a huge contrast to Fiennes in the lead role. Battle-scarred and, for most of the film, bloodied, when he's not fighting he's a caged tiger. It's clear why men will follow him into battle; haranguing bullet-ridden corpses for a lack of commitment, his men fight for and with their leader. It makes sense of his unwillingness to stay around to hear the story of his exploits; this is a man of deeds, not words. When he's finally bought face-to-face with his estranged family in a climactic showdown he's largely silence, trying to keep a crumbling facade in place.Which all works well as far as plot and the themes of power and alpha masculinity go, but does mean that the film has precious little emotional heft; even in a denouement which should at the least brush the heart, it becomes more of an action movie showdown with much better dialogue. It seems a hard criticism, but ultimately it's the fruit of the understandable choices made with the plot and style of the film. The updating convinces; the drama grips; the action impresses. It's just a shame there's not more heart to go with all the guts.