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I wanted to but couldn't!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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

... or was Honest Iago actually smirking at the end, as he died?Loved how the Bard's iambic pentameter just rolled of Fishburne's tongue, with excellent clarity and emotion.And how Branagh made Honest Iago seem to celebrate his own evilness...This is a wonderful film.I have often thought that Shakespeare is inherently not film-friendly: He uses words to create pictures in our minds, which creates a perennial battle with the camera, which only knows to show us what we need to think and feel. Every effort to film Shakespeare ought really to be celebrated. It is not an easy thing to do.

but could have been better. First of all, I would like to say that Laurence Fishburne's performance as Othello did not impress me. Although he is good, I think he maintains a bit too much dignity at the end of the film, making his tragedy less tragic. However, Keeth Branagh is amazing in this film. Like Glenn Close as the Marquise de Merteuil, but better, he makes Iago human, but still very sadistic. The beginning of the film is perfect. We see everything from the point of view of Iago, making us his accomplices in many ways, as he talks directly to us. Then, at the end, we lose him and Oliver Parker makes the great ending of the play way too long and we quickly get bored and annoyed at the melodrama of the last scene. Until the end, it is a great Shakespearian film. It is almost as if the same director as The Merchant of Venice (2004) made this. This is because both Parker and Redford adapt Shakespeare, not to make auteur films, like Orson Welles did, but to make them as Shakespeare would have were he alive at the time of cinema. Therefore, it would be a flawed but very good Shakespeare, but a worse auteur film.

I don't pretend to be an authority on actors who have played Othello, but I've never witnessed a performance of the play, on film or on stage, wherein Othello was portrayed with more humanity and authenticity.According to the biographical notes, Fishburne never received any professional training as an actor. Perhaps this explains why his acting, in this beautifully edited film, comes over as so believable and so powerful. Instead of chewing the scenery in the approved fashion for such high-powered roles, Fishburne's portrayal is focused more on Othello's love for his wife, and on his profound sadness at her supposed betrayal, than on violence and vengeance. In a word, the performance is understated, and made far more impressive by Fishburne's extremely intelligent interpretation than it otherwise would have been.The acting throughout is superb, and the (abridged) speeches gain grace from their light editing. (Even Shakesspeare, after all, can be improved upon, now and again -- and if that be treason, make the most of it!

For me, the Lawrence Fishbourne version of "Othello" is the best ever put on film. His performance is excellent, while not overpowering the villainous Iago. And the title role is played by a black man, as it should be, rather than a white man with boot-polish on his face. The film's marginal eroticism has been criticised, but isn't eroticism at the very heart of the story? Olivier's "Othello" was essentially a film of the stage production, and for me the Orson Welles version was a failure, despite Welles' star performance, because most of the other actors were almost devoid of charisma. How could Desdemona possibly have been interested in a slob like Welles' Cassio?I have always found the original play unconvincing, for several reasons. Iago's motive, resentment of Cassio's promotion, seems too trivial for the tragedy it precipitates. At risk of committing heresy, I found the Verdi opera more convincing, with the soliloquy by Iago explaining his innate determination to commit evil.Also, given the closeness of Othello's friendship with Iago, his decision to bypass him in favour of Cassio makes little sense. Likewise, Othello's readiness to believe the worst of Desdemona, and the ease with which Iago leads him on to murder, makes the title character look quite pathetic, almost simple-minded.In this film, the cutting of the text to the absolute minimum helps to hide the play's inherent faults and tighten the action, and Fishbourne's wordless suffering speaks volumes that more than make up for the loss of Shakespeare's lines. I couldn't help comparing this film with Kenneth Brannagh's "Hamlet", the longest and most tedious of his self-advertisements, in which every long-winded speech was preserved intact. Here Brannagh's Iago is almost as good as Fishbourne's Othello, and he makes the most of the lines he has.To sum up, ten out of ten. I can only regret that Fishbourne is not offered more roles of this quality.