Coriolanus Review

                              Ralph Fiennes has made a movie that is amazing in one way, and terrible in another. Everything about the film works...except how god-awfully boring it is. The acting is perfect...the direction is amazing....the script works wonders...the set pieces are beautiful...the editing is on key, ETC. However, Coriolanus is also excruciatingly boring, and I'm talking really excruciatingly  boring. It is a total contradiction for me to sit here and tell you I almost want you to go see this incredibly boring film due to the fact that everything else works about it.
                         
                              Fiennes stars as Coriolanus, and Gerald Butler is Aufidius. They have been bitter enemies since the beginning of time. These are two fierce competitors facing off...neither of them scared of the other. Coriolanus, however, gets banned as ruler and has to form an alliance with Aufidius. The movie gets two great performances out of these two, as well as out of Jessica Chastain, Brian Cox, and Vanessa Redgrave. However, I was bored out of my skull throughout the whole thing. Watching these great actors do great things was simply not enough for me to recommend the film. Fiennes, in his directorial debut shows how obviously talented he is behind the camera, but really gives us nothing to be entertained by. Also, screenwriter John Logan, who has written gems such as the 2007 version of Sweeney Todd, the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, and Gladiator..yes..that Gladiator gives us much to be impressed by here, but uses too much modern day VS. old fashioned Shakespeare. In this, I mean he tries to make it modern day while simultaneously making it old fashioned, giving us a film that doesn't know what it wants to be.

                              Out of the greater good of my heart, I cannot tell you to run out and see this film. However, this film will be instantly available on Netflix due to a deal with The Weinstein Company in a couple of months..so go check it out then for everything else except the execution. This way it will be in the comfort of your own home.
(2 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, the film is rated R for some bloody violence)