Carl the Critic: Reveiws "Gnomeo and Juliet"

Expectation/Experience: I usually have low expectations for Shakespearean movies, (especially for "Romeo and Juliet,") because the story itself is a real downer. When I heard of "Gnomeo and Juliet" I felt that this movie was not only going to reek, but give Shakespeare a bad name. The poster you see above is one of the reasons why, it looks unbelievably stupid and has nothing to do with the story at all.

However when I went to the theater, I actually felt that this movie was not 100% bad, but it maybe because this movie was not Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" the tragedy of "two star crossed lovers who take there life, because of their parent's strife" (in English: two teen-aged kids who are very dim, kill themselves because they were "in love" with each other but they couldn't be together because their parents had an issue with each other.) Instead, this movie was more of a parody of the original story, making references to Shakespeare's original tragedy and turning it into a comedy. By the end of the film, I felt that this film, for what it was, was a lot better than what I expected.

Story: The idea of "Romeo and Juliet" is still in this movie, with the "two house holds both alike in dignity," but instead of being known as Capulet's and Monetgue's, the gnomes are known as the Red's and the Blue's. Gnomes apparently have a found of drag racing on lawn mowers, and one of the first things I saw (I was 5 minutes late for the movie), and I happen to see that Gnomeo was racing with Tybalt, and that Tybalt cheated by crashing Gnomeo's lawn mower. To get back at Tybalt (and all the Reds in general for supporting Tybalt's cheating), Gnomeo, Benny, and some other garden gnomes go into the Red's yard, and start ruining Tybalt's well. They are soon spotted and have to escape but Gnomeo some how separates from the other blue gnomes and finds himself chasing a black hooded figure.

Now lets back up a bit, there is a red girl gnome name Juliet, who's best friend is a frog, and Juliet wants the Orchid that is in the green house in some random yard. To disguise herself, she wears a black sock to hide her from anyone who would try to stop her, and so she goes and gets the orchid but at the same time as another mysterious gnome (Gnomeo). Both flirt for about 5 minutes and then both discover that they are suppose to be rivals because one was a Blue and one was a Red. But because both still love each other they plan to meet in secret not knowing the destruction that is to come between the two rivaling gnome families.

Critic: Okay so as you can see this is the start of the movie and there is more that happens and goes on, but if you are expecting the play you had to read in high school, then you will be very shocked. If anything the movie was very comedic, and there are a lot of missing characters.

In addition, the gnomes like drag racing using lawn mowers as their vehicle of choice. When you watch a movie like "Toy Story," the audience knows that the toys are alive, and their actions are justified based on the fact that they seem like they could actually happen, and that no one would notice them because no one is around to see them. But when you watch "Gnomeo and Juliet" it is very hard to believe that anything that went on would have not drawn any attention from anyone around. I'm pretty sure if I saw a lawn mower driving around in my neighbors yard, I would have to call the police and tell them that a faulty lawn mower was on the rampage.

It is funny to see what the writers came up with to justify the things that go on, the old people who live in these homes (Mr. Capluet and Mrs. Montegue) blame the incidents on the other one. Mr. Capulet went as far as to say "Stop stealing my underwear!" to Mrs. Montegue, while in retaliation Mrs. Montegue yells "You broke my lawn mower!" The ridiculous assumptions go back and forth and yet not one of them ever calls the police.

The soundtrack to the movie is just "The Best of Elton John," which don't get me wrong, I love the guy with all my heart, but I was expecting some creativity. Where is Tim Rice when you need him!

Overall: Because of its creativity, and that it had surpassed my initial expectations as a work of cinematic trash, I give "Gnomeo and Juliet" 7.5 out of 10. It was well written (for the most part), very stylistic, spontaneous, energetic, and the animation and character design is very well done. I felt some parts of the movie were longer than they needed to be, and the motif of the heart was very cliche, but I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes Elton John, William Shackspeare (who makes a cameo in the film) and for people who just want to watch a movie to have fun.