I know how you feel. One of my favorite movies from back when I was younger and deeper, Kieslowski's Le Double Vie de Veronique, was released on DVD quite recently. And Hamlet is, of course, probably the best play ever written. Perhaps not surprisingly, I'm one of the geeks who once memorized "that famous monologue" (who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death  - that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns - puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of?)

...that's La Double Vie, of course.

That's brilliant! Thanks for the news, yo. Nice!

Well, y'know whatever floats your boat.

I never really liked shakespeare that much, the themes are universal and epic to be sure, but no-one ever did, or ever will speak in soliloquies and iambic pentameter. (Of course, as we learned at school, you could spot the commoners in shakespeare as they spoke in prose like what normal folk do.)

My favourite film's already out on DVD, but until I disconnect the video, or the tape dies - I can't really justify buying a second copy. (Grosse Point Blank for anyone who cares.)

So after all that it's Kenneth Branagh that makes you happy?
that was easier than expected!

Happy. . . but is it fun?

Don't know about Kenny Branagh's Hamlet, but Mel Gibson's was good if you don't mind that he doesn't have an English accent (although Hamlet is theoretically Prince of Denmark, and presumably Shakespeare didn't hire actors who had or could fake a Danish accent).  

Best Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare?  Not Hamlet, but Henry IV, Part Deux.  Powerful stuff.

Also like Much Ado About Nothing, which features a real montage of cine actors, like Denzel Washington (as the Sheriff), and a few others whose names slip my mind.

Alas, poor Rory! I knew him, Horatio

OK, I officially have my very big surprise for the day.  Namely, Rory has become a whole new type of nerd I wasn't expecting.  Bravo!  The only blog post I've read today rejoicing in the HD-DVD release of Hamlet.

This is most certainly what would be considered "good news" to those folks in my ridiculously nerdy, ridiculously English-majory circle of friends.  The Kenneth Branagh version is, as Rory so rightly claims, the finest version that can be fit inside a small box (excluding, of course, a very talented group of midgets).

Branagh's Hamlet is much more in tune with the original play than Mel's. Although I like them both for differing reasons.
I've had it on tape for quite some time and every now and then i drag it out.
good to see it will be out on tape.
i should check to see if he's been in anything lately.
i know he did harry potter.  i instantly recognized him too and nobody else did. sad isnt it.

Oh. Bollocks.

Ken's just single-handedly voided my DVD collection. And I swore I'd never upgrade.

Kenneth Branagh w/o Emma Thompson didn't seem like it would work, but I saw the whole bloody thing in one shot and it didn't drag one single bit.  And Derek Jacobi was absolutely *magnificent*.  I always thought of him as hanging on Branagh's coattails.  

Although (and I'm going straight to English Major Hell where there are only bodice rippers and schlock horror novels to read for admitting this) the Hamlet and his Dad's ghost scene was overblown to the point of just gawdawful.  They do this close up on Brian Blessed's lips as he says "Murder most foul", and I d---ed near starting singing "Michael Rennie was ill...the day the earth stood still..." purely by reflex.   But otherwise, I d'off my chapeau to Branagh for keeping the plot moving through every last word the Bard scribbled down on that play.  

"but no-one ever did, or ever will speak in soliloquies and iambic pentameter"

Speak for yourself, thy unadventurous
knave who dost never felt the urge to act
in arbitrary anachronism!