For the most part, director Baz Luhrmann (of STRICTLY BALLROOM fame) pulls this off, with a glorious bang. The opening five minutes are an adrenaline rush -- the prologue being read out like a "60 Minutes" segment, the characters introduced to us in freeze-frames, Reservoir Dogs-style, and a plunge into the street brawl scene which fuses elements of gangster chic, matador-dancing grace and spaghetti western spoof. It all climaxes with a gas station up in flames (shades of Natural Born Killers). This sets the tone for Luhrmann's take on Shakespeare -- irreverent, campy, and great fun.

The film effectively creates an alternate universe, where Montagues wear Hawaiia

Instead of the classic fair Verona, where the scene is traditionally held; Luhrmann sets the tale in a violent and sexy other world called Verona Beach. Leonardo Dicaprio (Basketball Diaries, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Titanic) and Claire Danes (My So Called Life, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, The Mod Squad) portray their roles as Romeo and Juliet spectacularly. The young actors shed new light on an ancient story, and at the same time, instill a love for Shakespeare into young audiences.

A graver weakness is that Luhrmann's cheeky, overblown manner fails when it attempts to portray the tragedy in the Romeo & Juliet tale. The fight scene (a turning point when the love story becomes tragic) becomes mired in cliches taken from a high-budget episode of Miami Vice. The finale, in a tomb lit with a thousand neon crosses and electric candles, tries to be kitschy and moving all at once, but doesn't quite succeed. The film also cuts out the speech with Juliet's fear-filled thoughts before she drinks her potion, thus losing a vital, touching moment (and, unforgivably, another opportunity to see Claire Danes perform).

All in all, this movie is well done. Through changing times, the traditionalism of Romeo and Juliet is not quite preserved. However, the movie is touching and surprising and deserves lots of credit although it may not be identical to the play. It allows moviegoers of all ages to enjoy Shakespeare and proves that the ideas of Shakespeare may be ancient but the love remains timeless.

Mercutio himself is reinvented as a dreadlocked drag queen with a psychotic edge in a captivating performance by Harold Perrineau Jr. Tybalt (John Leguizamo), comes across as a hissy, preening leather stud, perhaps leading to the interpretation of the duel between Tybalt and Mercutio as a jealous fight between two queens, butch and fem, over Romeo (as when Tybalt hisses "Thou consortest with Romeo").

n shirts and Capulets black leather, where advertising billboards contain Shakespearean in-jokes ("Out Damn'd Spot" as an acne cream ad, "Rosencrantzky's" as a hot dog brand). Sometimes this is taken to the point of gimmicky cheesiness -- the guns sport prominent brand names like "Sword" and "Rapier", as a way of explaining why gangsters say things like "Put up your swords". Other times, there is an inspired aptness to the updated

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