William Shakespeare is probably rolling over in his grave right now. Director Baz Luhrmann has taken Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet and tried to give it a contemporary voice. Although the idea is a good one, the result is not so great.The basic tragedy of the movie is the same: ‘two star cross’d lovers’ forbidden to be together because of their parents’ hate. The original dialogue is even the same. But everything else is very different from the book we had to read in high school. The movie is set in mythical Verona Beach, a dirty city full of surfers, prostitutes and gang warfare between the Montagues and Capulets. A place where people must check in their guns rather than their coats before they’re allowed to enter a building.’No ticket, no gun,’ reads a sign in a bar where Romeo, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, hangs out.The movie explodes onto the screen with a fight between the Montague and Capulet gangs. These are no longer just two bickering families. They are dyed-hair, gold-toothed, tattooed, gun-happy, out-of-control punks who do not fight out of defense of their family name, but simply because they enjoy the rivalry. They seem to live solely off of their hatred. Although Luhrmann made every aspect of the film contemporary, he chose to keep the Shakepearean language. This worked in the love scenes with DiCaprio’s Romeo and Juliet, played by Claire Danes, but it was comical to see the characters speak this way as they cruised the streets in their low riders, looking for action.It was simply annoying to listen to it in the middle of the gang fights. Imagine watching a bunch of kids screaming at the top of their lungs over who looked at who wrong. Now imagine it in Shakespearean language.In fact, all of the gang fights were annoying. There was no suspense in who was going to win. It was only a matter of who pulled out their gun first, like a showdown in an old western movie. Despite how incredibly bizarre this movie is, DiCaprio and Danes make a spectacular Romeo and Juliet. Both have that young, sensitive, soulful quality that makes you believe that two people could have such a unique love that leads to such a tragedy. I did not want the scenes with them to end. But I was always jerked out of their love to be thrust once again into the middle of a loud obnoxious fight scene.Action in a film keeps it alive, but there was a little too much in the 121 minutes of this movie. The focus on Romeo and Juliet was lost among the insane warfare and loud music that accompanied it.Going into this movie I had high expectations. How could a movie with DiCaprio and Danes possibly be anything less than exceptional? Well, they were the only exceptional part of the film.