The 1996 Rendition of Romeo and Juliet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWPg3SCYH4

If you are forced to read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juleit, you might want to rent this movie because even though it is set in modern day times it is still the same story and dialoge used in Shakespeare's original play.  It is so much more interesting than watching the old black and white films or a play because it is meant to be more interesting and appealing to today's students.  I do not know about you all but the Elizibethian language does not go so well with me.  I have to read something multiple times and even then get some help to figure out what it means.  Even though the dialoge in this film is the original, it just is more comprehendible because you can relate better to the characters and scenes than you could in the original play.  In one sense the actors may not be able to completely fulfill what was meant by Shakespeare, but in the other they show how a play that is over four hundred years old can still be reinacted to sit in with the way things are now days.  You still have the two main characters Romeo and Juliet from opposing sides, who fall in love, and will do everything in their power to be together.  Their families do not agree but that does not matter to them.  It is love that encompasses what they do, and nothing can stand between them.  Ultimately in the end their fates remain the same and they both lie dead amidst one another. 
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/r/romeo_juliet.html