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The film was very, very weak. I don't know who to blame more, either: Mekhi Phifer, the co-star, or Tim Blake Nelson, the director, all the dialog felt corny and forced; everything was unbelievable. I'm not planning on watching any movies with either of them ever again.

Stripped of its poetry and boiled down to the grisly facts, Shakespeare's "Othello" is just another tale of jealousy and envy.

Othello is Moorish, so let's make him a black American teenage basketballer and load the soundtrack up with hip-hop. Nailed it. Has some interesting elements, but it's pretty typical of the time, self-serious and pretentious but bland as hell. And Iago's Machiavellian manipulations seem absurd in the context, not to mention coming from Josh Hartnett and his bizarre haircut.

Shakespeare called. He said to knock it off.

I thought it was quite a good take on Othello but I'm in the minority here.