I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Though I have watched this documentary many times I find that now after watching it during my enrollment in a documentary film class I am able to appreciate the film all that much more. Pacino's passion as an actor is vividly captured in this documentary and the breaks that he offers in order for the audience to "catch-up" illustrates that he understands his notions as an actor place him in a better understanding of the Shakespearean play, Richard III; but, he does not impose that notion upon the viewer. He is dedicated to helping the viewer understand the play and in doing so gives off a great sense of authority over the play and the production. I enjoyed the rehearsal readings that showed the actors were somewhat in the same boat of misunderstanding as the audience was. By walking the streets of New York and discussing Shakespeare in the most usually of places demonstrates how Pacino envisioned Shakespeare to be a more intricate part of our daily lives. As a participatory film, Pacino demonstrates the art of documenting by choosing the scenes in which he is selecting the settings for the shots to be filmed, he controls the dialogue that takes place on camera and decides which scenes of the play with be discussed more extensively on camera. This film gained a new appreciation from an old fan by noticing the different cinematic techniques that Al Pacino considers while they take place on film.

"Looking for Richard" has Al Pacino, over a four-year period while he filmed various other things, delving into Shakespeare's Richard III with a cast of wonderful actors.The premise is that American actors approach Shakespeare too reverentially. Pacino gathers various actors, using places such as the Cloisters and St. John the Divine Church, to analyze, rehearse, and perform Richard III. Pacino amassed something like 80 hours, cut down to two.There are interviews with stars such as Kevin Kline, Vanessa Redgrave, F. Murray Abraham, Viveka Lindfors, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Kline, John Gielgud, Peter Brook, and many others, including the man on the street. The final players include Kevin Conway, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder, Harris Yulin, Alec Baldwin, Estelle Parsons, Aiden Quinn and others.Scenes from the play are interspersed with discussion and rehearsal. Pacino's Richard emerges as raw, tough, and manipulative, whereas Olivier's was a complete slimeball. Both approaches work.This is an excellent film to show to high school students learning Shakespeare as Pacino takes some of the language apart -- the film makes the language and the human feelings and motivations behind the words very accessible.Truly excellent.

With what seems to be inadvertent coherence, film is both a performance of selected scenes of William Shakespeare's Richard III and a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture. The movie guides the audience through the play's plot and historical background.Pacino plays both himself and the title character, making it an absolute essential for fans of Al Pacino, people like me, who cannot get enough of the guy's presence. His energy is infectious, his spirit is enviable.Combines crowd-pleasing with the widespread cultural turn-off Americans have with the challenge of Shakespeare. What an incredible cause. Kids seeing this film first may well end up with a better understanding of the Bard's work, because Pacino has made an informative, engrossing and hugely enjoyable movie that stands as a work of pure entertainment as powerfully as its inspiration, the very mixture he intends to apply to complicated historical potboilers like Richard III. And he does not condescend the masses by focusing entirely on the negligent view of Shakespeare as obligation. Stars who turn to directing rarely or never do things like this.

An interesting documentary about Al Pacino putting on a production of William Shakespeare's "Richard III", "Looking for Richard" is a neat look into everything. Much of the documentary features interviews with other cast members from the production putting in their two cents. A pretty perceptive movie, and it goes to show why Al Pacino is one of the greatest actors of our time. Also starring Harris Yulin, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder, James Earl Jones and Kevin Kline. There's even an interview with Paul Gleason (aka Clarence Beaks in "Trading Places" and the principal in "The Breakfast Club"), who died yesterday.