SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Awesome Movie

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I like this movie very much, for the very good music ( Jean-Baptist Lully) the reconstitution of the Louis XIV century and the very good acting of all the actors.This movie is like an historic movie because the king Louis XIV was a art lovers and it is the time of the theater time of the french guy Moliere.

The director's motto, judging from his body of work so far, seems to be: "You don't like history, kids? No problem, I hate it too! But I have ways of making you watch just the same!" This is a prime example of an over-the-top Mexican telenovela trying to pass for what it's not, i.e. an 'historical' epic. It describes Louis the XIVth's changing allegiances between Molière, the court dramatist, and Lully, the court composer, as a series of off-colour vignettes with a vaguely homosexual subtext. No expense is spared to gross out the spectator at every turn: a plethora of endless scenes involving various body fluids are interspersed between sundry bloody surgical emergencies (a staple of every soap-opera) and scenery-chewing, bodice-ripping drag-queen-on-a-rampage mad scenes. This is truly cinema by hairdressers for hairdressers. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with history. At no point in the whole film is the spectator given to even timidly wonder what makes a prince a king, a dramatist a great playwright and a musician a genius. The events depicted in "Le Roi danse" have been elaborated brilliantly in at least half a dozen films and TV series by directors as diverse as Rossellini and Ariane Mnouchkine during the past 50 years. This is not one of these films. Watch this film, by all means,if you really, really enjoyed the extreme close-up of Haendel squashing a bug with the tip of his walking-stick in "Farinelli". Otherwise, save your money, go for a walk, buy a book, listen to a record, get some culture in. Even "Moulin Rouge!" is marginally less embarrassing than this piece of barocaca!

What a relief to see a film about the 17th century that does not feature Gerard Depardieu! Wonderful fashion detailing and locations support a serious history lesson on how music and theater were key to the success of Louis XIV. One of the best exemplars of how young men measure themselves by their physical abilities, the film provides a unique timeline for the long reign of Louis. He grows from an unsure child into a confident (well, yes, arrogant) man -- and partly this is accomplished through his passionate involvement in music and dance. Think of the foolish Emperor in "Amadeus," telling Mozart there are "too many notes," and then see this depiction of a king who actually understands and appreciates music. Yes, of course, peasants were mistreated and millions starved, but we don't see that part of 17th century France. That is another story, another film. This one is stunningly beautiful; like great art, some of these images may never fade from your mind's eye.

Le roi danse is easily one of the worst movies that I have ever seen in my entire life. An inner voice kept telling me to get up and leave, but, unfortunately, I didn't listen to it as I kept thinking, "It simply cannot be this bad." Well, it was. Offhand, I can hardly imagine a bigger waste of two hours that this film.