Comparisons may be inherently unfair, but that doesn't mean they're not useful.
Take the case of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, newly adapted for the screen by director Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day).
Try as it might, the movie simply does not approach the standard Kenneth Branagh set with his delightful 1993 version of Much Ado About Nothing, a movie that showed just how winning Shakespeare's comedies can be.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an enduring favorite that has been filmed at least four times before. It is a bubbly fantasy about lovestruck humans, woodland fairies, magic, illusions and mistaken identities.
With a cast that includes such well-known overachievers as Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett, the new version should be a guaranteed romp.
Instead, it too often simply sits still. Too often, funny business turns sad -- or worse, dull.
For instance: Mr. Kline plays Bottom, the would-be actor who, while rehearsing an entertainment for the upcoming marriage of the local duke, falls asleep and is turned into a donkey by Oberon, the king of the fairies (Mr. Everett).
Oberon's mischief includes dosing his queen, Tatiana (Ms. Pfeiffer), with a magic potion as she sleeps so she'll fall for the first being she sees when she wakes up -- which is the donkey-eared Bottom.
This is some of the most clever, giddiest silliness Shakespeare ever wrote. It's supposed to be hilarious. Yet in Mr. Hoffman's hands, it is not.
Painfully laggard pacing is the chief culprit, though overly restrained performances are an issue, too; Mr. Everett seems to be on the brink of falling asleep every time he appears.
Similar enchantments confuse a quartet of young humans, with somewhat more entertaining results -- thanks in part to Calista Flockhart, who gives an energetic performance as the shunned, then pursued and always confused Helena.
Others who make notable contributions include Stanley Tucci as Oberon's servant Puck, and David Straithairn as the duke.
Mr. Hoffman has relocated the story from ancient Athens to Tuscany in the late 1800s without improving the story, though the change saves the men from wearing togas and gives cinematographer Oliver Stapleton plenty of lush scenery to shoot.
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