UnowPriceless hyped garbage
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
secondtake Scotland, PA (2001)What a terrific farce. And homage to the Shake. And campy fun movie.Advice? Read a synopsis of MacBeth first—the play, the original Shakespeare drama that this movie is based on. There is no Elizabethan language in this thorough update of Lady MacBeth and crew, but the plot is kind of sort of the same. Only different in all the right ways.And the acting is great. Playing Lady MacBeth (one of Shakespeare's greatest characters) as Pat McBeth, is Maura Tierney, and she's terrific—the disdain, sass, savvy, and brooding are all perfect pitch. And matching her as the detective now called Lieutenant McDuff is Christopher Walken in his usual dry, subtle mode. The rest of the cast is nearly as good (the one sorry exception is the James Le Gros as Mr. McBeth), and the compact scenes click along with peculiar twists and little odd background pranks all through. You have to watch closely.The setting—the kingdom—is a drive-up restaurant, a burger joint, called Duncan's. Duncan (Tome Guiry) is the "king" and if you know MacBeth you know he is doomed. The fight for relevance in this little place is comic in itself, even if you don't know Shakespeare. In fact, you need to feel comfortable diving into this funny gem of a movie even if you don't know a thing about the original story. It stands on its own.A terrific surprise.
museumofdave The seminal concept is interesting, and for anyone under thirty who hasn't seen the actual play Macbeth or experienced Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, The Marx Brothers, Tiny Fey or anyone else who puts wit and insight and richly mined humor ahead of stoner attitudes and teen obsessions, this might be a very funny movie. As an independent film, it certainly has the right to its style and convictions, and while I found it a fascinating idea, I got lost in a haze of often indecipherable dialogue and Sophomoric meanderings. As he always does, Mr. Shakespeare will survive being utilized as a springboard, no matter how misguided: the same play was used as a gangster film in the 1950s called Joe Macbeth, and that was rather a mess as well; a fascinating version of the play is the Orson Welles Indie version, made in 18 days on old Hollywood Western sets at Republic Studios, lit dark and made wet--it isn't all clear, but its a fascinating immersion in the genuinely dark world of the renegade Scot and his ambitious mate and its haunting images stick with the viewer. This not so much.
jmatrixrenegade For hundreds of years, Shakespeare has inspired playwrights and others, and he himself based many of his plays on past works and stories. "Scotland, PA" is another, one of many in recent years, often done as teen flicks these days. This is totally logical given the power of the stories, the universality of the themes. Now, you might not have immediately thought the take over of a burger joint in the 1970s would be the most logical parallel to the regicide of Macbeth, but it's handled pretty well here.The movie is largely loyal to the original, so the co-story credit with William Shakespeare is quite appropriate. The main characters have names patterned after the originals, and the storyline goes basically the same. Maura Tierney (wife of the director) as Pat McBeth is great and seems to have a lot of fun cursing (she is usually in good girl roles). Christopher Walken (Lieutenant McDuff) has another self-parodying role that is a lot of fun. A couple other interesting tidbits ... "I'm not Lisa" is a song in the film (Maura Tierney played Lisa in "NewsRadio") and the streaker at the end of the film is no bit player ... he is a producer of this film and directed various movies and tv, including a movie Maura Tierney was in, and the homage to old time radio, "Remember WENN."Once the murders begin, the movie (as the director himself notes on the DVD commentary track) gets a bit more serious. It also somewhat loses its way... now, it still is enjoyable, and parts of it are quite imaginative and good on some level, but something is missing. It seems like the movie is just playing out the plot instead of it being fun on its own. Nonetheless, on the whole, it's an enjoyable movie. The DVD commentary is decent too, so check out the DVD.
David A Dein There are some that say if Shakespeare lived today he'd be a screenwriter. I don't know if that would be true, but it would be nice to speculate about it. Some proof that this might be possible comes from viewing actor/ first time writer director Billy Morrissette's (Pump up the volume) SCOTLAND, PA, a modern day reworking of MacBeth.Set in the mid seventies SCOTLAND, PA stars James LeGros (Psycho) as Joe MacBeth a cook at Duncan's café. He the kind of guy with lots of ideas, but absolutely no drive and so people walk all over him. So when his boss Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn, Far From Heaven) uses some of them while promoting his useless son Malcolm, his wife Pat(Maura Tierney, Primary Colors), a beautiful and driven hatch's a plan. She and Mac' are going to kill Duncan (who by the way made his fortune in Donuts (yes it's corny but I found it kind of funny)) and open up MacBeth's the first fast food drive-thru restaurant in Scotland, PA.SCOTLAND, PA plays fast and loose with it's source material and has some really great ideas jammed packed in it. It's always fun to reinterpret Shakespeare, because his works are timeless. You can set them in the 18th century or a hundred years in the future and the characters are still real and powerful. Maura Tierney's Lady MacBeth is phenomenal. It is a performance full of subtle nuance; of course she hatches the plan and is able to manipulate MacBeth. But there is also vulnerability about her. I wonder if she were my wife would I not follow? I'd probably do anything she said. She kind of reminds me of my fiancé, in whom I would probably kill for. That's the mark of a great femme fatale. Her performance is engaging and wonderful, and one of the best I've seen in a long time.It's the other character's that seem understated and dull. No other performance really sticks out until Christopher Walken show's up. He portrays Lieutenant McDuff, the detective sent out to figure out just who killed Duncan. He plays the part with that certain gusto that only Walken could bring to the role. He's plays parts like these so well, he's always walking that thin line between quirky and bored and you can't help but be enchanted by him. He's really amazing. I also enjoyed Amy Smart (Outside Providence), Andy Dick (Dude, Where's My Car?) and Timothy Speed' Levitch (The Crusie) as the three witches. They offer the comic relief that some points of the movie desperately needed. Sure they were a little corny and maybe a bit to zany for the film, but since the movie has a certain silly tone, it was okay with me.First time director and writer Billy Morrissette will always hold that special place in my heart at the tough guy in Pump up the Volume. He is defiantly a fun director who has a nice visual sense. I liked how the film may have been set in the 70's and yet also felt like it could have been happening in present day. Many lesser films would have felt like the characters were at a 70's party and not like real people living at the time. I also liked the look of the press conference as they drove in the convertible. It's was just a beautiful sequence right before the dam breaks. It pretty powerful stuff.Scotland PA is not a brilliant reworking of the MacBeth story, but it's fun, vibrant, and Tierney and Walken are worth and hour and forty minutes. I only wish the rest of of the cast were up to snuff. All in all I recommend this movie.SCOTLAND PA is well worth a visit.
