VividSimon
Simply Perfect
Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
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.
Jenmuse-2
This film is full of quirk, which I love. The one liners alone made the movie all worth it. 'The foul was foul' 'And the fair was fair' I'll admit this film isn't for everyone. But I laughed the whole way through. It was also refreshing to see James LeGros and M. Tierney playing characters so out of type. 'And I don't want one of those baby s**t-a** tubes, I need a vat of it'. Like the classic it was penned to mimic, it delivered a great story of envy, greed, betrayal and karmic redemption. Christopher Walken aside, I was surprised at what a first time filmmaker and what I'd consider a bunch of B-list actors could do. 'Mr. McBeth come take a look at your wife's beautiful cones!' If you like quirk and Bad Company, this movie is for you.
mfisher452
I had heard good things about this film but never seen it until I found it on DVD the other day. I don't recall ever hearing about this film being in the theaters and we don't get the Sundance Channel. To use a phase popularized in Esquire magazine in the Sixties, this was a good film but not a great film. Quirky, yes. Occasionally hilarious, yes. But overall, nowhere near the quirkiest or funniest quirky funny film we've seen. The opening expository scenes were so clumsily done that we couldn't tell what on earth was going on or who was who. We thought the funniest parts were Duncan's death by deep-fryer and the attempt to kill Lieutenant McDuff (a vegetarian) by asphyxiating him with a hamburger. It's been a long time since I saw or read the original Macbeth, but obviously much was left out of "Scotland, PA," which didn't surprise us and I didn't mind so much. The only part I missed, and which I think should SOMEHOW have been included, was the "untimely ripped" part about Macduff. Other reviewers have remarked on the prominence of Maura Tierney's role as Pat McBeth. Not surprising, as she is married to the director/screenwriter. James LeGros seems to be popular among fans of offbeat indie films, but we were unimpressed. One problem may have been his hair style: Correct as it may have been for the period, it hid so much of his face that his acting, if any, was obscured.I don't know whether the original film was poorly lit or whether the DVD was poorly mastered, but the image quality of this film was poor. I suspect it was the film, because the daylight scenes were good enough, but the night scenes were not well lit. Our biggest complaint was the sound track. It was poorly balanced, with muddy, often unintelligible dialogue forcing us to turn the sound way up alternating with blasts of Bad Company that forced us to turn the sound way down. We watched this film with our thumbs on the remote. And there were no subtitles or closed captions we could turn on to help figure out what the heck a character had just said!
daniel-p-gallagher
Scotland PA presumes you've read MacBeth or seen MacBeth. It's necessary. If you haven't seen the play or read the play, you probably won't like the movie. If you have seen the play or read the play, and you expect the movie to be a faithful remake, you'll be disappointed. This movie is deliberate in the liberties it takes with the DEVELOPMENT of the plot, while remaining true to the plot itself. IF: You know the play, and enjoy the story, you may like this movie.If you also identify with either the 1970s or Pennsylvania rural life, you'll enjoy the movie. If you are interested in seeing a movie that combines a classic, familiar story with a unique style and modern film making wit, and most of all, if you are willing to watch a movie that has emotion, irony, style, and poise, you'll enjoy Scotland PA.
