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.

The name of Bad Company's greatest hits album is called "10 From 6". You could have just turned up this album and cut the sound on this movie. Most of the songs played in the movie were from this album. I guess oldsters during the 1970s were probably tired of all the period pieces made then about the 1930s and 1940s. That's how I feel about movies made about the 1970s. The characters in the movie looked like they were auditioning for Danny Terrio. Why is it that movies have to exaggerate the 1970s. The only good period piece I liked was "Freaks and Geeks". They cut that television show. It was exactly like things were in high school when I was there back circa 1980. I was old enough to remember the 70s and no small town was like this. It was totally youth dominated. There were no reactionaries talking about the hippies and about the inner city of Philly. That was more the 70s that I remember as a kid. This movie was very dull and cheesy. At times, I was falling asleep. I don't know why an actor who was acting during the 70s, appeared in this one. He was probably trying to lend it some credibility. Walken didn't even show up until the second half. I guess the only true thing about the movie was the "baby boomers" were/are a spoiled lot. All the kids in the movie were spoiled brats. I don't know what they had against their father.

Unfortunately, the few other reviewers were expecting Caddyshack or something. This is a Black Comedy, and it is very good. The scenes are quick and engaging. The actors are well suited for their characters. The Duncan brothers could have their own sequel. Christopher Walken is very sly and humorous, shaking his castanetta's while trying to solve a murder. If it was not made aware to you, this is a 1980's version of Macbeth, with Maura Tierney and James LeGros playing the scheming murderous couple, the McBeths. A hamburger restaurant is at the center of the action, with the McBeths being willed the restaurant from their former boss, Mr. Duncan. The cinematography very much captures Pa., as well as the sets. Two final comments. The soundtrack was one of the best I have heard in years. Bad Company songs make up about half of it, with sprinklings of other ditties included as well. The second and most important is that Maura Tierney steals this film. Every scene she is in, you are transfixed to her. Her actions, her (in some cases) vulgarity and her great acting makes this her showcase. The scene with her and the pharmacist at the end is hysterical as she attempts to remove a burn from her hand which has long since healed. Bravo Maura and Bravo to this little movie that SHOULD have been a bigger success. Shakespeare adaptation not withstanding, you do not need to be familiar with the Bard to enjoy this film.

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!