Scotland, PA
Greasy Spoon. Bloody Murder.
Burgers, fries... and a side of mayhem. Welcome to McBeths', where fast food and ambition make up a daily special filled with murder and mystery, 70's style.
Member Reviews
A re-telling of Macbeth as set in a small town fast food joint - morphiston
An off-beat little-known film made in 2001 that proves that the great themes mined by Shakespeare in 16th and 17th Century Britain are relevant to the lives of ordinary people - even in a small town Pennsylvanian fast food joint. This is the story of Macbeth featuring modern characters (the story is set in 1975). Great plot (of course!) and excellent acting from a cast headed by Christopher Walken, who becomes a more interesting actor with every movie he makes. Walken plays Lt. McDuff who investigates the suspicious death of fast-food restaurant owner Duncan. Great performance from Maura Tierney as "Pat" (Lady) Macbeth.starts slow but last half is pretty funny - lookingjust
A pretty good americanized MacBeth. Lots of funny takes on the play and lots of good actors involved. Christer Walken is of course his usual bizarrely hilarious self. Maura Tierney I thought stole even scene she was in, with great overacting in a very shakespearion way. She looked damn fine doing it too by the way. All in all - I really enjoyed this movie, although it takes a while to get going. If you can bear with the first half of the movie (which is still ok I thought), it really pulls through in the second half as things start to go real real bad.Just didn't work. - cathyottawa
An attempt to modernize Macbeth, setting it in a Dairy Queen like restaurant no less, sounded ambitious. I was intrigued to see what the filmmakers came up with, and I was disappointed.
This movie has stripped Macbeth to it's most basic elements. It's also taken a heart wrenching tragedy, and turned it into a dark comedy, something I think just didn't work.
It's going for a kind of Fargo tone, where dark comedy and drama commingle, but it falls short of the mark. Case in point, a guy being killed by having his head put in a deep fryer? Disturbing. Not funny. And it kind of clunks along from there.
They tick off the key scenes: murders? Check. Lady Macbeth and her hand obsession? Check. But it's all just kind of pointless, with these shallow characters.
And the motive that starts the ball rolling? That the Macbeths want to own the burger joint? Not strong enough. At least not for the characters that were presented. "Mac" is a spineless dweeb. I didn't believe him capable of the crimes he commits. Lady Macbeth comes across as more annoying, cold and soulless than conflicted, haunted and guilt-ridden.
I don't think these are the characters Shakespeare envisioned, and wanting to own a Dairy Queen? It's not exactly as strong a motive as, say, wanting to be king of Scotland.
Member Reviews
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A re-telling of Macbeth as set in a small town fast food joint - morphiston
An off-beat little-known film made in 2001 that proves that the great themes mined by Shakespeare in 16th and 17th Century Britain are relevant to the lives of ordinary people - even in a small town Pennsylvanian fast food joint. This is the story of Macbeth ...starts slow but last half is pretty funny - lookingjust
A pretty good americanized MacBeth. Lots of funny takes on the play and lots of good actors involved. Christer Walken is of course his usual bizarrely hilarious self. Maura Tierney I thought stole even scene she was in, with great overacting in a very shakespearion ...Just didn't work. - cathyottawa
An attempt to modernize Macbeth, setting it in a Dairy Queen like restaurant no less, sounded ambitious. I was intrigued to see what the filmmakers came up with, and I was disappointed.
This movie has stripped Macbeth to it's most basic elements. ...