Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

museumofdave No matter what well-meaning directors decide to do to Mr. Shakespeare, he will survive--and every time some folks decide to re-interpret the play, he is, in some way, enriched--sometimes sometimes just through another exposure, but often as in this mod "Gangster Version," something like the frequently asked question "Did the Macbeths have any children?" will pop up and get discussed.An early scene in this Aussie Macbeth has Lady Macbeth grieving over a dead child's tombstone, giving her a lot of motivation for ensuing diabolical actions; Although there is excessive violence in the film, Mr. Shakespeare can take credit for a good deal of it--consider the dozens of times the word "blood" appears in the play--it's justified.Unless the viewer is familiar with the play, this film may not make a lot of sense, as the original Shakespearian language is used--but cut, considerably. Would that the actor playing Banquo or Macduff had been cast as Macbeth, as Sam Worthington, while adequate, lacks the intense charisma such a tortured soul needs, and looks a little more like an unhappy rock star. Nevertheless, save for some naughty nude semi-orgies, this would be a good film to show to a high school class, comparing it, for instance, to the bare-bones Orson Welles version, which was filmed on unused Republic Film Studio western sets--sprayed with water! The Welles version, sometimes hard to listen to as his actors often use a heavy Scots brogue, shows considerably more strength, has an exciting visual sense and cleaves to the theme in lieu of modern attitude.

mgr81760 This is the best movie I've seen this year. I simply loved it, I thought it did a superb job of bringing the concept of MacBeth into the 21st century.First, I want to address the criticisms. It seems to me that people went to this movie expecting the wrong thing: either they wanted a movie like Romper Stomper, and didn't get one, so feel that MacBeth is somehow lacking; or, they're offended by the transplantation of MacBeth and consequent modifications, or they're expecting a performance like that in a theater rather than that of a movie. Those, however, are more their own expectations than the movie's flaws. As a movie, this is quality work, and I enjoyed every minute of it.The transformation into drug lords was really quite effective. I think the movie captured the essence of what Shakespeare (or maybe de Vere) had in mind in writing the play...the English didn't look upon the Scots lords as anything more than petty thugs to begin with, and the squabbling over relatively small spoils at the cost of men's lives works for either medieval Scotland or a drug lord.The violence is also necessary, it brings to mind exactly the sort of violence that Shakespeare has in mind. Does it matter if MacDuff's son is shot or run through with a sword--no, because the point is the willingness of MacBeth to kill children to maintain his position, and how it loses him the loyalty of most of his supporters: brutal and thuggish violence is okay...but spare the children.I didn't mind the Shakespearean language or the acting at all. I've seen a lot of criticisms of Worthington...sorry, but you don't watch this film looking for the next Olivier. And because I wasn't expecting the Royal Shakespeare Ensemble, I thought the acting, with a special nod to Victoria Hill as Lady MacBeth, was more than adequate for the film's need to render Shakespeare's words. In respect to the actual dialogue, the film was strong enough that the Shakespearean lines are automatically converted into your own English...when Banquo tells his son, "Fleance, fly, fly, fly", it's easy enough to hear, "get out of here".I also thoroughly enjoyed the small touches...the basins in which Lady MacBeth and her husband washed the blood off, I loved the "are you riding" to Banquo and yeah, except it's bikes not horses, there were so many little touches that just kept the play in mind even as you watched the movie, you knew that the truck was going to have a sign saying, "Birnham Timber"...one after another the technical renditions of the details into the 21st century kept me with a smile on my face throughout the movie.And I think there's things that you pick up in this movie that you necessarily don't in the play. Lennox meeting with Lady MacDuff after the latter flees...their obvious interest in each other as people going beyond his duty as "cousin"...that's something which, exactly because MacBeth is such a strong stage presence, you're not likely to pick up in the theater because your attention is focused on him, but which is possible to bring to the fore in a movie in which the setting makes their conversation believable and, therefore, meaningful enough to pick up on their feelings for each other.I also thought the movie was very well made. Others have complained about camera angles, something that I thought just kept the movie moving apace...I thought it was very well filmed, very crisp. Some have suggested that it could have been a bit broader in settings and numbers of cast...but that's an example of being unable to please all folks, because had the director opted for that route, those who would have been looking for a more Shakespearian cast to the movie would have been even more disappointed. I thought Geoffrey Wright struck an excellent balance between modernism and traditionalism, both in action and settings, that, once again, kept the movie closely tethered to the play, but fully played out in our own time and place. If I had one criticism of the movie, I would echo another in questioning the change in place, and especially the truncating, of the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy. I cannot for the life of me imagine why the director chose that way...I guess he wanted to use it looking down at MacBeth and his lady, both dead, as a cautionary third person, but it is so much more effective as MacBeth realizes it, with such deep bitterness, first person in his own life.Other than that one flaw, however, I thought this movie was perfect, and just cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who wants to see MacBeth come to life in our own time and place.

fertilecelluloid Geoffrey Wright, the director of "Romper Stomper", transplants Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in the contemporary, criminal underworld of Melbourne, Australia. The result is a semi-awful piece of cinema. Sam Worthington is Macbeth, and walks around looking very self-conscious and bored. Victoria Hill, who wrote the script with Wright, is Lady Macbeth, and she's neither awful nor good. Lachy Hulme, who plays McDuff, is the only actor in the cast who exudes any kind of authority. The rest, including Gary Sweet, are wasted and misdirected. Shot on HD by the late Will Gibson, the movie's visuals lack character. Everything is too clean and too deliberately lit. Wright's direction is uninspired in the extreme and the action sequences are confusing and inept. Marketed erroneously as "the most violent Australia movie ever", the film is violent at times and reasonably bloody, but it fails to deliver a single impactful moment. Slow moving and terribly pretentious, this umpteenth silver screen version of the classic play is the personification of wrong-headed.

phlsphr42 A very hyped-up, slick, edgy reinterpretation.They've fallen into the "because it's modern, it has to be hyped-up, slick, etc." trap."Romeo and Juliet" carried this idea off much more successfully, but I really think it's time we move beyond the two extremes here (period piece vs. edgy film).Just because this is a "modern" retelling, doesn't mean the movie has to look like a magazine ad, or have anything to do with drugs or guns.If the trappings were as subtle as the honeyed words, Macbeth would be a far more powerful film. As it is, read your Shakespeare. Read it out loud. Ask your Oxford dictionary some questions. Skip the film. Or don't, but you've been warned.Sorry for the super-long review. IMDb made me do it.