Macbeth

This is a thrilling cinematic visualization of Shakespeare's bloodiest bag of tricks, starring a young Sam Worthington as one of the most compelling (and smoldering) Macbeths you'll ever see. The kick@ss director of ROMPER STOMPER (the awesome skinhead flick that made Russell Crow a star) romps through a goth-baroque criminal underworld in modern Melbourne and stomps Shakespeare's dialogue into spicy hot soundbites of toil and trouble. The witches are recast as naughty schoolgirls/ravers who use sex, nudity, blasphemy, and dreams of power to seduce young Macbeth into murder. Add one red hot housewife, several lines of coke, and our hero doesn't stand a chance. We've seen sexy Macbeths before (in Roman Polansky's brilliant 1971 version) and we've seen stylized adaptations as well (Orson Welles' Universal-style horror show and the PBS Eastern-bloc bunker/nightmare with Patrick Stewart) but it's never been done this cinematically, with so much pure visual energy (not to mention sound and fury). There are so many clever bits in this, like the disco smoke-machine seduction, the naked "double, double" cook-off, the invasion of Birnam Wood on wheels, etc. My only complaint: The screenplay may be a bit too ruthless in transforming the play into a visual experience. The actors are so good, I wish I could have heard them say more of Shakespeare's transcendent language, especially the "Tomorrow" speech. Even so, I'd say Geoffrey Wright's version is every bit as exciting and important as Welles' and Polansky's. (And fans of the NYC art/theater piece SLEEP NO MORE will love the baroque art direction.)

This was good... I never read Macbeth, but it was still awsome. Im basically writing this review to say to the other reviewers, this was not as sexually explicit as it was led to believe. Macbeth had sex with the weird sisters, but you dont see anything that you dont see EVERYWHERE on commercials, billboards...hell walking down the street. For those of you who want to know, (because I know you are out there) NO Sam Worthington was not nude in this movie. There was one scene when we came close, damnit, but no he was all covered up. It was still a good movie, I plan to read the original Macbeth, by the great William Shakespeare. It is dark, guns blazing, blood pouring, violent violent violent... HELLO it is Macbeth. They use the original shakespearian language which I think is wonderful.

I am an English teacher, and I have always found Macbeth a tough sell with high school students. This modern take on the classic is the only film version available that appeals to a younger generation, and it uses the original text fairly effectively (albeit with many cuts). Think of this as the Macbeth equivalent of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, but without Luhrmann's visual sense of humor.Yes, this Macbeth has its drawbacks, namely gratuitous nudity and an inexplicable orgy with Macbeth and the witches (I skip over these parts with my students). Overall, though, this film captures the violence of the play in a more contemporary context and, through visual cues, actually provides plausible motivations for the characters (e.g. Lady Macbeth is a suicidal drug user after the death of a son). Worth a look, but not for purists.

It should be obvious from the promotions, reviews, and the cover graphics that this is intended to be a modernized adapatation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. If you liked the Romeo+Juliet movie with L.DeCaprio/Claire Dannes, and the Ethan Hawke/Julia Styles version of Hamlet, well this is the latest installment along those lines. I found the physical action in this Macbeth too distracting to enjoy the artistry of the dialogue. In that respect, Romeo+Juliet did a much better job.Also, be forewarned: there are no English subtitles for the hearing impaired available on this disc.

This is not what I expected. This version reduces Macbeth to a set and Violence romp. I did like the way the director made the three weird sisters prophecies figment of Macbeth s imagination. For that bit well done. Tuning the scene where Macbeth sets out to demand more information from the weird sisters in to a dream would have been a great scene to show my tenth gamers, but it was a fantasy more in line with Calista so I couldn't.

I have to admit that I came upon this particular version of Macbeth quite by accident. I had a dear friend bring it over one night to watch since we both have a love of quirky interpretations of classical works. I was half expecting a lame attempt to jump on the bandwagon, but I was most pleasantly surprised once the video started. Sam Worthington (before Avatar) was dark and brooding, the whole cast was aptly cast and very believable. I loved the Macbeth twist to almost a Mafia type "King", and this truly made the movie. I think my friend described it best as The Godfather meets Shakespeare, because that is exactly what you get. It's dark, it's violent and it's gripping. The director captures the dark theme of the original play so wonderfully that you hardly realize they are speaking old English. By 15 minutes you'll be so engrossed you won't want the story to end. A wonderful adaptation, and you certainly won't waste your money.

Macbeth I have several versions of Mabeth; this is the most recent one. It's a modern retelling of Shakespeare's play using dialog from the original. Macbeth is trying to climb the drug lord ladder to the top. I found it interesting, dramatic, imaginative, true to the "message" of the original. I enjoyed watching it and recommended it to some of my friends. However, it is not for anyone under 18 because of nudity, sex, and extreme violence. This is not for classroom use but a bit of fun for adults.

These are very pretty silver earrings suitable for daytime use. If I have one small criticism it is that, being convex, the posts are a little on the short side. I presume that they have standard length posts but being convex in design the posts have further to reach. Luckily I don't have plump earlobes. I think the earrings would feel a little more secure if they had slightly longer posts and I always prefer posts with a notch near the end which helps the butterfly clips to stay in place. Despite this they are beautiful earrings and I do like them.

The people who made this film took on a hard job - to insert Shakespeare's text into the Australian drug-dealing underworld. And they so nearly pull it off!To make it work, the text had to be heavily cut and a lot conveyed through physical action. This is what we get. And this, of course, relies on an audience familiar with cinematic conventions. If Shakespeare could have written screenplays, he might have produced something much like this.The director keeps you wondering how he is going to exploit the conventions. For example, how is Birnam wood going to reach Dunsinane? And it is arranged neatly - I didn't see that coming! The witches are a revelation; and this is the first Lady Macbeth for whom I have felt sympathy.However, iambic pentameter must fit badly with the natural cadence of Australian speech. Some of the delivery is awkward; but you can live with that.It is not quite a triumph. Some may think it a failure (TS Eliot thought 'Hamlet' an artistic failure) but it gets five stars from me for the vision, for the courage of the attempt, for being so close to triumph, and above all for being interesting. I would rather have this than another run-of-the-mill production.

I thought I would hate this adaptation of my favourite Shakespeare play but I really enjoyed it. I have seen some truly terrible performances of Macbeth over the years, both on screen and on stage, but I thought this was good.The acting wasn't always great and I think some of the rhythm of the language was lost, however it is a great piece of entertainment and is quite loyal to the play. Macbeth is a dirty, dark and violent play and this was portrayed well in the acion movie style.It suits a 21st century audience- high-energy soundtrack, sex, graphic violence; the directors have played with the text well to suit the audience and it works surprisingly well as a modern-day action movie. However someone coming from a feminist perspective might disagree with the weird sisters being played as sexy school girls and participating in an orgy with Macbeth. Shakespeare on the other hand probably would have loved the idea, if only he could have gotten away with it in the Jacobean era!Not a patch on the play text but worth a view.

This film fails on so many levels. The druggy underworld it inhabits means that most of the characters are one dimensional junkies and the madness, guilt and 'vaulting ambition' of the original are lost in a smoky haze of guns and powerful pharmaceutical enhancement. Sam Worthington's Macbeth is particularly wooden and his killing of his gangland boss engender no sympathy in the viewer - he's just another dead Mafia boss who has been deservedly dispatched and who has none of the nobility of spirit of a King Duncan. And that's why the movie ultimately fails - the crime that precipitates yet more gory, slo-mo violence will have the audience clapping, rather than coming to the realisation that something irreversible has happened and that natural justice needs to be given full vent. In the end you couldn't care less about the murderer or his victims. Much better off buying the Polanski version. Trust me.

Macbeth is my favourite of Shakespeare's plays and this modern re-working of the play is both up to date and faithful to the feel of the original. Set in Melbourne's criminal underworld the film starts before the play with the battle (a drugs buy that turns violent) referred to in the play being shown on screen. It also raises some interesting questions (are the witches just a drug-fuelled fantasy from Macbeth's imagination). Despite the Australian accents the Shakespearean dialogue works well although I suspect some purists will feel it too different.If you enjoyed Richard III with Ian Mckellen then you should look at this as well.