Macbeth (2006)

Overrated and overhyped

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

i mean it i got interested into this film after reading some reviews & the poster looked cool even the story sounded awesome its not Hollywood its from Australian cinema i have read Shakespeare & seen a few films based on his plays & as someone on the boards here said in a sarcastic manner that this guy Shakespeare writes the best movies ever of course that is true i agree Shakespeare maybe gone centuries ago but his legacy continues however when you adapt something from someone who is considered a legend in literature you need to be careful it is not joke honestly William Shakespeare will never be the same again this has created a bad impact on my mind.Macbeth 2006 is a film adapted from one of the plays Shakespeare wrote this is a modern take on it i mean the guns,girls,gangs etc usual stuff thrown in just for the attraction it focuses more on the style then substance i found the grittiness & sharpness in the characters absolutely missing they are so dull i mean anyone who has ever read Shakespeare will agree that this film tried to mock him.the plot:Macbeth is a drug-lord/gangster who is the leader of one of the gangs in Melbourne Australia this is the story of how he falls.look at here these guys didn't even show his rise to the top there is no back story or whatever of how he became a bad guy they simply made him extra tragic then he ever was the script was good but ruined by terrible direction Macbeth lives in a large mansion with heavy security hes got witches & his very own lady Macbeth.Macbeth dresses more like a playboy or film star then a gangster his love angle with lady Macbeth is rather weird then interesting just how can Macbeth got to other ugly women when he has the hottest lady Macbeth with him the guy is dumb or what he makes wrong choices most of the time no wonder he ends up in a mess.the cast:Sam Worthington looks hot here long hair style suits him this was before he came to Hollywood i saw him in avatar 2009 great actor but sadly he is misused here,rest cast is wasted except few women but the one that deserves getting mentioned is Victoria Hill this lady is stunning & beautiful plus she can act damn well too i wish she was more famous.if anyone is expecting this to be a stylish slick flick get ready to be disappointed this does feature gunfight,car chases & some sex & nudity but the who project is badly shot the camera work is awful it looks like a below average 90s porno film with unnecessary blood the only good thing are the kissing scenes between Macbeth & lady Macbeth that is the only time camera sits down properly other then that rest of the film is shaky cam or gorilla style & too dark have these guys ever heard of lights i mean common & who is the sound mixer of this film the music completely overshadows the dialogs a lot of background noise i simply lost interest in this film but kept watching only because of Victoria Hill & Sam Worthington it got me bored.the film can't decide which genre it wants to be in the constant shifting of tones was annoying it is one weird movie i tell you bad guys can summon themselves out of nowhere as for Macbeth one moment he is sad & another he is instantly hitting the clubs & going to parties just what was going on here the filmmakers tired to blend way too much Gothic themes in here & failed i kept thinking who is Macbeth supposed to be is he even a human or some vampire this film just wanted to be something like director Tim Burton makes.Overall Macbeth 2006 will go down in history as a desperate & most terrible idea to adapt a Shakespeare play into the big screen my rating is 3/10.

Bored isn't what I was expecting to be while watching this film. I love Macbeth. I've both read the play and have been in a production of it. It's a beautiful play with some of Shakepeare's finest soliloquies. I can sit through a production of Macbeth and still appreciate the language, this adaptation from Geoffrey Wright even butchers the language of the play. What we have is a relatively slim adaptation of Macbeth with much of its substance left out and grim scenes added in.I didn't expect a film adaptation to include everything. Wright however has taken the original text and edited it with a meat cleaver. So many scenes are barely there. The characters of Ross and Lennox are almost non existent and the Witches are mere props rather than characters. Wright takes the lines of the play and adds his own little changes to them. Well, he didn't realize that once he has done this that it ceases to be Shakespeare. I don't think any character in the film speaks in iambic pentameters for any length of time. What we get is an awkward transition from some lines lifted directly from the play and Wright's creations which include big words. Shakespeare isn't about big words it's about the language. The music of the play is completely gone in this Macbeth and it is painfully noticeable.What really got me though is Wright's inclusion of two scenes that Shakespeare wisely put off stage. We aren't supposed to see Macbeth murder Duncan or see Macbeth look over Lady Macbeth's corpse. Shakespeare could be violent,grimly violent, but these scenes are more effective in building the character of Macbeth if we don't see them. Implied violence is so much more effective than seeing the dagger pierce the skin. Shakespeare could have easily have written a scene where Macbeth murders Duncan, he doesn't and it's brilliant. We only see Macbeth drenched in blood obviously already regretting his sins and haunted by the world's eyes. Not only do we see Macbeth kill Duncan in this version but it is a grim scene. Macbeth stabs Duncan multiple times with a vicious fury. Does Macbeth want to be there? The scene doesn't let us see the turmoil in Macbeth's head. He was a good man turned evil by his ambition. That mental transition is the key to Macbeth and we simply don't get the full effect if we see Macbeth kill Duncan.Macbeth looking over his wife's corpse is detrimental to their relationship in the play. I've read Macbeth many times and I can't answer this question, "Do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth love each other?" I tend to think that maybe they don't but I come to a different conclusion every time. Lady Macbeth is obviously flirting with Duncan during their brief interaction together. Their relationship is complex. All Macbeth says when he hears of Lady Macbeth's death is "She should have died hereafter, there would have been time for such a word." The best soliloquy of the play is delivered immediately after but I think Macbeth's "tomorrow" speech is largely about himself. There isn't time for such a word and it seems almost detrimental to the pacing of the final act to see Macbeth lament over his wife. By this time in the story Macbeth has lost his sanity, love is one of the last things on his mind. Maybe he loved her once but by that moment of the play he is incapable of love.The mob setting is really the only new thing about this adaptation and I think it is kind of clever in terms of staging. In terms of storytelling though it hurts Macbeth. Macbeth is about a mans fall from good to evil, does this work in a gangland setting? Macbeth and Duncan are supposed to be moral men at the beginning. You lose that seeing them as criminals. Is it really so far fetched to expect a gang member to kill to advance himself? It really isn't all that shocking. The thought of a kinsman killing a king he loved to advance himself has much more dramatic tension. While I admit there are some cool staging, the gangland setting isn't original enough to cut down the actual Shakespeare for overlong gun battles.

To quote a fellow student, this version of Macbeth is exactly what Baz Lurhmann's Romeo + Juliet tried to be and failed. Here, the story of Macbeth is updated to 21st century Australia, featuring drug deals gone wrong, seductive witches, and laser guns.To say that this is the best Shakespeare movie I've ever seen is an understatement. It completely blows everything else out of the water. The first fifteen minutes sucked me in like no other: witches spray painting blood onto statues in a chilling graveyard scene, Macbeth and company whipping out machine guns to the tune of the Devastations, and Macbeth encountering the witches while on a drug trip - it sounds absolutely ludicrous, and yet the movie is filmed so artistically that you can't help but want more.One of the things that impressed me the most about this film and the actors in it was the dialogue. Oftentimes actors sound unbelievable when they recite lines from Shakespeare, as if they themselves have no idea what they're saying or they can't quite figure out which words they're supposed to emphasize. Sam Worthington in particular was excellent with his lines, delivering them perfectly and with a certain je ne sais quoi that reminded me at times of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. Gary Sweet as Duncan was also wonderful. Victoria Hill as Lady Macbeth was at times hit or miss, but she absolutely nailed the scenes in which her character was succumbing to madness.Several people, when discussing this movie, have complained that the original dialogue has been modified. To be honest, this didn't really bother me - after all, the movie is set in modern times, and in order to maintain credibility it is only natural that some of the dialogue would have to be cut or changed. The one grievance I did have was concerning the famous "tomorrow" speech. I didn't mind its relocation to the end of the movie, where it was actually better placed than after Lady Macbeth's death. What slightly irritated me, however, was the fact that the last few lines of the speech were cut off, which was an unnecessary change.Another topic of controversy is the role that the witches played. Turning them into seductresses was a clever move, especially since it contributed to the fantastic scene in which they speak to Macbeth for the first time, but the foursome with Macbeth was fairly gratuitous. I really didn't need to see the witches screaming "Macbeth! Oh, Macbeth!" in ecstasy while they climaxed in various positions; no, really, I didn't.One last thing: for the most part, the violence in this movie is fairly non-graphic. However, Lady Macduff's death scene was extremely disturbing, and I would advise viewer discretion while watching it.Overall, aside from a few minor irritations, this version of Macbeth is a winner. Not only does it throw Shakespeare into modern times, which is always a refreshing change, but it does so without coming across as over-the-top or just plain stupid (a trap its predecessor, Romeo + Juliet, didn't quite manage to escape). The actors are excellent, the alternating rock and trance music serves as a perfect soundtrack, and everything about it is entertainment at its best.This is the movie they should be showing English classes when covering Macbeth - guaranteed, students will pay attention.

Well actually it is adapted from a play from Shakespeare, but it's not your typical Shakespearian adaptation you'll get here. Although the dialog seems to be spoken as it stood in the book (I don't know it word for word, but they use Shakespearian "language"), the whole thing is brought into a more modern world. It's not the first movie to do so, but I guess it's the first to be quite so brutal about it (literally speaking in this case).The acting is quite good and with a bit of settling in time, you'll not even notice that this is done after a Shakespeare play, but see it as an action-drama (movie). And if you can do that, than you can enjoy it too (as much as it is possible for you).