WICKEDLY FUNNY SEND-UP, RIPPED FROM THE 1970S.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

I'M NOT SURE WHEN updated Shakespeare adaptations reached a point of unintentional ludicrousness; probably centuries ago. In the movies, though, it happened somewhere around the midpoint of Kenneth Branagh's career, only people have been too self-serious about it to say anything.

Until now. Writer-director Billy Morrissette's ``Scotland, PA'' hilariously transposes ``Macbeth'' to a fast-food restaurant in the middle of Nowhere, USA, circa 1972. And by po' facedly taking the concept to such a ridiculous extreme, he satirizes the whole genre even as he injects it with a vital kind of creativity that's often missing from more solemn updates.

The film mercifully ejects the verse except when an apt pun can be made of it (``This fowl is foul!'' one of the witches - who are portrayed as annoying hippies by Andy Dick, Amy Smart and Timothy ``Speed'' Levitch - says of a nascent McNugget). By obsessively getting every imaginable cultural detail of the period right and encouraging Christopher Walken to play the Macduff figure as benignly as the always unnerving actor is capable of, Morrissette eviscerates Bardic pretensions while still drawing us deeply into the characters' dilemmas. Call it That '70s Shakespeare.

James LeGros and ``ER's'' Maura Tierney play Joe (``Mac'') and Pat McBeth, a married couple for whom love was enough in their 20s but, now that he's still flipping burgers and she's working the counter at Norm Duncan's coffee shop in their mid-30s, they're feeling kind of desperate. Mac has all these great ideas - an intercom-connected drive-up window, free fry promotions to get people addicted, those dip-able chicken pieces - that could revolutionize the restaurant business, but why should Duncan (James Rebhorn) be the one to profit from them?

You can guess the rest, but only to a point. Duncan is found face down in the deep-fryer. His sons Malcolm (Tom Guiry) and Donald (Geoff Dunsworth) are more interested in, respectively, a Bad Company cover band and, um, show tunes, so they sell the restaurant to the McBeths for a song. Soon, red arches go up, the drive-thru is hopping, and everybody's happy ... until detective Ernie McDuff (Walken), a confirmed vegetarian, starts nosing around.

Morrissette's actual Shakespeare parodies are hit-or-miss. The Birnam Wood joke fizzles, and while the ``out, damned spot'' segment is cleverly developed and initially well-played by Tierney, it's taken to distracting extremes.

The other distracting aspect of her performance, however, is a pleasant revelation. Tierney's Lady Mac is no lady, thank heavens, but a woman of such natural, unforced sexual appeal that she hardly needs to manipulate her husband into dastardly acts (though she's great at that, too). She just needs to start kissing him. The actress, never known for her sensuality, is married to the director, and he sure likes to show us what a lucky guy he is.

But every performance, whether LeGros' slow development from sedentary to sinister or Kevin Corrigan's dimwitted but always fully realized ``Banco'' character, is a gem. And with that you get more generation gap, wide-tie, self-realization and new taste sensation gags than it can possibly be healthy to dream up.

But thank the Fates that someone bothered to.

SCOTLAND, PA Three and one half stars

(Rated R: violence, language, nudity, sex, drug use)

Starring: James LeGros, Maura Tierney, Christopher Walken, Kevin Corrigan, James Rebhorn, Tom Guiry.

Director: Billy Morrissette.

Running time: 1 hr. 42 min.

Playing: Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

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Photo:

Lt. Ernie McDuff (Christopher Walken, pictured) investigates the mysterious murder of burger-joint proprietor Norm Duncan in ``Scotland, PA.''