"Hamlet 2" Review
| Movie: Hamlet 2 * Official Site * Trailer | In Theaters: August 29, 2008 |
| Runtime: 92 minutes | Directed by: Andrew Fleming |
| MPAA Rating: R for language, including sexual references, brief nudity, and some drug content | Gecko Rating: |
There’s no doubt that English comedian Steve Coogan is a brilliant actor. In fact, if not for him, this movie would flounder in mediocrity, but his goofy, almost slapstick performance is the glue that holds it all together.
In Hamlet 2, he plays Dana Marschz, a really bad actor who’s failed miserably at the craft. So now he’s teaching drama to high-schoolers in Tucson, Arizona and doing a few TV commercials on embarrassing subjects. (”I’m having a herpes outbreak, but you’d never know it!” he chirps.) Everything he does is very dramatic, with wild gestures and lots of facial expressions. It’s almost cartoonish.
More after the jump…
At home, Dana and wife Brie (Catherine Keener, in a sorely underused role) are trying to get pregnant. When Dana learns that their chances will improve if he wears loose-fitting pants, he starts wearing gym shorts everywhere. Sometimes the back is cut out to allow extra air movement, which, of course, displays his butt cheeks to any and everyone. No matter. Dana has no modesty whatsoever.
When Brie announces that she’s finally pregnant, things don’t turn out as well as Dana expected. So he throws himself into his work — attempting to save the drama class from cancellation by staging an original musical play called “Hamlet 2.” To offset the obvious shortfalls of everyone dying in Hamlet, he dreams up a time machine to bring Hamlet back, along with Jesus, Einstein, and the very much alive Hillary Clinton.
But the play is so offensive and politically incorrect, that the school wants to shut it down. Can’t do that, says Dana. What about free speech? The ACLU hears about it and sends in a lawyer, Cricket Feldstein (the hilarious Amy Poehler) to keep things on track.
The movie takes plenty of potshots at the movie industry. Elisabeth Shue appears as herself, only she’s not acting anymore. Disillusioned with Hollywood, she’s now a nurse working in Arizona. Their chance meeting at a medical clinic leaves Dana totally starstruck, and he immediately recruits her to come speak to his class.
The first half of this movie sort of chugs along, but things pick up in the second half, when the production of “Hamlet 2″ kicks into gear. The rousing musical numbers, including “Rock Me, Sexy Jesus,” are a high point of the movie. The Tucson Gay Men’s Chorus is pretty funny, too.
This movie isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but it has flashes of brilliance and plenty of chuckles. It will certainly bring Steve Coogan to the head of the comedy pack, but I think he has better things yet to come.
Coogan has quite a few movies in the works, including Night at the Museum 2, the second installment of Ben Stiller’s hit; Eddie the Eagle, in which Coogan plays England’s first ski jumper to enter the Winter Olympics; and Alan Partridge: The Movie, based on Coogan’s fictional TV and radio host a la Sacha Baron Cohen’s Da Ali G Show.
Images: Hamlet 2, Bona Fide Productions, 2008
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