Hamlet 2

Article By: Rebekah Kendal

Hamlet 2 scores 2/5

‘Hamlet 2′ is a parody of an inspirational teacher movie, which turns out to be… yip, you guessed it… an inspirational teacher movie. Except that there is absolutely nothing inspirational about this teacher. And the kids are hardly the dregs of society.

Dana Marschz (the usually very funny Steve Coogan) is a wannabe actor who retires from appearing in commercials to teach drama at a high school in Tuscon. Every year he stages theatre versions of popular Hollywood films with his two sycophantic students.

Every year he is slated by the school’s pubescent, yet erudite, theatre critic. And deservedly so.

One day, due to some improbable plot twist involving asbestos, he gets a bunch of new students. They are largely Hispanic (translation: problem kids) and they have no desire to do drama.

He wins them over — not as is usually the case with wisdom and inspiring speeches, but rather because he is such an insufferable loser. And, as it turns out, they are actually rather nice, intelligent kids.

When the school decides to close the drama department, Maeschz hatches a plan to save it by putting on a spectacular production — the self-penned ‘Hamlet 2′. Yes, a sequel to the Shakespearean masterpiece — a play in which all the major characters die.

Needless to say, it involves a time machine, Jesus and some X-rated stuff. Luckily, you are not forced to actually watch it.

Somehow — via jokes about drug-addiction, gay stereotypes, and a mute girl who is continually being injured by random flying objects — the plot finds its way to a conclusion which extols the virtues of free speech.

There are some exceptionally funny moments — dialogues with the school critic (Shea Pepe), witty one-liners from Marschz’s long-suffering wife (Catherine Keener), Elizabeth Shue as herself, and a song called ‘Rock Me Sexy Jesus’ — which will probably get you all the way through the film before you realise just how bad it is.

But, on the whole, it is spectacularly unfunny and Coogan’s bumbling, awkward, self-pitying character verges on intolerable.

From another angle: Zoopy ‘O