Review of Hamlet 2 (2008) by Keith C — 06 Jan 2012

"Hamlet 2" is REALLY funny in places. I covered my mouth to stop drawing attention to myself, rocked in my seat and even clapped at one point. But my laughter was tempered by the knowledge that it was my school theatre background that allowed me to find it so funny.

When I put my film teacher hat on, all I could see was a wildly uneven film with a script that jumped around and changed tones at random and the promise of something great hanging for dear life onto a skeleton of something good.

The quickest way to describe "Hamlet 2" is to say that it is the high school theatre version of the community theatre film "Waiting for Guffman," with the added bonus of outrageousness.

Both films feature clueless "artiste" directors and warped theatrical visions, but "Hamlet 2" avoids being subtle about it. In either case, the viewer who "knows these people" is going to laugh a little harder.

A word about the offensive material...it was not a big deal. When I heard about the song "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus," I expected to be offended by the film. I wasn't. In fact, I laughed my ass off at that number.

The supposedly-offensive material all works in the context of the story, and I hope people get that. Steve Coogan is a riot as the drama teacher staging a ridiculous sequel to Hamlet in an attempt to save his school's cut drama program.

The film is funny as hell, and it's a shame that it couldn't have been placed in the hands of a better writer. Regardless, I was able to thoroughly enjoy it while simultaneously being critical of its flaws.