Review of Hamlet 2 (2008) by Tony H — 09 Jun 2011

Hamlet 2 is a movie so chalk full of vulgar absurdity that it ceases to matter 1) whether or not the plot of the film or the play in the film makes any sense and 2) that people might be offended in the process. Clearly, someone associated with South Park had to make this movie, because only one of the minds behind South Park could have produced a film like this.

Steve Coogan is an out-of-work-actor-turned-drama-teacher living in Tucson, Arizona, the place where, according to the film, dreams go to die. As if to confirm this, the principle of high school where Coogan's character Dana Marschz teaches cuts most of the arts department and finally kills drama, thanks to a series of terrible plays written by Marschz based off of academy award winning films. At the suggestion of the school drama critic, a fourteen year old with a pretty incredible vocabulary and an intelligence well beyond his years, Marschz sets out to save drama through a spectacular new play, a sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Nevermind that most of the characters died at the end of the play, Marschz writes in a device for that. The device is a time machine. Oh, and Jesus.

While at times I would have preferred a straight-up satire of the arts, theatre, and the writing process, the absurdity of the movie is hard to resist. This isn't a movie for strong political statements or profound realizations; Hamlet 2 is an exercise in insanity, and it works. The cast is competent, though Catherine Keener is particularly hilarious as Coogan's former pot dealing wife, and the script has the occasional clever witticism. Overall, the movie is a few hours of the afternoon well spent.