Hamlet 2 (2008)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

First of all, I do think this is a funny idea, and I liked the parody of the "Teacher of the ghetto thugs" being parodied, and I certainly enjoy making fun of no-talent people who think they can put something great on, and it turns out to be unintentionally funny. So yes, this film is worth seeing.Regarding the "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" number. Okay, it is well done and potentially funny. Speaking as a practicing Unorthodox Catholic, I would like to offer something to the community of film makers: I know many of you enjoy being "cutting edge" by mocking Jesus Christ and those who worship Him (myself, for example). So in the spirit of giving and promoting that "cutting edge" vitality that you all want to provide: should any of you decide to make "Hamlet 3" "King Lear Returns" "Revenge of Macbeth" "Son Of Othello" or "Romeo & Juliet--Together Again" then I would like to provide you with some more cutting edge musical numbers.How about "Rock Me Sexy Mohammed" (See how well THAT goes over & show us how "edgy, hip and unafraid of controversy" you all truly are)! Or what about "Rock Me L. Ron Hubbard You Fabulous Fraud" (See if Hollywood is as open-minded about THAT one and how many stars will want to work with you in the future)! Maybe "Rock Me Horny Dr. Martin Luther King" ("He kicks racist ass and fights for your civil rights to plagiarize and cheat on your wives")! What about "Rock Me OBAMA" ("He'll close Gitmo but he won't...he'll end the wars but he don't...the Bush policies he'll rearrange but we simply call that 'Hope and Change'")! Do you like my ideas?:--) Yeah, that's what I thought. Why is it you people who talk about being "open-minded and progressive" don't feel the same way when YOUR values are being mocked? Is it because even the so-called "progressives" can be hypocrites too?

Hamlet 2 is a comedy about Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), a failed actor turned drama teacher. When his class is lacking in grades, and his class is about to be shut down, he makes the greatest, and most offensive play of all time. It is Hamlet 2, in which Jesus builds a time machine to bring back everyone from Hamlet back to life. The movie is extremely offensive, which didn't even matter so much as that the film doesn't have the huge amount of laughs it should of had. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty funny. Catherine Keener plays Dana's wife, Brie. David Arquette plays Brie's crazy friend, Gary, and Elisabeth Shue plays Elisabeth Shue. The supporting cast gets a lot of laughs, but the movie itself revolves around a lot of flat jokes. The really, really, really huge laughs come from the play at the end where they play the song, Rock Me Sexy Jesus. The play is the foundation of laughs for this movie. It makes us consider what plays we're really watching. That said, racism jokes and people getting hurt jokes go a little too far. This movie started to push the boundaries of what was funny or not. I'm not saying this is a terrible movie, just a movie that has nowhere close to the amount of laughs it should have.

As someone who would watch Steve Coogan in almost anything and as an English student, I was really looking forward to this. "A comedy about a lousy theatre teacher who puts on a sequel to Hamlet? How could it miss?", I thought. If the film had focused more on the play instead of trying to be a mish-mash of Dangerous Minds, School of Rock and any number of misguided comedies about naive man-children, it would've been fairly awesome. Instead the film tries too hard to be too many things and fails to do any of them well.Firstly, what's up with Coogan's accent? Personally I would've preferred it if he played a British teacher in an American school (if nothing else, it would've made the Shakespeare connection funnier), but instead he puts on an admittedly passable American accent that I found unnecessary and jarring. His performance is fantastic besides that one quibble, although he isn't given much to work with.I fully agree with some of the other commenters when they say that Catherine Keener and David Arquette are pointless here, which is a shame as I love Keener in movies like Living in Oblivion and 40 Year Old Virgin, but she is totally wasted here as a relentless shrew. In fact, apart from the scene where Elizabeth Shue explains her reasons for leaving acting, Coogan's is the only really good performance here, with the supporting cast being mostly indistinguishable.The aspects of the plot to do with the drama class (ie. most of the plot) are especially banal and forced. I would've enjoyed it more if, instead of being landed with a group of "troubled teens" (can we please rest this dusty old cliché for a damn change?), Coogan had a class of students like the two suck-ups he has at the start. Riffing on Dangerous Minds just gives the film a very cheesy edge, when a film about a dedicated drama class putting on a horrible play would be far more entertaining than an awkward attempt at commentary on arts funding in public schools.Speaking of the plot, the main thing that stopped me from enjoying this film was the fact that practically every aspect of the plot seemed half-written. Coogan's students fall into line for no concrete reason other than narrative convenience, there seems to be no reason why his marriage is still somewhat intact and most of the jokes are stilted and unfunny.I tried really hard to like this, but ultimately it just wasn't good enough. A let-down.

This is a good movie, it's original, unpredictable, funny, it's just fun to watch. The cast is great, I thought everyone was really funny. The indy actors were all surprisingly good. I really appreciated the way the movie got resolved. There were some unanswered questions at the end but to be honest, there's been a lot of un-funny lately and this was a really good piece. I liked the set design, the acting, the play at the end was really fun. I can't think of a lot to criticize, some parts weren't super funny I guess, but overall the experience was very gratifying. People need to learn to not take themselves so seriously.I think the movie deserves a 7 but since it's at 6.5 right now I voted 8 to push it up lol.