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Hamlet 2 Review By: Mujtaba Mirza When you watch at least 7 or 8 movies every month, you reach a certain level of perception that by just watching the trailer of a movie you can easily predict if it's worth watching or not rather accurately. Hamlet 2 unfortunately was one where I was wrong. While the trailer uses the finale of the movie with snippets from the rest of it to add spice , the movie disappoints overall save for a few moments. The plot involves Dana Marschz, played by Steve Coogan, a passionate drama teacher with little talent. Trying to save his Drama class from getting shut down due to budget cuts, his attempt is to create the politically incorrect sequel to Hamlet as a musical with the now famous song "Rock me sexy Jesus". In supporting roles are Catherine Keener who plays his wife, David Arquette, Amy Poehler as the ACLU lawyer who fights to save the musical, and Elizabeth Shue as Elizabeth Shue. A further twist is added when with a sharp swift in demographics his class of two becomes a class of fifteen with the inclusion of Hispanic students who have no other elective to choose once again due to budget cuts by the education board. With Steve Coogan as the protagonist Dana Marschz, director Andrew Fleming's latest project barely manages to surpass his last one (Nancy Drew released last year). Fleming's treatment of humour did not do justice to the potential in the premise and the cast. An example in my opinion is where we are introduced to the drama critic Dana is angry at for his latest review. Getting angry at a diminutive 10th grader is set up to deliver laughs but falls way short of the mark. Steve Coogan delivers a good performance overall but seems out of his element in some way. In his first role where he is not the Englishman, like his small role in Tropic Thunder. His jokes are also a bit more physical in nature than past performances. Unfortunately getting hit by doors and falling while drunk rollerblading can be funny only so many times. The script written by South Park writer Pam Brady fails to show reasons behind the characters various eccentricities earlier in the movie and leaves the audience waiting for more character development of the protagonist. But where Brady really reminds us of South Park credentials is where we see the musical being written by Dana (Coogan) is made politically incorrect yet funny in every way possible. One of the films redeeming features is the performance by its supporting cast. Keener is great as the wife frustrated by her life and her husbands persistence on working as a drama teacher for just gas money. Elizabeth Shue is great as herself and her character brings a refreshing element to the movie as its becoming dull and dragged on a bit. The high points of the movie definitely includes the musical finale on stage with the musical numbers "Rape in the Mouth" and "Rock me sexy Jesus", maybe even perhaps seeing the Jesus moonwalk on water. Overall the movie was just slightly above average, with some good performances and leaves one lamenting at how the director didn't fully exploit the potential behind the premise. |