Genre: Comedy
Australian Release Date: 27th August, 2008
Rating: MA15+
Length: 92 mins
Starring: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette & Elisabeth Shue
Directed By: Andrew Fleming
Soundtrack: Ralph Sall & Steve Brown
With credentials such as being written by the co-writers of South Park and Team America, I settled down for what I was hoping would be a hillarious spoof-like parody of a teenage drama class alla Summer Heights High. Instead, Hamlet 2 turned out to be a mildly funny look at the life of a depressed low life, and his somewhat politically incorrect treatment of the youth entrusted to him as his drama students. Early promises that the film would follow the path of films such as Dangerous Minds (as was directly quoted in the film) were soon forgotten as it became obvious the film was anything but.
The funniest part of the film involved a particular character receiving various blows to the head at various stages during the movie, and that’s saying something. The dull story line leads up to what should have been a grand finale, but is instead a drawn out scene of musical confusion. Songs with lyrics such as “rock me, rock me, rock me sexy Jesus” and “it felt like I was getting raped in the face” could have been funny if they had been put in any particular context. Their randomness didn’t work in their favour in this instance.
Overall, I felt that the plot had a great story behind it, that had the potential to be greatly emotional. Instead, the film came across as generally dull with a few funny moments, and even less relevant ones. David Arquette’s performance was the only thing that made Hamlet 2 watchable. I’m glad I only had to pay 95 cents to hire this one out.
-nome5tar
