Reviewer's grade: A+
Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan) is a failed actor who has moved to Tucson, Ariz., to work as a high school drama teacher, but the principal informs him that drama is going the way of the dodo and he has until the end of the term to find other employment. So Dana planns a big theatrical event to save drama: a sequel to Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
Because everyone dies at the end of "Hamlet," Dana's Hamlet will use a time machine, provided by Jesus, to stop his mother from drinking poison and thereby void all the tragedy from the original story. While the beginning is funny, it's a little slow compared to the comedic tension that starts to mount as adversity makes Dana come progressively unglued.
Essentially, this is what makes "Hamlet 2" brilliant. What starts out as a fair but slightly limp parody of teacher-inspires-social-misfits movies like "Dangerous Minds" slowly morphs into its own mutated soup of convoluted craziness. R
"?Mike Robertson
