Last week, it was the hit documentary of the Sundance Film Festival, "American Teen." This week, it is the hit comedy of Sundance, the delightfully strange "Hamlet 2."
In 'Hamlet 2," British comedian Steve Coogan stars as a failing high school drama teacher who decides to produce a happy musical sequel to William Shakespeare's drama.
This sometimes rude and edgy comedy is both hilarious and weird, packed with typically bizarre British humor and a cast of very strange characters in even stranger circumstances.
It is not just the blow to the Bard that makes this comedy irreverent. Any movie with a song and dance number called "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" is going to upset at least some people.
However, "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" actually parodies "Jesus Christ Superstar" more than anything, and "Hamlet 2", smash hit of the Sundance Film Festival is not the something-to-offend-everyone comedy one might expect.
Simply put, "Hamlet 2" is one of the funniest movies to come along in a long time.
"Hamlet 2" opens with drama teacher Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan) trying to butter up the high school newspaper's theater critic with all the desperation of a Hollywood director approaching a big-name film critic.
The problem is that all his plays are stage adaptations of popular movies.
Apart from a pair of wannabe student actors, Rand (Skylar Astin) and Epiphany (Phoebe Strole), no one is signing up for his class, and the whole drama program is under threat from budget cuts.
At home, his wife Brie (Catherine Keener) is losing patience with the former failed actor and is irritated by the dimwitted boarder they take in to help with expenses, Gary (David Arquette). Dana needs a hit to salvage both his job and his personal life.
Sound like a lot of Hollywood movies and let's-put-on-a-show high school musical dramas? That is the parody target here, and Coogan and cohorts hit the mark.
The film takes a delightfully strange turn when Dana decides the solution to all his problems is to write and produce his own play, a re-imaging of Hamlet.
What starts out as a high school play becomes a community event.
Along the way, they pick up aggressive lawyer Cricket Feldstein (Amy Poehler) and encounter Dana's movie idol, Elizabeth Shue, playing herself.
Coogan is great as the clueless, self-absorbed Dana, a much better showcase of his comedic talents than his smaller role in "Tropic Thunder."
Coogan's very funny, emotional and relentless Dana may be the role that lets this talented comic actor finally connect with U.S. audiences after years of British hits (24 Hour Party People, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) that never made it to most American theaters.
The rest of the cast is also terrific and deadly sincere in their absurd roles.
Skylar Astin and Phoebe Strole, stars of Broadway's "Spring Awakening," are perfect as the model students, and Amy Poehler is particularly good as the pit-bull lawyer.
The comedy works, in part, because everything is played so dead pan straight, no matter how preposterous. Despite the total hilarity and absurdity, you cannot help but be a little heart-warmed by its I-gotta-be-me tale of determination.
"Hamlet 2" is far differentfrom recent typical Hollywood comedy hits, both farther out on the edge yet somehow more intelligent.
"South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut" and "Team America: World Police" writer Pam Brady co-wrote this script with director Andrew Fleming.
The combination of "South Park" and British humor might make this comedy too much for some tastes, but others will find it laugh-out-loud funny in its wonderfully twisted way.
Bizarre to surreal, offensive to strangely touching, "Hamlet 2" is one crazy, funny film.
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