ltlacey Review of Hamlet 2

Hamlet 2 (2008)

A failed actor turned drama teacher goes for one last hit.

[7/10 · 24 December 2008]

Satire and parody can be a g-dsend if done right, and for most of this movie it is done right. The overall premise is that we have a bad actor who never quite made it (the beginning sequences where we see what he did as an actor are quite good), and somehow manages to become a drama teacher at a high school in Tucson, Arizona. What I did not like were the derogatory references to Tucson itself, and thankfully those were few. What I also did not like, even though in reality we would see a lot of Latino students at a high school in this area, was some typecasting, which thankfully Coogan's character cleared up. That was smart scriptwriting, though for a while the audience had to put up with the stereotyping of specific individuals. What made this movie better, though, was Catherine Keener, who, at least in everything she has been in that I have seen, was superb as the self-absorbed and wicked wife who lets her hubby down. And she does it so well. David Arquette also managed to pull off his character without any of us cringing. But overall the basic plot was predictable and we knew how it was going to end, like so many movies, and what started out as something different turned into just one more "Hollywood" movie that was okay, but we wished there was something more to it. I will say that the actual production of Hamlet 2, especially the musical numbers, was good. One for the DVD rental.