Hamlet 2
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Who's in it: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Elisabeth Shue
What's it about: A high school drama teacher in Tucson tries to save his school's theater program by staging an original musical - a sequel to "Hamlet."
To be or not to be: Wait - didn't everybody die at the end of "Hamlet"? That's barely a speed-bump to Dana Marschz (Coogan), a failed actor in a bad marriage who can't see just how deluded he really is. But his passion inspires his kids - and the off-kilter screenplay powers this wonderfully bad-taste comedy. Did we say bad taste? The musical teams Hamlet with Jesus, and includes a song called "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus." Oh, and Hamlet and Jesus have a time machine. British comic Coogan is brilliant as the kind of guy who refuses to believe that he's as untalented as everyone tells him - because he loves theater so much. Cheers to Shue, who plays a bizarrely funny version of herself: a show-biz escapee now working as a nurse in Arizona.
Long story short: It's the summer's wittiest oddball hit.
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