Hamlet 2   Starring: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette and Elisabeth Shue Momentum Pictures RRP: £15.99 MP878D Certificate: 15 Available 07 September 2009

High school drama teacher Dana Marschz is a failed actor whose career peaked with an advert for herpes medication. His wife Brie hates him, his students mock him, and the 13 year-old critic for the school newspaper trashes every production he does. Life seemingly couldn’t get any worse. When the school district cuts funding for the drama program it is make or break for Marschz. He has just one shot to save his drama class, inspire his students, salvage his career, rekindle his love-life and just quite possible, change the world. Here begins his journey to write and stage a wholly original, mostly musical, wildly offensive, time-travelling sequel to Hamlet that’s so terrible it might just work...

Hamlet 2 is so bad that it's... well bad, actually. The writers went out of their way to be offensive to almost everyone - which they fail to do by the way. It's not offensive in the slightest, it's just not engaging or funny.

Steve Coogan adopts a ridiculously over the top American accent which is only topped by his ludicrously hammy performance. It's a shame because with a much tighter script, better acting and some jokes this could have been watchable... maybe.

I'm a fan of Coogan - it's just a shame that his natural comedic talents have so far been poorly used when it comes to his transition to the big screen. Alan Partridge was funny, but since then his comedy vehicles have been decidedly flat, with the exception of the fantastic Coogan's Run and Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible. Who remembers The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon?

Hamlet 2 is full of bad acting, repetitive jokes (Coogan falling over in roller skates isn't funny the first time, let alone the third), lazy dialogue and very shallow characterisations.

The only thing I actually enjoyed about this film (and the reason it got 2/10 instead of 0/10) was Elisabeth Shue, who plays a fictional version of herself who has packed in acting and become a nurse.

Extras include Deleted Scenes (3 min single deleted scene); Making Number 2 (oh the irony! - 10 min worth of behind the scenes material split into two featurettes); Oscar Winner Vs. High School Drama Class (1 min, 09 sec scene comparison between the movie's Erin Brockovich play and the real thing); Sing along with Hamlet 2 (2 mins which allows you to sing along with two of the movie's songs); and an audio commentary with director/co-writer Andrew Fleming and co-writer Pam Brady.

Avoid like the plague! It's not Shakespeare, that's for certain.

2

Darren Rea