August 29, 2008: Hamlet 2
Two comedies in the theatre in one night. I’ve discovered in recent years that if I’m going out for one movie, I might as well go to two, since I’m there anyway, and the evening is “occupied” anyway. Works for me. Our second film this evening was Hamlet 2. My wife is a teacher, so perhaps if I had noted that this was an “inspirational teacher movie” along the lines of Dangerous Minds or Stand and Deliver, she might have been more easily convinced to attend, when instead my flimsy explanation was that it must have cultural value since it’s got a Shakespearian connection/influence.
So, I know a bit about Steve Coogan and have seen him here and there, but mostly in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story last year. I lived in England for a time, but too long ago to have caught his pop-cultural rise. I also know that I love Catherine Keener, to the point of actually buying DVDs of Nicole Holofcener movies (Lovely and Amazing, Friends With Money). But she’s great at wacky comedy as well, as in Death to Smoochy, Being John Malkovich, Living in Oblivion, and as mentioned in an earlier post, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I could go on all day about Catherine Keener, but I won’t do so here.
This one was only 60% on RottenTomatoes, right on the edge of freshness, but with at least one of the review snippets pointing out that this is the “funniest movie to be released this year”, a claim which may be true up to this point, but seemed linguistically anyway to be a declaration that no funnier movie would emerge before December 31. We’ll see about that. Well, funny it was, although I’ll reserve judgment about funniest of the year until I see Kevin Smith’s latest, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
The teacher/class stuff was OK but clichéd, Steve Coogan’s home life seemed woefully underdeveloped, but the eventual musical production made some of the flaws fade into the background. Not a bad diversion, but certainly not for all tastes.
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