Hamlet 2 (2008)

Brief: A failed actor turned high school drama teacher (Steve Coogan) learns that his school's drama program will be canceled, so he pens a semi-autobiographical musical sequel to Hamlet believing that the runaway success of the musical will save the program.

It's like this: if you can't see the humour in sequel to Hamlet in which a time-traveling Hamlet teams up with Jesus to stop all the death at the end of Shakespeare's great tragedy but takes time out for Jesus to arrive in the present and inspire musical numbers like, "Rock me, sexy Jesus," then this movie isn't for you. The entire third act is devoted to the opening performance of Hamlet 2. That's too bad for you, really, as Coogan continues to be a comic genius who apparently hasn't broken big over here (or so the AV Club would have me believe).

The talent pool varies in the rest of the cast from the always wonderful Catherine Keener as Brie, Coogan's bizarrely poorly thought out wife, to the sometimes strained performances of the newcomers that fill out Coogan's high school troupe (personal favourite: Arnie Pantoja as Vitamin J), to Elisabeth Shue and Amy Poehler duking it out for the title of Most Inspired Cameo.

Co-writer and director Andrew Fleming, who hilariously also co-wrote and directed The Craft, and co-writer Pam Brady have their work cut out for them in creating a movie that's exactly as awfulsome (tm the Vulture, I think) as its title musical. Fortunately, they mostly succeed in this point, although some of the running gags fall flat (one with a 12 year-old school paper theatre critic (Shea Pepe) that Coogan treats with utmost deference is inspired; another with a girl who suffers repeated head injuries, less so). Even so, it's cuckoo bananas that more people haven't gone to see it. B+