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Saturday August 30, 2008

Bravado Bard!

By ROBERT WALDMAN

Better brush up on your Shakespeare. Old Willy gets royally skewered in Hamlet 2, a hilarious bit of nonsense from director / writer Andrew Fleming (Dick) and Alliance Films now jolting audiences at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas.

Theatre fans are bound to lap up this highly entertaining bit of fluff that relates to the sorry plight of one Dana Marschz. Everyone has a dream but like so many others poor Dana’s goal has been sort of sidetracked. Efforts at making it in the acting world did not exactly pan out for this budding thespian so he’s now relegated to teaching drama at a high school. Now the fun begins.

Even as a teacher Dana is a screw-up. Though a couple students follow his lead and have a desire to perform a bunch of new entrants would rather joke around in class than learn the basics. Now we’ve all seen this movie before: an idealistic teacher takes a bunch of rag tag kids and gets them to learn. Only here, thanks to the brilliant timing of top British comedian Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People) the whole situation gets zanier by the minute.

Creative processes can bring out the best in people. Once Dana locks onto an idea for a play that runs counter to the prurient religious flavour of the community all bets are off and the new school production becomes a cause célèbre for the artsy crowd and civil libertarians just ready to lock horns. Onlookers won’t be disappointed as the laughs fly off the screen in this vibrant 90-minute journey that pokes fun at classic literature, stuffy moralists and a Jesus just born to rock.

Coogan is terrific as the ultimate cheerleader for a cause who’s blinded by that whole stardom thing. Catherine Keener (The 40 Year Old Virgin) and David Arquette (Scream) provide more fodder for Dana as two live in pals with Elizabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas) on hand to poke fun at her image in more hilarity.

All the youths in that drama class are class acts themselves and provide loads of gusto to this rollicking story that lets Coogan loose and his charismatic screen presence will win you over – in a flash.

Read more reviews by Robert at www.moviereviewssite.com

Hamlet 2 (PG) * * *

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