Sundance 2008

Hamlet 2

Things start brightly with clips from the highlights in unpronounceably surnamed Dana Marschz’s (Steve Coogan) professional acting career: notably, commercials for Jack La Lanne’s Power Juicer and herpes medication.

Flash forward to the present, in which he’s given up the tinsel of Hollywood to teach drama at Tucson’s West Mesa High. His best students (OK, his only students), closeted gay Rand (Skylar Astin) and Christian proselytizer Epiphany (Phoebe Strole), are starring in Marschz’s latest biannual school play, this one a stage version of “Erin Brockovich.”

Next day, the reviews come in, bringing another scathing notice from the school paper’s critic (Shea Pepe), who looks all of 13 years old. Still, his judgment is pithy.

When the fall brings word that budget cuts will soon eliminate drama from the curriculum entirely, the critic recommends Marschz try creating something original rather than awkwardly transferring yet another popular movie to the boards.

The new semester also brings a surprising surge of enrollees, if only because classes held in asbestos-laden portable classrooms have been canceled and drama is one of the few electives left.

As a result, white-bread Rand and Epiphany are suddenly swamped by a rowdy group of Latino and Latina “gangbangers” (or so Marschz and his pets assume). Once their initial disinterest is somewhat overcome, Marschz discovers an acting natural in the hitherto hostile Haywood (as in Jablowme) aka Octavio (Joseph Julian Soria), casting him as Hamlet.

This sequel won’t be wasting any time on soliloquies -- here Hamlet uses a time machine to reverse the deaths incurred in Shakespeare’s “bummer” original. It also features appearances by Hillary Clinton, Einstein and others, not to mention Jesus Christ (played by Marschz himself) moonwalking on water in the production number “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” accompanied by a Tucson gay men’s chorus.

Once word gets out, Principal Rocker (Marshall Bell), then the whole community wants to pull plug. Smelling a freedom-of-speech struggle, the ACLU dispatches legal zealot Cricket Feldstein (Amy Poehler) to see that the show goes on. It does -- and if not as intentionally funny as, say, the Broadway opening-night climax of “Stayin’ Alive” was unintentionally so, the “Hamlet 2” within “Hamlet 2” proves a colorful exercise in multimedia bad taste.

Talented Brit thesp Coogan is given a little too much rope here, while conversely, some estimable supporting players are given short shrift. Catherine Keener does nail bilious laughs as Marschz’s mate, thesp’s most acidly fed-up wife since “Your Friends and Neighbors” (in which her husband was also a drama teacher).

But casting a game Elisabeth Shue as “Elisabeth Shue” (who’s given up acting to be a Tucson nurse) is an idea that promises more than is delivered.

David Arquette is barely utilized as the couple’s not-especially-welcome boarder. Slickly handled on a reported $9 million budget, pic reps an uptick from helmer Andrew Fleming’s last bigscreen effort, the widely dismissed “Nancy Drew,” though as cheeky farce, it’s nowhere near the standard of his underappreciated 1999 Watergate spoof “Dick.”

Script, co-written with Pam Brady, is hit-and-miss in terms of verbal wit and individual gags. But package moves along quickly, and overall concept remains amusing even when there’s a dud moment or three.

Camera (color, HD), Alexander Gruszynski; editor, Jeff Freeman; music, Ralph Sall; production designer, Tony Fanning; costume designer, Jill Newell; art director, Guy Barnes; set decorator, Wendy Barnes; sound (Dolby), Paul Cusak; supervising sound editor, Joel Shryack; assistant director, Nick Mastandrea; casting, Pam Dixon. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 25, 2008. Running time: 94 MIN.