It was stupid, but it was also theater.
"Where do dreams go to die?" asks the narrator at the outset of Hamlet 2. The answer the film provides is Tuscon, Arizona, where failed actor/wannabe inspirational drama teacher Steve Coogan puts on plays based on Hollywood movies like Erin Brockivich and Mississippi Burning that regularly get trashed by the school paper's diminutive drama critic. Coogan's home life isn't much better since he and his wife, ex-pot dealer Catherine Keener, find themselves unable to conceive and she can barely tolerate their boorish boarder (David Arquette). And to top it off, hard-ass principal Marshall Bell has decided to cut the drama department, but not before dumping a couple dozen insolent Latino students in Coogan's lap. So what's the solution? Why, all they have to do is put on a show! Namely Coogan's misconceived sequel to the world's most famous play -- in which the melancholy Dane hops in a time machine and, with the help of Jesus, prevents all of the characters from dying (during a montage set to Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"). How could that not work?
Written by South Park scribe Pam Brady and director Andrew Fleming, Hamlet 2 seeks to be an equal-opportunity offender, taking potshots at inspirational teacher films like Dead Poets Society, Mr. Holland's Opus and Dangerous Minds, and drawing inspiration from the likes of The Producers (especially in songs like the show-opener "Raped in the Face" and "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus") and Waiting for Guffman. Coogan gives the film his all, whether he's doing pratfalls on roller blades (his only means of transportation since his license was suspended) or putting up with abuse from his unruly students, who somehow manage to get the theater bug from him. He also gets to play off Elisabeth Shue, who has given up on acting and moved to Tucson to be a nurse, and Amy Poehler as the ACLU lawyer who takes an interest when Coogan's controversial play becomes a cause celebre. It even manages to get the attention of the New York Times, which is something Corky St. Clair was never able to do. Even if the end result isn't the non-stop laugh-fest the creators were probably shooting for, there are much worse ways to pass 92 minutes -- and I'll bet few of them feature a closing credits song entitled "Gay as the Day is Long."