Hamlet 2

Remember that guy in college who thought he was funny, but was still using the same jokes as when he was 12, just with swearwords added in? That guy made this movie. Not funny, not interesting, not good.

It was supposed to be a great comedy about a bad play but it turns out to be a bad comedy about an amazing play. Everything up until the final 20 minutes is a waste of time.

I tried loving it but it just tries so hard and has so many failed moments that I couldn't. I tried hating it but every so often it would make me laugh enough that I'd be enjoying myself. In the end I accepted that it's just a very mixed bag, the humour and plot are all over the place and every failure is matched by a success and it ends strongly enough that my final impression was relatively positive.

Coogan is good and the final show ("Rock me Sexy Jesus!") is excellent. The rest is just shoddy. Very shoddy.

Nowhere near as funny, smart, or edgy as it thinks it is. It wanted to be one of those movies that hilariously skews the genre it's parodying (inspirational school stories) while succeeding on its own merits. It did neither. Granted, there are laughable moments; there just aren't nearly enough.

Although it picks up in the latter half (when the play is finally put on), it doesn't excuse the very clunky and very unfunny script.

A lot of the subtext was really funny, like how the teacher assumed the students were all troubled gangbangers from broken homes just because they were "ethnic" and never really let that go despite all the contrary evidence. The actual text was usually almost okay, but if I'm honest, I hate modern musicals so much that even the parodies miss with me so the play at the end just grated.

Thanks to an utterly uncharismatic lead and some fundamental confusion between "funny" and "edgy" this film fails completely. If it had been about Catherine Keener and David Arquette's characters, it would have been immeasurably more amusing.

Very funny film, but also very uneven. I enjoyed the movie's brain, but it keeps trying to pander to a broader audience with forced, unfunny slapstick. Granted the first couple times Coogan falls over on rollerskates it is funny but it just keeps happening over and over. I like Diaz, but of the young cast only Strole delivers laughs consistently. Poehler and Shue are both very funny, as is Coogan's narration and of course the play itself. Elements of the film shine, but it's lacking as a whole.

Steve Coogan's pretty funny. But the last half hour of the movie is probably the only worthwhile bit. I sang "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" for about a month after viewing.

Coogan is funny, but the clueless drama teacher trope has been done, and done better. There are some genuinely funny moments and the cast is pretty great, but it is ultimately forgettable.

Hellish jalopy of a film that tied me in knots over whether to hate it a lot or just a little.

Definitely inconsistent and clearly a rushed production, but there are some brilliant pieces of satire of high school theater programs and inspirational teacher movies to make it an enjoyable watch, even a good handful of laugh-out-loud moments. Coogan's line delivery can be comic gold, when the line is right. Elisabeth Shue's casting is inspired. David Arquette is pointless, as usual. Overall could have used a few script re-writes, but it is a respectable comic effort.

As an actor, Steve Coogan has no shame. As a writer, Pam Brady has no boundaries. Put them together and we have one of the most absurd, deliciously hysterical films of the year.

Not that great.

I laughed the whole way through. If you don't appreciate Coogan's humor you won't appreciate this gem.

Not every joke hits, but there are so many that do. Alot of great performances, (esp. Coogan) and has the joi de vivre of the best let's-put-on-a-show musicals. Keeps a smile on your face even when you're not laughing.

I guffawed a few times. Nothing more.

Campy, cheery nihilism. This is a film for people who like facile absurdity of the Anchorman sort but are much more up front about their moral failures. Or something.

A ridiculous but often very funny farce with an especially talented cast of young actors.

Totally inappropriate. I hurt myself laughing. [Entry 8 Birthday CD Movie Crawl 02.24.2009]

Decent movie, about a bad concept. It also had a younger Skyler Astin in it. Pre Pitch Perfect.

Not really that funny. The play was the only good part.

I had such high hopes for this movie. Unfortunately it's just not funny at all. Coogan's probably the most to blame for this. For example, there are scenes where he's arguing with a teenage theater critic for trashing his plays, which should be funny for obvious reasons. Coogan spends the entire time trying to show the audience how ridiculous the situation is by overacting, which ends up ruining the scene. This overselling of funny situations happens in almost every scene in the movie.

Not as funny as the marketing promoted, but the movie is infectious in its own right and simply deserved to be better. I still enjoyed it because Steve Coogan completely anchored this slapstick farce of inspiring teacher dramas. Certain elements went to waste, like Elizabeth Shue playing herself, and Katherine Keener and David Arquette's characters. Overall, however, it has a winning spirit, Coogan is very funny, and the film isn't a total misfire.

Whole plot is so generic (in the space of pop/teen dance movies) I couldn't be bored more. The only hope I had, was actual 'Hamlet 2' performance, which was there just to exist and not to impress. 'Rock me Jesus' is solid piece yet it's the only one in whole movie.

Fun at times, but falls short overall.

Spins off of school dramas, but not enough. Coogan is excellent and so is the ending.

"....if Hamlet had had a little therapy he could have turned things around. Everyone deserves a second chance." quite funny and recommended!

Hamlet 2 comes across as a low-budget parody of Glee (despite being released a year earlier). The film boasts a strong cast that Fleming somehow wastes. Coogan, who I generally consider to be a good actor, just delivers a bad performance here with an intolerable accent. The sexual innuendo, lazy jokes and mock-edginess, all miss their mark and induce groans more than laughter. That said there are a few funny moments and clever lines interspersed throughout the film. Watchable, yet disappointing.

Not sure how to feel about this one. It's entertaining, but pretty dumb... though it uses many "smart" references. I laughed, so I guess that's good enough.

It's very funny, and consistent in it's funniness, but overall it's not very good. Days later you'll forget most of what or saw or why you laughed, but the performance at the end will stick with you. I feel like I'm forgetting something....oh yeah, ELISABETH SHUE!

Delightful little turn of the genre, where the "inspiring" teacher is actually an awful person. The interactions with the "Critic of Record" are easily the best part of the film

I appreciate the fact it tries to do what it does, but feels like an inferior strangers with candy.

A refreshingly cynical satire of "inspiring teacher" movies. Steve Coogan and the kids all do quirky and often enjoyable work, and although there is a hint too much slapstick, the final musical performance makes up it.

Fun film, very funny.

Silly

One of the worst films I've ever endured. Coogan, who I respect, is firing blanks in this. 60 minutes of terrible pastiches of "teacher inspires troubled teens" movies, consisting of casual racism that I guess was supposed to be ironically funny, and numerous callbacks to other genre movies (which I know, because Coogan mentions each one by name before making the callback). It ends in an awful Rent-style musical 'parody', which has been done better by Stone/Parker many times before.

Simultaneously makes fun of and praises Dead Poets Society.

"Hamlet 2 belongs firmly to Steve Coogan, which is fortunate since none of the film's supporting players prove to be the least bit memorable." - Andrew Schenker

There's some really funny stuff, but a lot of it just doesn't work.

Hamlet 2 (2008) had an ad campaign that seemed to focus on the fact that it was from the co-writer of South Park, but they are not referring to Matt Stone or Trey Parker (who had absolutely nothing to do with this movie). They are talking about Pam Brady who mostly produces the show, but has some co-writing credits on a couple of the episodes and on the South Park movie. So, if you're going into this expecting something like Orgazmo or Team America, then you'll probably be disappointed.

I was supposed to see this movie on my first date with my now wife. Now 7 years later we are married and I have finally watched it. The wait was worth it, this is a very funny movie. There are plenty of funny moments and jokes. There is one really hilarious musical number and everyone in the cast seems to be having fun. I certainly recommend this comedy if you are not easily offended.

Not caustic nor sentimental, Hamlet 2's sharp, wily social lampoon gets funnier as it goes along; expanding its focus outside the high school sphere to comment on the probability of luck, failure, hope for all the characters.

Not bad but in the end just not my kind of humor...stands far behind the jokes of Team America.Coogan is one of those " love him or hate him" actors.

A commixture of bad and good, funny and shameless; there are things to love about this movie, and things that make you cringe. One minute I'll be laughing, the next sighing away another part of my soul. Elizabeth Shue was great, though.

EVERYBODY HAS RAIN GUTTERS!

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Funny in stretches but on the whole somewhat lacking. Not as cutting satirically as it is a straight up spoof.

A movie that might sound unbearably stupid, it actually manages to hit most of the right marks for some really hilarious comedy.

Whether you like this probably depends entirely on whether you think Steve Coogan is the funniest man alive. Essentially Dangerous Minds meets Slings And Arrows, with Coogan as a soon-to-be-fired high school drama teacher who tries to put on a self-penned sequel to Hamlet (it involves time travel and Sexy Jesus). It's got its moments, but... I'm one of those who don't.

This really would have been better if it was just an hour and a half of the musical they put on -- that's the real highlight of the film and the only time where it's honestly funny. Rock Me Sexy Jesus is potentially the best musical sequence you will ever see in a film.

Overall it's kinda sporadic, but still very funny. Steve coogan has some hilarious outbursts that made me laugh out loud. The cast of high school kids did a very good job and the movie touched on the high school money shortages really well.

This is exactly the sort of drab, needy comedy that's come to represent the Sundance Film Festival as much as (or, sadly, more than) the sterling, insightful, surprising indies that made it the most influential fest in the U.S. It has the decent hook, the aggressively quirky characters, and the strained whimsy that have been markers of Sundance hits for at least ten years. Once it gets to the play itself, the film is fitfully amusing. Before that, it's tone-deaf farcical nonsense.