by Haley Cullingham
A hilarious and bizarrely offbeat high-school comedy that has it in for Tucson, Arizona, Hamlet II is a hybrid of Get Over It, Dangerous Minds, and Napoleon Dynamite. It’s completely strange, following a roller-skating (lost his license in a DUI, you see) high school drama teacher (Steve Coogan) as he attempts to save his drama program with theatrical remakes of Hollywood movies. That is, until a pint-sized school newspaper drama critic suggests he try some new material. He takes the advice to heart and spends 47 hours locked in his study in the home he shares with his margarita-drinking wife and their roommate Gary (David Arquette), crafting his masterpiece: a time-travelling, group sex heavy sequel to Hamlet which culminates in the sequined musical masterpiece Rock Me, Sexy Jesus. What follows is betrayal, censorship, rebellion, and acid trips. The drama geeks team up with the inner-city kids (forced to take drama due to school budget cuts), the ACLU (represented by a snappy blonde ball-busting Amy Poehler ) and some party promoters who are at Burning Man, and create an underground theatre production for the ages. I can’t stress enough how extremely strange this movie is, but it’s strange in the most fantastic of ways. Bake some pot brownies before you go, and ask yourself: What Would Sexy Jesus Do?