p e n g u i n d e v i l

Based on a silly and fun looking preview that I saw this weekend, I ended up netflixing an odd little film called Hamlet 2. This nutty comedy is the story of a failed actor with stars in his eyes who has become a rather failed (and quite frustrated) drama teacher in a high school in Tuscon. He is rather an odd duck, always with a short-temper, a flair for the dramatic, traveling by roller skate and faltering at the “family” thing with terribly and wonderfully caustic wife. In all of this, the major trauma for him and his class of two devoted students seems to be the continually terrible reviews of their plays by the drama critic of the school newspaper. But this erratic little scene gets a life-altering shake-up when, due to school program cutbacks, a the class is suddenly filed with a mob of seemingly street-wise toughs who are completely disinterested. As they are quite nonchalant about the drama class it works to inspire his desire to make something of himself, so he tries to taken on the role of being the acting teacher who will inspire to try and get the class to create something great.





Working in desperation to save his program and also satisfy his creative needs by doing a play that is both original and big, he sets out to write and produce Hamlet 2! That being somewhat of a combination of Grease, Hamlet and Jesus Christ superstar, which features: Jesus and Hamlet in a time machine (the plot device to make up for the all of the lead Hamlet characters dying in Hamlet), the Gay Men’s Chorus of Tuscon, topics unfit for decent company, lots of dancing and the classic tune “Rock me Sexy Jesus”. Anyway, it is a ridiculous comedy that is irreverent, un-pc, completely and quite entertaining and has some seriously funny moments. In the midst of that, they manage to be crude, crass and make fun of just about everyone (though support everyone at the same time). Keep in mind that it was written by Pam Brady, who also did writing for: Team America, South Park & South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut… And it shows.