Hamlet 2

The Most Unlikely Sequel You Could Ever Hope to See

This movie starts off with an invisible voice talking about how to be an actor, you have to live in a dream. But dreams die, and the question posed here is where dreams go when they die. If you are Dana Marschz, then you go to Tuscon, Arizona to spend what is rest of your life teaching drama at a high school. Being an actor myself, there is something quite scary about the fate of this particular actor, who is best known for his herpes medication commercials. Here in Arizona, he hopes to pass on his love of drama and acting to high school students, and that is the thrust of the action in one of the most unlikely sequels in history, "Hamlet 2." It stars Steve Coogan, who we just saw in "Tropic Thunder," as Dana Marschz who ends up writing the sequel in order to save the drama program at the high school where he teaches.

This movie was a big hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and while the movie didn't quite live up to the hype in my eyes, it was still a very clever movie that kept me entertained from beginning to end. It is a great look at how art can never truly be suppressed, even if it is not very good to say the least.

We meet up with Dana Marschz as he has already been teaching at the local high school, and he only has two students (Skylar Astin & Phoebe Strole) who really seem to care about drama and acting. When he comes into his new class for the year, he discovers that is largely populated by Latino students who are in the class because their other electives have been cut, and Drama is the only one left. It reminds me of all those kids I went to high school with who were in the drama class because was the only class they could hope to get an easy A in (other than PE). Dana is convinced that this has been presented to him as a challenge that he must face with no fear.