Hamlet 2Movie Reviews

Poster art for "Hamlet 2."

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Avg. Critic Score: 54 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    As a movie, Hamlet 2 is lively, energetically daft, and very, very scrappy -- a broader, more loony-tunes knockoff of "Waiting for Guffman." Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    Like its low-key star, Hamlet 2 is more likely to elicit quiet chuckles than raucous laughter. Read full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    It's Coogan's breakthrough star performance that holds it all together. He's sensational. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    The movie is an ideal showcase for the talents of Coogan. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Elisabeth Shue has a strange role as a version of herself who has given up acting for nursing. Read full review

  • 60
    Wall Street Journal |

    Mostly, though, there's the endlessly resourceful, endlessly inventive, bedazzling Mr. Coogan. Hamlet Schmamlet. Not since "Death of a Salesman" has failure been quite so entertaining. Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter |

    Attaining somewhat of a bad parody of a comedy, screenwriters Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady have slapped together a string of gags in a hit-and-miss dither. Some of it is quite brainy. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    It's an unhinged, off-the-wall comedy that will try anything once, an uneven film in which the hits are so dead-on that the misses don't seem to matter. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    It all adds up to the kind of bad family entertainment likely to raise only a few eyebrows. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    Amusing but unevenly inspired tale of a deluded high school drama teacher's attempt to stage a career-saving extravaganza has some laughs, to be sure. Read full review

View more reviews for Hamlet 2 on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ High school theater spoof lacks some spark.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that although this comedy is set in high school, it's not really a "teen comedy." In fact, it takes a no-holds-barred approach to poking fun at religion, theater, commercialism, racism, reproductive technologies, actors, the ACLU, and anything and everything else. One song is centered on a "rock star" version of Jesus, and there are plenty of jokes that some people may consider crude or vulgar. There are also scenes of underage drinking and drug use, a flash of a man's naked backside, and plenty of salty language.
  • Families can talk about the message behind all the over-the-top humor: Why is Marschz compelled to stage one more play, and an original one at that? What's the message of the play? Also, what prejudices does the film make fun of? Does it do an effective job of making its point? What would you say that point is? What genres is the movie satirizing?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A teacher swears in front of his students and accidentally hurts one of them; they clearly show no respect for him (they call him "moron," among other things). His wife belittles him, too. But he doesn't give up hope. In fact, in his own blissfully ignorant way, he manages to inspire and free his inner artist. The movie mercilessly mocks everything from the theater crowd to religion. Infidelity is treated humorously.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: A man contemplates suicide; some brawls erupt; a girl keeps falling and getting hit by objects.
  • sex false3 Sex: Conversations about the mechanics of getting pregnant, some kissing, lewd jokes. A man's naked backside is flashed -- he has writer's block and takes off his pants to get inspiration -- and there are allusions to his "balls" being flashed.
  • language false4 Language: Language includes plenty of salty words, including "s--t" and "f--k." Not as frequent as some other R-rated movies, though.
  • consumerism false1 Consumerism: Mentions of various Hollywood movies (Erin Brockovich, The Karate Kid, etc.); actress Elisabeth Shue is revered. And of course, Hamlet is referenced often. Also, Jack LaLanne products and fake commercials for herpes medications.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Teens drink while out with their teacher; they later spike his non-alcoholic beverage with LSD or another psychedelic; his wife drinks a gigantic margarita.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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