(2008) Lacking the talent to succeed in the movie business - the opening sequence of cunning commercial spots (herpes medication) and small bits from TV episodes (Xena: Warrior Princess with Lucy Lawless) immediately raises expectation for director Andrew Fleming's satirical sequel to the Bard's play, screenplay co-written with Pam Brady - Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan, who also provides the voice of narration) does what those who can't act do, he teaches drama in a high school.

At West Mesa High in Tucson, Arizona, (actually filmed in Albuquerque, NM) Dana receives another damning review ("fisted" like being raped in the face) from student-critic Noah Sapperstein (Shea Pepe) of his ham-handed staging another play based on a Hollywood movie but then accepts the youngster's "truth sandwich." At home his wife Brie (Catherine Keener), frustrated at not being able to get pregnant (maybe because Keener at age 49 is too old?), threatens to go back to selling pot if taking in a boarder, Gary (David Arquette), who accompanies her everywhere, is their only means of keeping afloat financially. Waiting for results of a test of his sperm's potency, Dana invents a ditty - "Am I shooting blanks?/ Are my testicles an empty tank?" - as well as invites the nurse to speak to his drama students after discovering she's Elisabeth Shue (herself), an actress formerly and cynically.

To save gas Dana rollerskates to school (plus he's prohibited from driving for multiple DUIs even after seven years of sobriety), sometimes wearing a kaftan. At the beginning of the autumn semester he has the challenge of teaching a group of Latino gangbangers - except for two enthusiastic Caucasian thespians, Epiphany Sellars (Phoebe Strole) and Rand Posin (Skylar Astin), from his course the previous semester - who hurl paper wads and insults at him as he talks about "inspirational teacher movies," such as Dead Poets Society (in which he says he was the stand-in for Robin Williams).

To make matters even worse, Principal Rocker informs Dana that because of the current fiscal crisis the school board has decided to cut drama from the curriculum next semester. "You want to save drama," says Noah, "but you've produced nothing worth saving."

A manuscript he'd been working on earlier - "Writing is so hard" - based on angry childhood issues with his deceased father ("like Hamlet's ghost I'm still haunted by him"), Dana works into a politico-agit-prop musical, Hamlet 2, involving Shakespeare's principal characters, a time machine, Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, Snoopy from Peanuts, group sex, a gay men's chorus, and Jesus Christ (with "a swimmer's bod"), which he convinces his students to rehearse (sharing the gym with the girls volleyball team), discovering along the way that Octavio Marquez (Joseph Julian Soria), the toughest kid in the class (aka Heywood Jablomey), is right for the role of the Prince.

But when teacher's pet Rand takes umbrage at his having to play the part of Laertes as "bi-curious," he goes to the principal with a copy of the controversially blasphemous script.

Following a cease-and-desist order from the school board, threats against Dana, angry parents - ""You don't control our kids!" to which Dana retorts: "Wake up call. You don't control your kids" - Cricket Feldstein (Amy Poehler), an ACLU attorney, comes to Dana's defense with the First Amendment while the students come together ("We don't want to give up") to go on with the show.

The plays the thing -/ Catch the ending/ When these kids dance and sing,/ Redeeming everything. From the spectacle of the several scenes and numbers presented, a film of the entire musical itself would be worth seeing.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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