See You There

A couple of weeks ago I saw a trailer for a movie called Hamlet 2. It was about some group of misfits in high school putting on a school play. While it seemed amusing enough, I decided to pass on it for now and just wait for the DVD.

But then I heard that some church groups were upset by the film. One group in Orlando went as far as to ask that theaters in the area not even show Hamlet 2 because of a song that supposedly "defiles" Christ.

Well, that was good enough for me. Any time the Christian Taliban tries to restrict my freedoms by calling for a boycott of a movie, my curiosity is immediately piqued and I have to go see what the fuss is about. It's just that I have this bad habit of making up my own damn mind instead of having a bunch of religious fanatics do it for me.

So let me take this opportunity to thank the Ministries Global Church of Orlando for convincing me to go see the movie. It was actually pretty good. Plus, I'm always on alert for new acts of blasphemy to brighten my day.

Basically, Steve Coogan (he also plays the director in Tropic Thunder who gets blown up by the land mine) is a failed actor who has been reduced to teaching drama at a high school in Tucson. On the first day of the new school year he finds himself facing a classroom of mostly juvenile delinquents. To make a long story short, he writes a sequel to Hamlet that wins the students over.

Of course, there is the somewhat minor detail that all the principle characters die at the end of the original Shakespeare play. So in Coogan's version, Hamlet somehow comes into possession of a time machine which he uses to save everyone. Oh, and along the way he also goes back and tries to save Jesus as well, which sets up a great musical number called "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus." And while the Jesus bit is by no means the main focus of the movie, it was apparently enough to stir up the religious folk.

So in the interest of freedom of speech, here's the video.... Though, of course, by watching it you risk damning your soul to the eternal fires of hell.