Hamlet2 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Note release dates, which are spaced from today through next Sunday.

Burn After Reading (12/21)
The Coen Brothers shine a bright light on Washington spy silliness, and then, by extension, all of the silly extremes we indulge in, producing a very funny comic fable that should reward multiple viewings. With George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Available on DVD and Blu-ray. Buy it.

The House Bunny (12/19)
Anna Farris' comic brilliance transcends the shopworn material. As Erik Davis suggested, "enjoy the movie for what it is: A simple, seductive slice of late-summer sunshine." Available on DVD and Blu-ray. Rent it.

Mamma Mia! The Movie (12/16)
I think you'd do better to spend your money on another album by Abba; this musical has bewildering choreography and a wandering camera that doesn't know where it should be. Still, Meryl Streep has a lot of fun with it, and her presence covers a multitude of sins. Available on DVD and Blu-ray. Rent it.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (12/16)
Big budget, big battle scenes, and big nothing when all is said and done. A huge waste of talent and time that fails to entertain on the most basic of levels. (But I still like Maria Bello!) Available on DVD (wide screen and full screen) and Blu-ray. Skip it.

Death Race (12/21)
Jason Statham I can understand, but how did Joan Allen keep a straight face? A monstrous disappointment for action fans, with its hyped-up CGI'd incomprehensible racing scenes. Available on DVD and Blu-ray "unrated," though you'd do better to leave it "unwatched." Skip it.

Also out: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Amazon.com Exclusive) (12/19), The Women (2008) (12/19), Traitor (12/19), We Are Wizards (Amazon VOD).

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that makes beer pong look like a visit to the dentist's office. Last week we asked you to rock our worlds and come up with your funniest caption for a photo from the new movie Hamlet 2. Needless to say, you delivered all that and then some ...


1. "Since the school won't teach you the theory of evolution, I have decided to teach it through the wonders of interpretive dance." -- Ryan S.

2. "...come on you guys I am very clearly a mailbox, I have never seen a group of people so horrible at charades." -- Dana C.

3. "When hunting rabbits you have to be vewwwy vewwwy quiet!" -- Chris R.

See full image and all captions




This week we really have something special for you kids going back to school. And when I say school, I mean college. And when I say college, I mean -- BEER PONG! Oh yes, we're not messing around with this one. (Cinematical is heading back to school in style!) In honor of the new movie College -- about three almost-freshmen who take a weekend trip to visit a prospective college and wind up in wayyy over their heads -- one grand prize winner will stumble away with a sweet beer pong table. And if you don't know what beer pong is, then, well, how in the world do you not know what beer pong is? Dude! Sound off!



Please note that you must be 21 to enter this particular contest. Read the official rules for the contest right here.

The dog days of summer hit the indie box office this weekend, as the top earner was a film in its third week of release. Elegy, directed by Isabel Coixet and starring Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz, expanded from six to 92 theaters and grossed $5,546 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The adaptation of a novel by Philip Roth has not been universally praised, but maintains a strong 74% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. I can't help but conclude that Penélope Cruz is the art house crowd's answer to Megan Fox, because . . .

. . . Cruz also stars in Vicky Christina Barcelona (pictured), which made $4,339 per screen in its fairly wide (692 theaters) second week. Woody Allen's latest features other pretty people such as Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson, of course, and has very good reviews behind it, yet it's silly to ignore the current Cruz heat factor.

As Eugene has already noted, Andrew Fleming's Hamlet 2 got a jump start on its wide release by opening on 103 screens, but its average of $4,223 "doesn't inspire confidence for the expansion." Will this slow down star Steve Coogan?

Suspense drama Transsiberian ($4,157 per screen, 38 theaters, 6th week), tense drama Frozen River ($4,048 per screen, 41 theaters, 4th week), and mystery thriller Tell No One ($3,643 per screen, 101 theaters, 8th week, $3.8 million total) continued to draw well, while debuting debt doc I.O.U.S.A. made $3,461 per screen at 18 locations.

There were no big surprises at the box office this weekend. To officially ring in the fall, it was the first weekend since April when no film debuted to more than $20 million. The best opener was the tolerably-reviewed Anna Faris vehicle The House Bunny, with $15.1 million. Interchangeable Jason Statham Movie, a.k.a. Death Race, followed with an estimated $12.3 million -- among Statham's weakest showings and the worst ever for director Paul W.S. Anderson (not counting the indie Shopping, which played on one screen).

Neither The House Bunny nor Death Race could dethrone Tropic Thunder, which held up fairly well to stay on top with a $16.1 million second weekend. It looks to have better legs than Pineapple Express, and should pass that film before all is said and done. In other holdover developments: The Dark Knight fell to fourth, but should reach $500 million by next weekend; Star Wars: The Clone Wars fell an unsurprising 60%+, and will top out around $35 million -- still not bad for a cartoon, I think.

Two more wide release debuts fared poorly. The Longshots -- the Ice Cube/Keke Palmer football drama directed by Fred Durst -- made a predictably tepid $4.3 million bow. But boy was I ever wrong about The Rocker, which was heavily advertised and promo-screened, but landed out of the top 10 with $2.8 million and an under-$1000 per-screen average. Color me surprised -- it's a decent flick, too. I guess Rainn Wilson not only can't open a movie, but affirmatively turns people off.

Hamlet 2 opened on 100 screens before going wide next weekend. Its $435,000 gross -- around $4,200 per screen -- isn't terrible, but doesn't inspire confidence for the expansion.

The full estimates after the jump.

Steve Coogan, 42, is perhaps best known for his TV persona, the part-arrogant, part-clueless sports announcer Alan Partridge. And though Coogan could go on playing him forever, he has instead used his budding American film career to branch out, try different things. His collaborations with "serious" director Michael Winterbottom were a good start; 24 Hour Party People (2002) and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006) earned rave reviews here in the States. He appeared opposite big stars such as Jackie Chan (Around the World in 80 Days) and Ben Stiller (Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder) and answered the call of a handful of cult directors, making small appearances in films by Jim Jarmusch (Coffee and Cigarettes), Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette) and Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz).

His name appears alone above the title of his new film, Hamlet 2, in which he plays Dana Marschz, a washed-up American actor now teaching drama at a Tucson high school. To save his class and his career, he writes a sequel to "Hamlet" that causes a huge ruckus. (Hint: it has something to do with "Sexy Jesus.") The one connecting factor with all these movies is that Coogan's characters are more or less awful, but compulsively watchable, people. Coogan -- who is conversely very nice in person -- recently chatted with Cinematical about his new movie.

Cinematical: How did your gallery of humorously annoying characters come about?

Steve Coogan: I don't know. It just sort of happened. I'm just attracted to playing people who are ostensible unlikable. That's not to say that there's something in there that makes you care. It might be that you just find them so awful that you just can't stop watching, like a car crash. And they're not self-aware. I think somehow, whenever I see a character on screen who I feel is trying to get me to like them too much, it has the reverse effect. It kind of puts you off. It's: "Quit looking at me with those doe eyes. I want to kill you." It's not like I've thought this through. It's just, you do stuff often enough and you see patterns. You see them, and I see them too. Sometimes they're not self-conscious. I guess that's why I'm probably doing it.

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game where we definitely rock it with sexy Jesus all night long. Last week we asked you to strap in Statham-style and race to be the first one to knock us over with a caption for an image from the flick Death Race. Congrats to all three of our winners -- your thirst for speed, prison humor and bald men is quite inspiring to us all.


1. "You sank my battleship!!" -- Jason F.

2. "Unfortunately, the Death Staring Contest proved unpopular." -- Dan N.

3. "In the prisons of the future, its all about survival of the baldest." -- Ben K.

See full image and all captions




This week we're trading in our set of death wheels for a little fun with the theater kids as they rock it out in the new comedy Hamlet 2. In the flick (which has been getting great buzz for a long time now), the hilarious Steve Coogan stars as a failed actor-turned-drama teacher who rallies his students around an absurd, politically incorrect staging of, well, Hamlet 2. The aspirings behind our three favorite captions will prance away with one Hamlet 2 t-shirt, one Hamlet 2 wristband, one sexy Jesus action figure, and one Hamlet 2 car air freshener. I personally have the action figure dancing on my desk as we speak and -- um, yeah -- this Jesus is pretty sexy. (Do I go to hell for saying that?) Sound off below!



Read the official rules for this contest

The 26th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which is also known as Outfest 2008, is wrapping up today, but the cinematic winners of this year's fest have already been announced during an awards ceremony last night in Hollywood. In the list of winners, there are some familiar names, plus some other films that might be worth keeping an eye out for.

The awards were led by Were the World Mine, which won Outstanding US Dramatic Feature. The film focuses on an all-boys school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (and for those Twin Peaks fans out there, the crazy Nadine, Wendy Robie, pops up). On the international side of things is the excellent XXY, which I reviewed from TIFF last year. It is no surprise that this film nabbed the Best International Dramatic Feature prize, to add to its ever-growing list of nominations and wins. It's really, really worth your time.

Other winners include Hamlet 2, Sex Positive, Dream Boy, and Countertransference. To check out more of the winners, head to The Hollywood Reporter for a run-down.

Not long ago I gave Sony Pictures Classics props for the way they handled promotion on The Wackness, and I'm about to do the same for Focus Features, who've been pimping out Hamlet 2 like there's no tomorrow. Not only will Hamlet 2 have a major presence at this year's San Diego Comic Con (we're still giving away tickets to that private screening, by the way), but they're also sending around these sweet Hamlet 2 goodie bags and have put together a sing-a-long video for the film's hit song, Rock Me Sexy Jesus.

You can check out that video above, and below we put together a gallery of photos from the film, as well as of the official 2008 Comic Con Survival Kit, with a Hamlet 2 bag, a couple t-shirts, some wristbands, coffee, a book called Reading Comics and a whole bunch of candy (including these really addictive Bazooka bubble gum nuggets). I'm not sure what me lady will say when she arrives home and I'm wearing a Rock Me Sexy Jesus t-shirt (especially since I'm Jewish), but I like to keep her guessing; relationships are more fun that way.

Hamlet 2 hits theaters on August 22.

Will you be attending San Diego Comic Con later this month? Would you like to check out a super secret screening of Hamlet 2 AND take home a bunch of groovy movie merch? Cinematical is happy to officially launch this Hamlet 2 Comic Con Contest where ten lucky fans will win a pair of tickets to the aforementioned sneak screening of Hamlet 2, as well as the t-shirt pictured above, Hamlet 2 wrist bands and a Rock Me Sexy Jesus doll ... for those times when, well, you really need a Rock Me Sexy Jesus doll.

The actual screening will take place on Saturday July 26th in San Diego, and the only way to get in is to either win tickets or by finding a Sexy Jesus walking around at Comic Con. (Note to self: Get photo with Sexy Jesus while at Comic Con.) Please be aware that you will need to be in the immediate San Diego area on July 26th in order to win these tickets, so do not leave a comment on this post if you will not be in San Diego on the day of the screening. Your tickets, assuming you win a pair, will be mailed to you prior to the convention.

To enter, leave a comment telling us why you want to attend the Comic Con screening of Hamlet 2. Check out the official rules for this contest after the jump ... and good luck!

Hamlet 2 dances its way into theaters on August 22.