A sequel 400 years in the making!

In Hamlet 2, Steve Coogan stars as a man who can’t make it in life as a lousy actor, so he becomes a lousy high school drama teacher. When the school threatens to shut down the theater department, he decides to put on a benefit show to rival all other benefit shows. But that doesn’t mean some lame revival of Oklahoma! or Death of a Salesman; he’s going to create his own original production. He decides to write a sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and manages to get around the pesky issue of 99% of the characters dying at the end of the original. All you need are a few convenient plot devices, like a time machine and the adding of Jesus as a character, and a few catchy musical numbers, like “Rock Me, Sexy Jesus.”

A plot this hilariously ludicrous and a cast that includes Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, and the reintroduction of Elisabeth Shue is bound to be an entertaining RENT IT. And if not, perhaps some other Shakespearian sequels will start cropping up. Coming next summer: King Lear II: The Reckoning.

Hamlet 2 is not yet rated and opens in limited release August 27. (Official site)

There’s a theory in the entertainment industry that women, for the most part, aren’t funny. And if there was ever a woman to disprove this ridiculous theory, I believe that Tina Fey is her. She managed to inject a much needed dose of humor into SNL (a show that, let’s face it, has been struggling for laughs ever since she left). She even managed to keep Mean Girls from being a soppy teenage drama bomb and made it a truly hilarious, and eerily accurate, movie. And if you don’t think that 30 Rock is one of the best comedies on TV right now…I don’t even know what to say to that. Fey is both a great comedic writer and actor, and despite the fact that she’s so hilarious and probably rich enough to buy me on the black market, she manages to remain a down to earth and relatable person. She not only proves that women can be funny, but she proves that they can also be smart, sexy, and normal, all at the same time.

Because of all this, I’m definitely interested in her upcoming film, Baby Mama. Fey plays a successful businesswoman of a certain age longing to have a baby. But due to fertility issues, she has to find herself a surrogate. Enter fellow funny lady Amy Poehler as a dimwitted, Southern-drawling, junk food eating, yet highly fertile baby mama (could her character be based on a certain former Mouseketeer whose life is currently spiraling out of control?). Poehler moves in with Fey during the pregnancy, upsetting Fey’s meticulously ordered life, and naturally, hilarity ensues.

Normally I wait for comedies to come onto DVD, but I might actually make the trip to the theater to SEE IT. I think I owe it to Fey and all the funny women trying to make it in show business.

Baby Mama is not yet rated and opens April 25. (IMDB page)

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I’ll admit it, I was dragged to go see Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby last summer, mostly because I am not interested in NASCAR. But thanks to Will Ferrell’s sheer comedic lunacy, I found myself laughing hysterically. After Talladega Nights, I’ll go see any comedy Will Ferrell is in, especially when it looks as funny as Blades of Glory.

Blades of Glory is a concept that really only Will Ferrell can get away with. He and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite himself) play divas of men’s figure skating who get into a fistfight on the podium and are then ousted from singles competition. They find a loophole that allows them to compete as the first mens’ team in pairs skating, much to the annoyance of pairs skaters (and real-life pair) Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. In an inspired bit, Craig T. Nelson’s character is only called “Coach.” Jenna Fischer from my favorite TV show, The Office, and William Fichtner, that guy who is in every movie but whose name you don’t quite know, round out the cast.

The world of competitive figure skating is overdue for the Will Ferrell treatment. Blades of Glory is Talladega Nights meets The Cutting Edge, and I can’t wait to SEE IT when it opens on March 30. (Official site)