Hamlet II and Seven Pounds

Hamlet II is meant to satire inspirational teacher movies like Mr. Holland's Opus and Dead Poet's Society. If you have read earlier entries, this movie is right up my alley. I have a list of some of my favorite edgy teacher movies (see side-bar), and I may have to add Hamlet II to the list. I will have to let that marinate a bit, though. Hamlet II is quite hilarious though. The British actor, Stephen Coogan (who is HI-larious in general), is freaky drama teacher who tries to save the school's drama program with his own creation, he calls Hamlet II, a play that seems to have very little to do with Hamlet and a lot to do with the playwright's father issues, with a sexy Jesus thrown in. He also has the school's Latino "thugs" and a bi-curious good kid to playing the leads.

Speaking of inspirational movies, or meant to be inspirational anyway, I saw Seven Pounds, another Will Smith ain't-I-great movie. It was okay, but what I found irritating was the big mystery that you had to try to figure out for over half of the movie while you were just left confused for the first half. When you did finally get to the big "reveal", it was anti-climactic. I used to like Will Smith after I saw him in Six Degrees of Separation where he played an ambiguous and interesting character. But now it seems like his movie roles are meant to be roles that showcase his greatness -- which is a little boring.