Why is it always about daddy? There are so many stories in movies, books, and TV that focus on characters' bad, or non-existent, relationships with their fathers. From Jenny in Forrest Gump to Clark Kent in Superman Returns and TV's Smallville, the love of the father is of extreme importance, frequently determining the destiny of a character, whether it be toward hero or villain.

Growing up without a father in the home (cue "After-School Special" music), I can personally attest to the effects a father's absence has. Whether or not I'm a hero or villain has yet to be determined; I suppose I'm somewhere in between (ha!). Seriously though, there are numerous sources that cite links to youth suicide, high school dropout rates, poverty, teen pregnancy, and criminal behavior. The media, it seems, only reflects society when it comes to father issues.

I wish I could say Hamlet 2 deals with daddy problems in a serious, purposeful manner, but, as you can tell from the movie trailers, the movie is an absurdist comedy. It's a hilarious, offensive, and almost inspiring film that says, "Sure, I have problems with my father; but it's okay, I can laugh at it, and still do something with my life." Perhaps this is why I enjoyed watching this movie, in spite of its ridiculous situations and its Christianity-mocking jokes.

In the apparently boring town of Tucson, Arizona, the volunteer high school drama teacher and former (terrible) commercial actor, Dana Marschz, is an optimistic neurotic in spite of his admitted lack of talent and failing department. The school is cutting the drama department because of budget issues and also because Dana tends to produce horrible stage renditions of popular films like Erin Brokovich (just imagine the humorous possibilities). A local theatre critic, after lambasting Dana's latest production, suggests that Dana try to produce his own material.

Dana (wonderfully portrayed by Steve Coogan), in fact, had been working on a personal piece called Hamlet 2 for years, a musical that deals with unresolved issues he has with his father. Dana's positive-against-all-odds nature compells him to finish the what-if sequel to William Shakespeare's original Hamlet because he never understood why everyone had to die in it. Using a time machine as a cheesy plot device, Dana's sequel of sorts is his response to that downer, a testament to the occasional thought in all of us about what could have been or what should have been.

However, we only see and hear snippets of what's in the play's script, and they're usually absurd and offensive scenes involving Christianity and sexuality. This of course, leads to opposition from the high school principal, the school board, and the drama students' parents. And part of the running joke in the movie is Dana's justification for the scenes, which are as equally absurd as the scenes themselves, but seem to make sense in a strange way, relating to his own life-struggles.

That's when he's stuck with a motley crowd of so-called troubled kids after an asbestos problem at the school forces certain electives to be canceled, herding the students into the empty drama class.

At first, it seemed easy to dismiss Hamlet 2 as a parody of Inspiring Teacher movies, but the film only hints at this genre mainly as a joke because as we can see, this teacher has problems far greater than those of his students.

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