Hamlet 2 is the story of an off-kilter failed actor turned off-kilter failed teacher. Hamlet 2 struggles to be an irreverent expression of reverence, but succeeds only in being a reverent act of reverence.

Broke as a joke Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan), is a bizarre former professional actor who teaches drama poorly at a school in Tuscon, Arizona. Unable to put on a quality play or to attract students into his class, the school decides to no longer offer drama. A change in circumstance causes an influx of students into his class. Racial conflict and jealousy stir up in the class room. Inspired by his love for the art of drama, Dana decides to put on the best show possible; his own masterpiece, Hamlet 2. While fighting to keep his job and teach the craft of drama, his wife Brie (Catherine Keener) wants to get pregnant.

Hamlet 2 is constipated comedy. It seems as if it has a load of comedic genus to drop on the audience but it's stuck inside the mind of the writer Pam Brady, writer/director Andrew Flemming and Steve Coogan. It is obvious Brady and Flemming were trying to create a skewed character in Dana, whose distorted point of view would be amusing for people watching him. Dana is distorted but in the way watching someone pick their butt in a grocery store is distorted; not amusing, just ugly.

Brady and Flemming try to make racial tension a bone of humorous contention in Hamlet 2. Characters Rand Posin (Skylar Astin) and Epiphany Sellars (Phoebe Strole) are the insulated whities who want to be tolerant but are in the end, ignorant numbskulls. Octavio (Joseph Julian Soria), Chuy (Michael Exparanza) and Ivonne (Melonie Diaz) are the Mexican "foreigners" who act wildly in class. Both sides of this racial tension are dull, shallow and unable to pull off the true pull necessary to make the conflict funny. The comments don't go far enough to make them over the top and aren't smart enough to be said without exaggeration.