Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead


Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Undead had me at the opening credits.

That’s a good thing, because it isn’t a very good movie.  The story’s lame, the acting’s bad, the jokes fall flat, and the makeup sucks.  But hey, it’s a mashup of Shakespeare, Stoker, and Stoppard called Rosencrantz And Guildenstern are Undead.  I’m in anyway.

Here’s the setup: Jake Hoffman is a layabout who answers an ad for a “theater director, easily controlled, human.”  The theater?  It’s a vampire theater, putting on a production of “Horatio,” in which Hamlet is the bad guy.  Many theater-nerd jokes will be told.  Much blood will be sucked.  You will probably check your watch.

But hey, I like theater-nerd jokes, and this film delivers them with gusto.  It also delivers a breezy, “ain’t this fun” attitude that bounces things along for an hour and fifteen minutes.  It looks and feels cheap, but it gets by on silliness and goodwill.  If you like theater-nerd jokes and vampires, you just might like Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Undead.