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.