How are you supposed to feel about British comedians in Hollywood? Are they traitors? Ambassadors? Too often it has been a bit embarrassing as the lure of money and fame has meant that our favourite funny ladies and gentleman have gone for second-rate scripts.
Hamlet 2 represents an attempt to get away from this; and in some ways it succeeds. The collection of near-the-belt targets include Christians, Jews and Latinos, and these are attacked with a relish reminiscent of Borat. At times this becomes boring but the film is saved by the comic timing of Coogan, who adds a knowing element of Partridge-like awkwardness to proceedings. In the end, this would be an excellent film bar one irritating element: in the opening minutes we are given a number of sketches by Coogan which show an exemplary American accent, yet for much of the film his accent is weak and breaks for whole sentences at a time into a weird non-accent. It may seem petty to write a film off for this but it was distracting beyond any of the film’s virtues.