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Writer-director Jordan Galland's debut feature Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead plays like a movie that started out as a clever pun and never really moved on from there. The immediately catchy title suggests a literate horror riff on Shakespeare and Tom Stoppard, but Galland isn't up to the task of interpolating those dramatic heavyweights, nor does he particularly have much to offer when it comes to chronicling the supernatural. A few wan jokes aside, the quality humor in Undead pretty much begins and ends with its title, and its attempt to build a vampire mythology out of Hamlet is mostly incoherent.
Pitched somewhere between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and an Edward Burns movie, Undead focuses on New York City slacker Julian (Jake "Son of Dustin" Hoffman), who lives in a room attached to his doctor dad's office and beds an unlikely string of hot women while pining for his more responsible ex Anna (Devon Aoki). Pushed by his dad to find a job, Julian answers an ad looking for a director for an unconventional adaptation of Hamlet, titled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. The play within the movie, whose snippets never make much sense, is really a convoluted ploy by playwright/vampire Theo (John Ventimiglia) to score some new victims, or something. The actual plot mechanics are a little confusing, and Galland is more interested in strained wackiness than narrative cohesion.
Not that it keeps him from piling on the back story, as we learn that the real Hamlet was a vampire who discovered the cure for vampirism, and Theo is actually Horatio, who was Hamlet's vampire rival. By the time all of this becomes important, though, Galland's already gotten lost in meandering subplots and one-dimensional supporting characters, and the play's opening night, the momentous event that Theo has been orchestrating for all this time, is seriously anticlimactic.
Hoffman is affable enough as the slacker protagonist, aiming for a Judd Apatow-style man-child vibe, and Aoki proves herself to be slightly more than just eye candy as his long-suffering love. Ventimiglia, however, is seriously underwhelming as the villain, who's not menacing enough to be actually scary nor absurd enough to be particularly funny. He just kind of mopes around throughout the film and then goes out with a pathetic whimper.
The movie really peaks during its amusing animated opening credits, which promise a heavy Tim Burton vibe that Galland never delivers. Thanks to his background as a musician, Galland landed Sean Lennon to write the movie's score, and Lennon comes up with something right out of the Danny Elfman playbook, which is then paired with spooky/cute cartoon skulls representing the cast. That mix of whimsy and morbidity is what a movie like this needs, but Galland ends up with whiny angst instead.
Serious theater or Shakespeare fans will likely be turned off by the shallow engagement with the source material, and horror and/or vampire fans will be disappointed by the lack of suspense and gore. Fans of ridiculous/awesome puns, meanwhile, are advised to marvel at the title and just leave it at that.
Pitched somewhere between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and an Edward Burns movie, Undead focuses on New York City slacker Julian (Jake "Son of Dustin" Hoffman), who lives in a room attached to his doctor dad's office and beds an unlikely string of hot women while pining for his more responsible ex Anna (Devon Aoki). Pushed by his dad to find a job, Julian answers an ad looking for a director for an unconventional adaptation of Hamlet, titled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. The play within the movie, whose snippets never make much sense, is really a convoluted ploy by playwright/vampire Theo (John Ventimiglia) to score some new victims, or something. The actual plot mechanics are a little confusing, and Galland is more interested in strained wackiness than narrative cohesion.
Not that it keeps him from piling on the back story, as we learn that the real Hamlet was a vampire who discovered the cure for vampirism, and Theo is actually Horatio, who was Hamlet's vampire rival. By the time all of this becomes important, though, Galland's already gotten lost in meandering subplots and one-dimensional supporting characters, and the play's opening night, the momentous event that Theo has been orchestrating for all this time, is seriously anticlimactic.
Hoffman is affable enough as the slacker protagonist, aiming for a Judd Apatow-style man-child vibe, and Aoki proves herself to be slightly more than just eye candy as his long-suffering love. Ventimiglia, however, is seriously underwhelming as the villain, who's not menacing enough to be actually scary nor absurd enough to be particularly funny. He just kind of mopes around throughout the film and then goes out with a pathetic whimper.
The movie really peaks during its amusing animated opening credits, which promise a heavy Tim Burton vibe that Galland never delivers. Thanks to his background as a musician, Galland landed Sean Lennon to write the movie's score, and Lennon comes up with something right out of the Danny Elfman playbook, which is then paired with spooky/cute cartoon skulls representing the cast. That mix of whimsy and morbidity is what a movie like this needs, but Galland ends up with whiny angst instead.
Serious theater or Shakespeare fans will likely be turned off by the shallow engagement with the source material, and horror and/or vampire fans will be disappointed by the lack of suspense and gore. Fans of ridiculous/awesome puns, meanwhile, are advised to marvel at the title and just leave it at that.
