Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead poster & wallpaper
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Jake Hoffman, John Ventimiglia, Ralph Macchio, Jeremy Sisto, Devon Aoki ... see more see more... , Kris Lemche , Joey Kern , Waris Ahuwalia , Geneva Carr , Waris Ahluwalia , Azie Tesfai , Carlos Velazquez , Chip Zien , Mike Landry

Living in the back room of his father's doctors office, broke, frustrated ladies man Julian (Jake Hoffman)scores his big break when he lands the job directing an off Broadway version of Hamlet. Except... read more read more... it's a bizarre adaptation written by a pale Romanian impresario named Theo(John Ventimiglia) who is actually a master vampire! Theo hopes to lure the real Hamlet (Kris Lemche) out of hiding so the two can end a centuries long feud over Shakespeare's Ophelia. Meanwhile, Julian pines for his ex-girlfriend, Anna (Devon Aoki) who is dating a Mobster Bobby Bianchi (Ralph Macchio) intent on creating the next great invention - "Whack a Germ". Added into the mix is a dimwitted Detective (Jeremy Sisto), the Holy Grail, the Rosicrucian Society, a bunch of Sexy Vamps, God and a score by Sean Lennon and you've got the perfect mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Terry Gilliam, Dude Where's My Car and Woody Allen all in one fantastic film! -- (C) Indican

Flixster Users

38% liked it

3,527 ratings

Critics

43% liked it

14 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 25 min.

Directed by: Jordan Galland

Release Date: June 4, 2010

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DVD Release Date: November 9, 2010

Stats: 92 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (92)

  • hunterjt13
    December 12, 2011
    hunterjt13
    A vampire hires a low-rent director to direct a version of Hamlet involving vampires and the Holy Grail.
    Aside from being frightfully dull, uneven, and genuinely unfunny, this film suffers from the construction of the main character, played by Jake Hoffman, who is so disaffected ... read morethat it is almost impossible to sympathize with him. And the love story is poorly developed; what the connection between these two is or how they resolve their conflicts remains a mystery.
    The story attempts to be a satire - I think - of off-off-Broadway, avant garde theater. The film contends that anything will fly in these venues, and that's true to some degree, but there's nothing funny about this thesis, and it's not presented in an original way. Shadow of the Vampire was far scarier and clearer in its barbs. Overall, this film is a boring, unfunny chore to watch.
  • scrambledegg7
    August 10, 2011
    scrambledegg7
    This movie is ridiculous and silly and campy and over-the-top, and I loved every minute of it. It would never have worked at all without Jake Hoffman as the film's straight man, who reacts to everything with a cynical, apathetic detachment that somehow never gets too self-aware, ... read moreeven when the movie itself heads that direction. Some of the jokes ran a little long and the ending wasn't completely satisfying, but I found myself giggling several times and thoroughly enjoying the ride. Very entertaining.
  • Hamee
    April 24, 2011
    Hamee
    This movie is beyond pointless. The actors were awful, the plot was stupid, and the special effects were laughable. I watched the beginning and realized that I wouldn't be able to watch the entire movie so I skipped to the end. I discovered that I didn't have to watch the entire ... read moremovie to know exactly what happened.
  • briley9
    January 14, 2011
    briley9
    I added this movie to my ?Saved? queue a long time ago, when it first made its way onto the indie movie scene. A friend emailed me thinking it was a zombie thing, but the title intrigued me nonetheless. Suddenly, in the last couple weeks, it showed up in the instant watch queue... read more on our TiVO, so we checked it out on Saturday.

    The plot follows a theater director, his estranged girlfriend actor, his best friend (also an actor), and Ralph Maccio as a wealthy gangster businessman as they tangle with a troupe of Vampires producing an adaptation of Hamlet that involves, well, Vampires.

    A few quick thoughts on this chilly January Monday:

    * Better than I thought it would be. I?ve been bitten by movies with excellent titles before (I?m looking at you, The Dead Hate the Living), so I was predisposed to doubt. But the comedy was funny, the writing wasn?t bad, and the acting was pretty good. The production values were excellent.
    * The opening line is great: ?There have been many adaptations of Hamlet staged over the years. This is one of them.?
    * One part of the premise is that the seemingly random bit about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was actually a secret message from one Vampire to another, written into a famous play. I?d love it if this were true of lots of little bits of fiction that seem unconnected. Particularly ?Klatu Verata Nictu,? from The Day the Earth Stood Still and ?42? from The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy.
    * I love the stagecraft of the play-within-a-movie. The water sequence, with Ophelia, is particularly amusing.
    * The play within a movie is already pretty meta, with famous lines from Hamlet being repurposed for comedy. But my favorite moment is when the characters need to get a second message out, so they decide to write a whole play about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and ponder whether they can get Tom Stoppard to write it. Then, in the ?Thanks? at the end of the movie, they thank Tom Stoppard. What were they thanking him for, I wonder? Was it for not suing them over the title? Was it for the general awesomeness of being Tom Stoppard?

    Overall, pretty entertaining. And well worth watching.

View All Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead Reviews

Critic Reviews

Gary Goldstein
July 16, 2010
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

Starts off feeling clever and original but turns silly and diffused as its convoluted story spins out. Full Review

Michelle Orange
June 15, 2010
Michelle Orange, Village Voice

All of the riffs are twice and thrice removed, but the effect is lively rather than tiresome, largely on the strength of game performances, Sean Lennon's atmospheric score, and writer/director Jordan ... Full Review

Mike Hale
June 4, 2010
Mike Hale, New York Times

A toothless satire whose targets include vampire mania, low-rent theater, indie romantic comedies, Scorsese, Shakespeare and Law & Order, it plays like a Web series expanded to feature length. Full Review

Kyle Smith
June 4, 2010
Kyle Smith, New York Post

This loopy farce has the feel of a wacky off-off-Broadway play with more energy than wit, but it has its moments. Full Review

Dennis Harvey
April 22, 2010
Dennis Harvey, Variety

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead is one sly slice of the ridiculous. Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.
September 30, 2010
Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

A delightful mix of intelligence, hilarity, scares and unbridled talent... Full Review

Joe Lozito
June 14, 2010
Joe Lozito, Big Picture Big Sound

A clever title in search of a movie to support it, this playful mash-up of Shakespeare and vampires aims for the type of brain-twisting meta-plot that Charlie Kaufman has all but monopolized. Mr. Kauf... Full Review

Ian Buckwalter
June 9, 2010
Ian Buckwalter, NPR.org

This is a movie so in love with its own supposed cleverness that it never realizes it's not all that clever. Full Review

Josh Bell
June 3, 2010
Josh Bell, Filmcritic.com

Plays like a movie that started out as a clever pun and never really moved on from there. Full Review

Joshua Rothkopf
June 2, 2010
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

Will you ever see another film in which Hamlet's name is screamed histrionically in a fake Egyptian desert? Full Review

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