If your job interview has the question, "Do you suffer from any blood vessel abnormalities, iron deficiencies, vitamin B-12 deficiencies and/or intravenous drug usage?" assume your boss is a vampire.But in vampire movies, nobody ever figures out the bleeding obvious. And that's only the beginning for "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead," a clever little indie movie that combines vampire horror, Arthurian legend, romance, and Shakespeare's classic play "Hamlet." It's sly and clever, but things start coming unravelled at the end.
Julian Marsh (Jake Hoffman) is unemployed, unhappily single and deeply depressed, so his dad forces him to take a directing job. The play: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead," by Theo Horace (John Ventimiglia). Julian gets his buddy Vince (Kris Lemche) a job as Hamlet; his ex-girlfriend Anna (Devon Aoki), who is now involved with a sleazy mafioso, is also cast as Ophelia.
It's glaringly obvious that Theo and his cronies are all vampires, and Vince suspects that something is undead in the state of Denmark. Julian (still hopelessly clueless) is contacted by a secret organization (which apparently has only one schizophrenic member) who reveal the horrifying truth of Theo's diabolical plans! Can he extricate himself and Anna from the play before they join the legions of the undead?
Vampire legend, the Holy Grail, Shakespeare's play, and the disturbing underbelly of New York theatrical life. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead" is a fun little black comedy -director/writer Jordan Galland was obviously having a lot of fun smushing these things together into one story.
The entire movie is filled with quirky, sly humor (Vince repelling vampires with garlic breath), fun running gags (professional hypochondriac Hugo Pepper), and the second half manages to insert a murder subplot where poor Julian is trying to escape the cops. And Galland manages to craft some fun, semi-realistic dialogue ("I don't think that's how a vampire would really [bite someone]," Julian lectures Theo).
Probems? Julian is kind of stupid, since he doesn't figure out that Theo and Co. are vampires even though it's FRICKING OBVIOUS. Also the Holy Grail is central because it can cure vampirism, but then the subplot is just made pointless (and a chunk of the plot with it). Wha?
Even if the character is dumb and skanky, Hoffman is a pretty endearing actor -he has that dorky, puppy-eyed charm that makes you cheer for him and hope that everything turns out all right. Aoki is rather wooden but okay, and Lemche is fun as Hoffman's overconfident gay buddy. As for Ventimiglia, he chews the scenery as the most cliched, obvious vampire you can imagine -and obviously he's having a great time!
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead" is a fun little movie despite subplots that come unraveled at the end. Quirky, weird and splattered with blood!
Vampires? Check.
Holy Grail? Check.
Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies? Check.
This film is silly and enjoyable. A little slow to start, but once the principal characters are introduced, it gets rolling and is quite enjoyable (much more so than more lavish and polished productions featuring any one of those single elements mentioned above.
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