Grand Theft Hamlet

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Elsie M Very original concept. Hilarious moments. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/26/25 Full Review Jamarcus This was a cute movie. Definitely if your a fan of GTA and Shakespeare then give it a look. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/25 Full Review Yuki what a heartwarming movie. Hilarious and amazing concept. I hope GTA sponsors them to make more acts like this. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/21/25 Full Review Paul T Revisiting the pandemic is a surprisingly funny setting for a look at the need for socialization and goals Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/20/25 Full Review Trevor M Grand Theft Hamlet is such a bizarre and unique experience that it’s difficult to put into words exactly what it’s like. Having spent a significant amount of time playing Grand Theft Auto and an entire semester studying Hamlet and its adaptations in film school, I might be the ideal audience for this documentary. But even with that background, I walked away from this film with a new perspective on quite a few things. Let’s get something out of the way: this is not your typical movie, nor even your typical documentary. It’s not just another YouTube gaming video, either. Instead, it’s a strange and fascinating fusion of filmmaking, live theater, an open-world video game, improv, and a constant influx of real-world drama seeping in from the outside. This is a film that could only have emerged from the COVID lockdown era. While many other projects attempt to erase or distance themselves from that time, Grand Theft Hamlet embraces the darkness, lays itself bare, and in doing so, reveals something deeply human. What I expected to be a silly gimmick turned out to be something profoundly moving. Beneath the chaos and absurdity, there’s a consistent undercurrent of existentialism, loneliness, and the struggle to navigate a world in turmoil. The film captures how you need other people, but how they can also be the very thing that gets you killed—mirroring the themes of Hamlet itself. There’s a beautifully tragic symmetry in that parallel, and it resonates in a raw, unfiltered way. The technical imperfections—poor audio, chaotic game lobbies, unreliable players who are just as likely to shoot you as become lifelong friends—don’t detract from the experience. Instead, they enhance it. The world of GTA Online never stops moving, indifferent to the players’ attempts to stage Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy within it. That unpredictability adds to the film’s charm and depth. One of the most striking aspects of Grand Theft Hamlet is how the filmmakers engage with the game world in ways most players never do. Instead of treating Los Santos as just a playground for destruction, they immerse themselves in its spaces. The film captures everyday life in the city—NPCs going about their routines, overlooked locations that suddenly feel rich with meaning, and AI-generated dialogue that, by sheer accident, delivers hilariously well-timed lines during serious moments of performance. Without giving too much away, Grand Theft Hamlet is a testament to ingenuity, persistence, and the strange magic that happens when comedy, chaos, and introspection collide. It’s no surprise that the project earned an award for its live performance—this isn’t just some silly gimmick. There’s real depth here. And if you give it a chance, you might just find something unexpectedly profound within the madness. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/29/25 Full Review Bob A This is brilliant. It really works well, and is engaging, surprisingly moving, and sometimes hilarious. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/21/25 Full Review Read all reviews

Grand Theft Hamlet

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