The Hangover Part II

When it comes to comedies, shock and disbelief work the best with audiences. Additionally, the 18-25 year old viewers typically go for jokes involving bodily functions, sex, and substance abuse. The shame is that the bachelor party movie was never very popular or profitable because they all seemed to be the same rehash of other jokes…until 2009′s smash hit “The Hangover” was unleashed. The little raunch fest grossed $400,000,000 and confirmed Director Todd Phillips (Road Trip, Old School) as a major Hollywood name. “The Hangover: Part II” opens this weekend, but sadly the party is over.

Starting off back in sunny California, we find the original cast members reprising their roles: Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers, The A-Team) as Phil, Ed Helms (Monsters vs. Aliens, Cedar Rapids) as Stu, and Zach Galifianakis (Up in the Air, Dinner for Schmucks) as Alan. This time around it’s not their friend Doug who is getting married; Stu is tying the knot in Thailand. For those who saw the last movie, he’s not marring Heather Graham’s character, rather we have Thai beauty Lauren played by Jamie Chung (Dragonball Evolution, Sucker Punch). Why or how this happens is not really explained, just hinted at she may be a prostitute but oh well. The wedding will be in Thailand with her very protective parents and teen brother Teddy. During the night the guys invite the young man around a bonfire on the beach to chill and drink beers, harmless really. Twelve hours later the grownups wake inside a seedy motel with a severed finger, a permanent tattoo on Stu’s face, and a monkey that wears cute clothes and smokes cigarettes. Not to mention is the emergence of Asian gangster Leslie Chow, still naked and very flamboyant. As he’s about to tell the nervous Yankees what happened, Chow takes a single hit of cocaine and drops dead! The guys have no idea where they are or how they screwed up (again) but the worst news is that Teddy is missing.

Even from the opening credits we get déjà vu looking at Phil on a cell phone, crying like a little girl, then a flashback to how it all got started. Yes, the awful truth is that this just the same thing all over again. The story structure is nearly identical, carbon copied if you will. The only changes are some of the jokes. For instance, when they think they’ve found Teddy it ends up being an old Buddhist monk with a vow of silence. A trip to a strip club teaches the boys what the term “ladyboy” means. Cameos from Paul Giamatti, Nick Cassavetes, and even Mike Tyson keep things interesting. A violent car chase involving the drug-monkey and Russian gangsters is violent.

As much as I wanted and tried to enjoy this movie, I couldn’t. Despite this film’s budget being twice as big as the last one, all the extra production can’t compensate for lack of creativity. Oh there are plenty of funny parts which extend the limits of bad taste, but the animal cruelty and homophobia just doesn’t work.

1. Aaron Kempton wrote:

   May 27, 2011 at 10:30 am

   I will be checking this film out tonight with some friends. Not as pumped to see it after reading your review, however.

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