The Hangover Part II – Review

OK. So this time, it’s Stu’s wedding and instead of going to Vegas the whole gang winds up in Thailand. You see, after ditching his bossy girlfriend from part one, Stu ended up with this incredibly hot Asian American, and they decide to hold her wedding in her homeland. With plot out of the way, I’ll get straight to the point and say part one was way better, however I still enjoyed this movie for what it was, but there was no real hearty laughter in the entire movie. All the freshness and originality of the first Hangover is definitely not present here, and it hurts more because they could have fixed some of the setbacks of the original.

Most of all Bangkok replaces Las Vegas and the crew losses Teddy this time instead of Doug. Director, Todd Phillips should have known better, as he is a good director with a nice track record. I am extremely disappointed that instead of taking an approach to trying something new while still offering the same type of R-rated college humor, he chose to stick to the formula far too close. The problem when Hollywood gets their hands on a good idea, is that they need to make everything bigger and bolder. The jokes are more outrageous, less witty, their adventures are more shocking, less creative, and instead of intelligent, snappy dialogue we get chase scenes and explosions.  Everything is significantly grittier, darker, and ruder. At times Zach Galifianakis’ character was less like the Alan we met first time around and more like Ethan from ‘Due Date’.

Throughout the day, they must deal with Monks, a stripping transsexual, getting shot, and teaming up with Mr. Chow in order to find Teddy before the Wedding. As far as cameos are concerned, well that was the best part for me. After the whole hype surrounding Mel Gibson and then Bill Clinton I was a bit tired of hearing about all the cameos. Paul Giamatti shows up in the film as an agent disguised as a mob boss who is after Mr. Chow. Giamatti proves his excellence in whatever role he is given. At first, I really believed that he could be a mob boss. A few other famous faces are thrown in for good measure, but their roles do not need to be spoiled here as they are merely cannon fodder aimed at extending the plot.

If you’ve seen the first movie, you’ve seen this movie. 98% of the gags, laughs and jokes are basically repeats of the first. This really took me out of the film, and the movie started to drag around the middle. Ending this review on a slightly higher note, the cinematography is quite fantastic the whole way through, showing the squalor and seedy side of Bangkok in an energetic way. Comedy is probably the only genre which can be gravely terrible in every way, but which can get away with it if it is funny. Hangover II isn’t funny. Mainly because the characters aren’t well drawn and the situations they get into just aren’t believable. Another entry in the long line of sure-to-be let downs which seems to be the horrible summer of sequels in America this year.