All that comes to mind while watching The Hangover: Part II is déjà vu, which is funny because it’s all about not remembering a thing. That irony is just about the only thing that had me laughing during the movie, a completely shameless and uninventive retread of the original, with male nudity, Mike Tyson, Top 40 pop songs and drunken debauchery, et al.
This redux really isn’t much of a sequel, but a carbon copy — all they did was change the proper nouns.
Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are at it again, this time in Bangkok for Stu’s wedding to a Thai woman named Lauren, which is pretty much all we ever learn about her. Two nights before he ties the knot, the four and Teddy, Lauren’s 16-year-old brother, decide to have one drink and call it a night.
But uh-oh, it’s happened again! Phil, Stu and Alan all wake up the next morning in a dive Bangkok hotel and can’t remember a thing. Somehow Doug is fine and back with the wedding party, but Teddy is missing — except one of his fingers that they find in the room.
So “The Wolfpack” once again must go on a rampaging 36-hour search, frequenting every stereotypical locale Bangkok has to offer — tattoo parlors, transvestite stripper bars, monasteries — and attempting to remember exactly how they got so krunk. Will they find Teddy in time for Stu’s nuptials? Oh, the drama.
It’s hard to overstate just how much Part II is like the original, from the pace, the order of events, the raunchy jokes and the simple resolution. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was Director Todd Phillips’ motto, which completely kills the fresh bawdiness that was imperative in the previous installment.
The one aspect that made the first film a hit, and in some cases a delight to watch, was that element of surprise — when the gangsters showed up with guns, when Chow jumped out of the car’s trunk, when the end credits rolled and we saw what really happened. All of that is done again in pretty much the same way, at the same time in the script, like clockwork. The second time around it’s just all too predictable, and as a result, dull.
Even the cast is going through the motions. Helms struggles; desperate, hysterical screaming is his go-to line. And Galifianakis’ character seems played and unrealistic, leaving Cooper to carry the movie as the relative straight man.
It’s almost a given we’ll see a Hangover: Part III at this point, considering the massive amount of money Part II made over the weekend. But like Part II, there will be no need to see it — just pop in a DVD of the first one, imagine a change in location and that’ll be pretty darned close to the real thing.
All that comes to mind while watching The Hangover: Part II is déjà vu, which is funny because it’s all about not remembering a thing. That irony is just about the only thing that had me laughing during the movie, a completely shameless and uninventive retread of the original, with male nudity, Mike Tyson, Top 40 pop songs and drunken debauchery, et al.
This redux really isn’t much of a sequel, but a carbon copy — all they did was change the proper nouns.
Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are at it again, this time in Bangkok for Stu’s wedding to a Thai woman named Lauren, which is pretty much all we ever learn about her. Two nights before he ties the knot, the four and Teddy, Lauren’s 16-year-old brother, decide to have one drink and call it a night.
But uh-oh, it’s happened again! Phil, Stu and Alan all wake up the next morning in a dive Bangkok hotel and can’t remember a thing. Somehow Doug is fine and back with the wedding party, but Teddy is missing — except one of his fingers that they find in the room.
So “The Wolfpack” once again must go on a rampaging 36-hour search, frequenting every stereotypical locale Bangkok has to offer — tattoo parlors, transvestite stripper bars, monasteries — and attempting to remember exactly how they got so krunk. Will they find Teddy in time for Stu’s nuptials? Oh, the drama.
It’s hard to overstate just how much Part II is like the original, from the pace, the order of events, the raunchy jokes and the simple resolution. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was Director Todd Phillips’ motto, which completely kills the fresh bawdiness that was imperative in the previous installment.
The one aspect that made the first film a hit, and in some cases a delight to watch, was that element of surprise — when the gangsters showed up with guns, when Chow jumped out of the car’s trunk, when the end credits rolled and we saw what really happened. All of that is done again in pretty much the same way, at the same time in the script, like clockwork. The second time around it’s just all too predictable, and as a result, dull.
Even the cast is going through the motions. Helms struggles; desperate, hysterical screaming is his go-to line. And Galifianakis’ character seems played and unrealistic, leaving Cooper to carry the movie as the relative straight man.
It’s almost a given we’ll see a Hangover: Part III at this point, considering the massive amount of money Part II made over the weekend. But like Part II, there will be no need to see it — just pop in a DVD of the first one, imagine a change in location and that’ll be pretty darned close to the real thing.
—Cameron Dunbar is a sophomore studying journalism. Send him some punch-drunk love at cd211209@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCulture
