The Hangover Part II movie review- The whole movie delivers exactly what fans expect – maybe too much.
All of your favorites are back for The Hangover Part II – Phil, Stu, Alan, even Mr. Chow… the only character missing that was essential to the first movie: the city of Las Vegas.
The Hangover was a different kind of Vegas movie. When it’s the setting for a movie, it’s either a very glamorous backdrop or it’s “SinCity” itself helping take someone down with its temptations. We see the lights, we see the strip, we see the showgirls, we see a marquee – but we never see it in the morning or on the street level. Phil, Stu and Alan weren’t players – they were everyday guys in the big city and in over their heads.
The first movie’s depiction of Las Vegas made it somewhat relatable. Now, you and I are decent people, and we’d never party beyond our limits. And yes, the first movie had naked men jumping out of the trunks of cars, tigers walking around hotel rooms and Mike Tyson so it’s not 100% true life. But like Phil, Stu and Alan, we probably want to be the same cool guys they do. If we save our money, we could take a flight out to Vegas and try to make it happen. And like them, we’d probably see things go kind of awry
Raise your hand if you’ve ever received an invitation to a bachelor party in Bangkok. Exactly. The Hangover was the most successful raunchy R-rated comedy in movie history and clearly director/writer Todd Phillips felt he had to top himself. So he picked Bangkok, Thailandand has the boys get lost in the seediest parts and get caught up in a mysterious underworld.
The boys are there because Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married, and his fianceé and family are from Thailand. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and friends are off to Thailandfor the wedding. Stu doesn’t want a bachelor party because of what happened at their buddy’s party in Part 1, but after a quiet toast on the beach, the boys wake up in a strange place with strange animals in circumstances they don’t remember.
Their journey to find the truth is indeed funny, full of the same kinds of outrageous gags we loved in the first movie. We laugh at some of the things that happen, and we wince at them at the same time. Alan is still the best character and the most quotable. He’s an odd duck who entertains at all times, whether it’s hanging out in his room among his posters of Billy Joel and the late, great Macho Man Randy Savage, making life hell for the bride-to-be’s little brother who he thinks is muscling in on “The Wolfpack”, spewing out random facts about Thailand, or developing a bond with a drug-dealer monkey. The Hangover made Galifianakis a star, and his fans will keep laughing with him. He delivers exactly what they expect.
The whole movie delivers exactly what fans expect – maybe too much. The Hangover Part II really is a complete rehash of The Hangover. The script follows the exact same template. It’s funny when Phil calls his buddy’s wife and says “It happened again,” but then everything does indeed happen again with substitutions providing the jokes: Bangkok for Vegas, a missing brother of the bride instead of a missing bridegroom, a monkey instead of a baby. This morning after is the really the same morning after, except it tries too hard.
Guys, last year, the women in our lives had almost the same experience. Their beloved characters from Sex & The City left their city and starred in a movie in Abu Dhabiinstead of where they belonged. The Hangover Part II is a way funnier and much better movie than Sex & The City 2, but it does have a couple of similarities: it tries too hard, and it stretches the boundaries of realism just because it can.