Cinema Review: The Hangover Part II (2011)

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what Warner Bros., the people behind The Hangover decided to do with The Hangover Part II. They know there’s a reason the first film became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. So they gave us more of the same with the Wolf Pack waking up after a wild night they can’t remember. Somehow, Stu has disfigured himself again. Somehow, there’s a random animal in their room. And somehow, another wedding is in jeopardy because of a disappearance and a case of mistaken identity. Instead of Las Vegas, Nevada however, director Todd Phillips has changed the locale to Bangkok, Thailand which is the only noticeable difference.

It’s rare to encounter a sequel that’s more rewarding when you haven’t seen the original but Phillips has created an enigma of sorts in the next incarnation of his 2009 smash hit. It may be under the sequel moniker, but The Hangover Part II (unlike The Godfather: Part II there’s no colon) does nothing to advance ‘the world’ of the original or the characters that inhabit it. Sure, it isn’t a comic book film or an evolving franchise, but the sheer lack of inventiveness makes this one of the laziest films you are ever likely to see, let alone this summer.

The film is littered with re-run gags, and it is not preposterous to claim one may have a better experience if they have no knowledge of what has occurred previously. By using an identical structure, beat-for-beat, the element of surprise is gone. A crazy Asian man jumping out of an ice box instead of a car trunk, masturbation/penis jokes with a monkey instead of a baby, waking up in a trashed Bangkok hotel room instead of within the confines of The Strip; the list goes on and on from the first to last scene. Yes, even the credits many loved from the original don’t have the same impact here.

The opening credits shots even match, as we see ‘A Todd Phillips Movie’ over the identically framed push-in shot of the wedding ceremony being set up. In a world where audiences connect with the awful Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer films that simply re-enact scenes from popular films without any re-imagination, Phillips and screenwriters Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong were mistaken that they can copy that formula here and achieve similar results using their own blueprint.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering the original Hangover screenwriters, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, had nothing to do with this film. When the writers of Due Date, School for Scoundrels, The Heartbreak Kid, Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4 and Superhero Movie team up on a screenplay, originality is not exactly the superior ingredient. Ironically though the whole experiment in the Far East is funny.

Luckily for everyone involved and the franchise’s legions of fans, the rehash works. The characterisations are not to be congratulated though. Phil (Cooper) has gone from being an amusing pretty boy to a truly unpleasant one, while Alan’s (Galifianakis) stupidity is annoying more often than it is funny. After three films (he played almost the exact same character in Due Date and television show Bored to Death), Galifianakis’s borderline retarded shtick has lost all of its charm; the actor needs to find something new or risk becoming truly unbearable. Ed Helms’ Stu is the only likeable one of the trio, so naturally he suffers the most disgusting fate.

The plaudits should go to the second unit team for creating some great set pieces (a good car chase in particular), Ken Jeong for getting even funnier in his extended cameo role as Mr Chow and ultimately to Phillips for pushing the envelope. Realising the plot lacked originality he made the action ballsier than any mainstream comedy in recent memory. The venture into the extreme pays off and the target demographic will find the jokes extremely funny.



Summary
Viewing The Hangover Part II is like spending a night in a Bangkok brothel. Sure, it’s fun while it lasts. Maybe you’ll even recommend the experience to your friends. But in the cold light of day, it will just as likely leave you feeling vaguely cheated and a little bit unfulfilled. Maybe this is a harsh critique because the outing is hilarious at times, just a complete carbon copy of its predecessor.