Review: The Hangover Part II

Stu (Ed Helms) is about to marry Lauren (Jamie Chung) at a resort in Thailand, and despite protesting that he does not want a bachelor party, Phil (Bradley Cooper) manages to talk him around to having a quiet beer. Unfortunately, Doug (Justin Bartha) insists on his idiot brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis) being invited to the wedding, despite the calamity he caused last time at Doug’s own wedding. Also with the guys is Lauren’s overachieving teenage brother Teddy (Mason Lee). Anyway, next thing you know, the guys are waking up the next morning in a strange place with Stu’s face adorned with an eerily familiar tattoo, Alan has his head shaved, Teddy has gone missing, and absolutely no idea where the hell they are (seemingly the seediest part of seedy Bangkok) or what the hell happened to put them there. Doug is safe, this time, having stayed at the resort. Oh, and one of Teddy’s fingers is found. So now the gang have to find Teddy and get to the wedding in time. Yeah, that’s going to be easy. Throw in chicks with dicks, an elderly monk who isn’t much of a conversationalist, a return appearance by whiny criminal Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), Paul Giamatti as an intimidating crime boss, and a cameo by Mike Tyson, and you’ve got yourself...um, whatever the hell this is.

I didn’t like “The Hangover” at all. It was a bunch of ugly people doing ugly things and then complaining when they couldn’t remember anything the next morning. It was also mostly painfully unfunny (Mike Tyson providing the only chuckle) and concerned itself with things I knew little about (I don’t drink, think getting drunk is stupid, and I hate parties) nor wanted to. This inevitable sequel from 2011 to the box-office smash is even lesser than the original, if only because the original, well, came first. It’s painfully derivative of the earlier film, only this time set in Bangkok instead of Vegas, Bradley Cooper is slightly less sleazy (but looks grubbier), and Zach Galifianakis is slightly less sociopathic this time and just completely annoying instead. That’s it.

Director Todd Phillips (“Road Trip”, “Old School”, “The Hangover”) and his co-writers Craig Mazin (“Scary Movie 4”, “Superhero Movie”) and Scot Armstrong (“Road Trip”, “Old School”, “Semi Pro”) were obviously too busy boozing it up the night before they wrote this, got so blind they forgot any ideas they came up with, and the next day decided to just largely re-write the first film, right down to Justin Bartha having fuck all to do, this time because he actually stays behind. Hell, they even manage to lock up Mr. Chow again thinking he’s dead, though this time it’s not in the boot of a car. It also includes another cameo by Mike Tyson, once again providing the only real chuckle via another amusing karaoke moment. This time, amusingly and improbably- yet rather appropriately- Murray Head’s ‘One Night in Bangkok’. Sadly, that comes right near the end and that’s far too late.

I fail to see how the film’s plot is even remotely funny. If any of this had happened to me, I’d be absolutely horrified. This is not the plot of a comedy, it’s a nightmare. But then, I don’t drink, go to countries known to be quite dangerous, nor associate with creeps or buffoons, so it wouldn’t happen to me in the first place. Truth be told, even if I did drink or associate with creeps or buffoons, it still wouldn’t happen. To anyone. And whilst the exaggeration is meant to be kinda the point of the film, it’s not actually funny and is full of archaic Asian/Thai stereotypes like shemales. A Mike Tyson tattoo joke? In 2011? Really? Lame. But at least that joke was harmless, the rest is sleazy and disturbing, if you ask me. I mean, take the hermaphrodite/transsexual, for instance. It is never shown, but strongly suggested that one of the main characters has had sex with a transsexual, something this character most certainly would not have done whilst sober (Nor drunk, but let’s not use our brains and actually think for a change). It isn’t funny, especially the more you think about it, probably largely due to the rather dangerous choice of location (In Las Vegas, the absolute worst that could happen is significantly lesser, you would think than Thailand).

More importantly, though, the film is incredibly dull. Unendingly so, seemingly going on for even longer than the first film. It definitely should’ve ended at the conclusion of Tyson’s performance. Or before the film even began, to be honest. Sorry, but I got even less out of this film than the first one. I guess it’s just not for me. Kudos for playing Billy Joel’s highly underrated ‘Downeaster Alexa’,though. Love that song.

Rating: C-