Nobody ever expected The Hangover to be the breakout comedy hit it was back in 2009, and ever since The Hangover Part II was announced, everyone, and particularly fans of the original film, were wondering if the the writers, the stars, and director Todd Phillips (Due Date), could do it again.
And in short, they have; as The Hangover Part II may as well be a re-release of The Hangover; it follows the same bunch of guys; Phil (Bradley Coper, Limitless), Stu (Ed Helms, Cedar Rapids), Alan (Zach Galifianakis, Due Date), and Doug (Justin Bartha, The Rebound); as they are about to attend the wedding of one of the group (this time round it’s Stu’s turn to take the plunge), and attend a seemingly innocent bachelor party, that turns into “a sick night”, and ends up with Phil, Stu, and Alan getting severely fucked up, and waking in a hotel the next day with no memory of the night before, and a missing member of the wedding party.
This time round it’s not Doug who’s gone missing, but newcomer Teddy (Mason Lee); the 16-year-old brother of the bride, who’s now alone and possibly scared and/or in a lot of danger; and rather than having the neon city of sin that is Las Vegas to search for him, they find themselves in Thailand, not at the high-class island resort where Stu is due to be married, but in the squalid centre of Bangkok, with no map, no clue, and, in Alan’s case, no hair.
Following exactly the same format as the first movie; right down to the ashamed phone call from Phil to Tracy (Sasha Barrese, Let Me In) that starts off the movie, before picking up the action a few days prior to the bachelor event; the guys search their pockets for clues as to what happened the night before, and go on a trip around the city talking to everyone they met (including a carbon copy of Eddie from the wedding chapel in the first movie, who’s even played by the same actor; Bryan Callen), hoping to track down Teddy, and get Stu to the wedding on time.
This time however, it’s not just getting arrested, kidnapped, and ending up in the hospital that the guys have to contend with (although, every single one of those things does happen again this time around), but car chases, arguments, a worrying bride to be, prostitutes, a severe problem with Stu’s head (again all re-treads from the first movie; but this time much more severe), and newer problems such as dismemberment, drug dealing monkeys, car chases, riots, guns, and silent monks, and it’s clear from the guys’ reactions that they’re in a shitload more trouble than they were in Vegas.
But with this much replication (not only is the set-up exactly the same, but the film sticks so closely to the formula of the original that every single plot element is simply replaced with its Thai equivalent); Stu’s missing tooth becomes a facial tattoo, a baby becomes a monkey, a hooker becomes a Thai hooker with a poorly hidden and predictable secret (yet one that still manages to fill the cinema with laughter, and cause the series’ staple gross-out), Stu’s sings another little jingle, and much more besides; it doesn’t always feel like the wolfpack are in that much trouble, but simply going through the motions, and suffering from the worst case of deja vu in history.
Yet it’s a case of deja vu that still remains hilarious to watch, as Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis have brilliant chemistry and timing together, all play their roles exceptionally well (Cooper being the cool one, Helms perfect at freaking-out, and Galifianakis just being hilariously outrageous and socially inept). Dialling up the amount of Alan on display was a wise move (he’s clearly the funniest thing about the film’s, and delivers some killer one liners, and subtle-ish prop comedy), removing Doug again was a strange but probably wise decision (unlike including Ken Jeong’s Mr Chow), and even though it’s all been done before, has hasn’t been done like this; The Hangover Part II takes The Hangover, cranks it up to 11, keeps cranking, and delivers the same movie, only much darker, filled with more laughs, plenty more gross-out moments, and just makes everything that much more outrageous, you can’t help but laugh your way through it.
Phil sums The Hangover Part II up perfectly by saying “it happened again”; it’s a re-tread of the first movie with the same actors, going through the same plot, in a basic scene-for-scene remake, yet contains just as many laughs, has just as high a shock value, and just as many gross-outs, as the first; ensuring that anyone who enjoyed the humor of the first will be guaranteed to let loose a few sniggers while watching this film. There’s some quality acting, plenty of hilarious one-liners, a lot of nob-gags (for people who enjoy that sort of thing, and don’t mind a bit of full-frontal nudity), and a closing cameo that’s pure genius (unlike the useless and unfunny appearance by Sideways’ Paul Giamatti), and while Bangkok may not hit the sweet-spot that Vegas did, be quite as memorable, or provide a groundbreaking, cult-worthy, classic comedy like the first movie, The Hangover Part II is still more than worth a watch, and very, very funny.
