After practically reliving The Hangover personally this past weekend, I was able to attend an advance screening of The Hangover 2 and I must say, Bangkok is a much more dangerous place then Vegas will ever be.
When the original became the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever, the green light was given to director Todd Phillips to start his plans on a sequel and how to bring the wolf pack back together again. In The Hangover 2, everyone is back including some minor characters from the original (Mike Tyson and Mr. Chow) and also some unforgettable new ones.
The biggest concern for people seems to be that this is just the same situation as the first one, just in a different country. To an extent they are absolutely correct, the premise is the same, however, Hangover 2 stands on its own and is just as memorable and almost as hilarious as the first. This time around it’s Stu (Ed Helms) getting married to his fiancé Lauren (Jamie Chung) in Thailand and the original gang is all there to witness it. Stu stresses that he doesn’t want to do anything crazy for his bachelor party and suggests they just have brunch and enjoy themselves. Stu ends up getting talked into having just one beer on the beach and next thing he knows they are waking up to yet another hangover and have to figure out what has happened to Lauren’s brother Teddy (Mason Lee), along with remembering the previous night.
Much like the original, the film is centralized on the three man wolf pack, Stu, Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), trying to remember what happened only this time they wake up with SPOILER a monkey, a severed finger and a dead body (kind of) as clues as to what happened the night before. END SPOILER
Now let’s get to the actual review.
It’s very hard to carry over the same memorable experience of an original to a sequel, but I felt Todd did a remarkable job of trying to accomplish this. The movie is much more outlandish then the original, but I felt it really lacked the originality and raw humor the original had. Yes, the film is still hilarious and Galifianakis is a one man show on his own, but some of the jokes just don’t pack a punch and I really didn’t think the monkey was all that entertaining like I had anticipated. I loved seeing Ken Jeong‘s, Mr.Chow associated with the film because he was one my favorite characters from the first and was just as funny in the sequel. Still, the story is clever and the events that transpire are pretty farfetched, but the film manages to accomplish what it’s supposed to do, and that is to entertain you.
Does the film have iconic cameos like the original? Yes, Mike Tyson is back along with Paul Giamatti and Nick Cassavetes, however, it didn’t have the same effect as the original did. Is a lot of the movie spoiled due to the excessive trailers? Kind of, which was a tad disappointing. I don’t really understand why movies feel the need to give so much away in trailers? J.J Abrams can you please give the industry a trailer 101 class ASAP! Is the sequel better than the first? No, but it’s still a damn funny movie and very entertaining. Will this be the funniest movie of the summer? Sorry, I think that title will end up going to Bridesmaids (Which everyone should go see). Is there a lot of male nudity? Yup. Other than that I don’t know what else to say about it.
In the end, The Hangover 2 is well worth the price of admission and will go on to be a huge hit this summer. Chris reported earlier last week, ideas are already being tossed around for a third film and that Phillips is looking to take a new approach on it and change the format and feel of the film, so we will have to wait and see if this is for sure a go.
Rating: 7/10 Very entertaining and plenty of crude, vulgar humor, but just not as funny as the original.
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