Have you ever heard of the saying “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it?” The creators of Hangover took on this saying as they made the Hangover 2. But will it work? Will it be as funny, surprising and as entertaining as the first one? It is a risky move to almost repeat the exact timeline and formula as the original…
The same director who did the original Hangover, Todd Philips, who also has directed Old School and Due Date, takes the trio of Bradley Cooper (A-team, Limitless) as Phil, Zach Galifianakis (Due Date, Into the Wild) as Alan, and Ed Helms (The Office, The Goods) as Stu.
The movie starts as Stu announces that he is getting married to his bride to be played by Jamie Chung (Sucker punch, Grownups) and the marriage is taking place in Thailand. Stu, who is scared stiff to even consider having a bachelor’s party due what happened in the first movie, invites his friends expect Alan to his wedding. Doug, who is also one of the guys played by Justin Bartha (National Treasure, Holy Rollers), finally convinces his buddies to invite Alan along. They meet Stu’s bride to be younger brother Teddy in the airport and fly to Taiwan.
Even after being as cautious as possible…the three of them with Teddy , awake in strange hotel room in Bangkok with Teddy missing and the famous Mr. Chow, played by Ken Jeong (Knocked Up, Role Models), who had picked them up the night before. The plot starts repeating like the last one, as it comes to be a dark comedy mystery, and as they try to find Teddy in the city of Bangkok while Doug, who wasn’t involved, bought them time by covering for them to Teddy’s family. I am not obviously going to go into more detail, as it goes dark and crazy as they solve the mystery of why this happened, what happened the night before, and to find Teddy.
What was the most disappointing part of the movie is that the creators used the exact same story plot as the first one. The saying mentioned at the beginning “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” shouldn’t apply to sequels. You need to look at it like the company Apple does. When the second one comes out, add better features and make it more excited. With the second one, it actually was boring at times because it felt like some of the actors played there part lazy and it felt like I am watching the first one again but in a different location. So from beginning to the end, it was parallel, I felt that this movie was just an encore or an obligation for the actors to make a second one due to the major success that the first one had.
Now, saying that it wasn’t entertaining was wrong. It was funny in many parts, and other parts were just over the top or surprised me that it even passed the R rating due to the raciness in the film. Zach Galifianakis does a superb job and is the reason that the movie will have some success. He brings an element again to this film, which was the only slight difference from the first one.
So this almost melancholy film had its good moments. However if you saw the first one, then let your expectations go aside and see it like an encore version. Granted, if you are your buddies or girlfriends want to see a movie and doesn’t care about content, and then this is the one for you. I must admit that after seeing this film and the prior one, it makes one think twice before drinking or ping pong balls…
Grade: C-
If you liked this film, I recommend:
The Hangover (2009)
Tropic Thunder (2008)
Due Date (2010)