Another Night to Remember…
“The Hangover 2″ (3 Stars out of 5)
The beauty of 2009’s comedy hit, “The Hangover” was that it was so unexpected. Director Todd Phillips hadn’t had a hit since “Old School” in 2003. The film’s only recognizable talent was Justin Bartha, who played Doug, the groom whose friends (*SPOILER*) leave him on the roof of a Las Vegas hotel after a night of debauchery that they can’t for the life of them remember. Not only did the first movie propel Phillips back into pop culture, it also made a star out of Bradley Cooper, it returned Zach Galifianakis to relevance and it helped to stoke the flames for Ed Helms’ career fire. Two years later, Cooper is on Hollywood’s A-List, Galifianakis is a comedy go-to and Helms enjoys his time vying for the open management position at Pennyslvania’s favorite paper company.
Now, the “Wolf Pack” is back. Ed Helms’ character, Stu is getting married. Although, for fans of the first movie, it is not to the female escort (Heather Graham) he met in Vegas. No, this time he’s fallen for a girl named Lauren (Jaime Chung) whose family is from Thailand, where the wedding ceremony is set to take place. Stu looks to keep things light and simple, inviting his close buds Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Doug (Justin Bartha) out to IHOP for a bachelor brunch before they all get on a plane to fly out to the wedding. Tracy, Alan’s (Zach Galifianakis) sister has asked her husband Doug to have Stu extend a last minute invite to Alan for the wedding. It seems Alan hasn’t stopped talking about the boys after their night in Vegas, and he has been very distraught to not receive an invitation to Stu’s wedding. Though for Stu, inviting the person who was responsible for what happened the last time is not exactly on his list of things that will keep his wedding light and simple.
Alan gets his invite when Stu arrives in person, but is saddened to find out he’ll be travelling with Stu’s future brother in-law, a sixteen year old named Teddy (Mason Lee). For Stu, travelling with a minor is the perfect reason not to get outrageous again, and for Alan, somebody as entered the “Wolf Pack” without prior approval. Once the boys arrive overseas, and all the pre-wedding festivities have been completed, Phil wants to kick back and relax by taking Stu out to the beach for a couple of beers and a late night bonfire. At first, Stu is apprehensive, but even his fiancé thinks he should take a break and relax. Lauren thinks it would be a good idea for Stu to spend the night with his friends, and to bring Teddy along as well because he’s the type of kid who sticks to his studies and doesn’t take a ton of time out for harmless male fun.
The men go out to the beach to light a fire and Phil is given a case of beers from the hotel bar. He also makes sure to tell Stu that all the beers come sealed. Nothing is getting slipped into their drinks this time. Once again it is Phil who raises his glass for a toast, and once again things speed up on-screen as we fast forward from night to day.
The next morning Phil, Stu and Alan wake up in a dingy and unfamiliar room. There are open bottles of alcohol everywhere, but the room is only half as destroyed as the suite they stayed in when they were in Vegas. No, this room is just filthy. It is crawling with bugs and it has inexplicable stains all over the place. Phil finds himself face down on the floor sleeping in the same clothes he wore the night before. Alan rolls over from the top of bunk beds on the far side of the room, and Stu has made himself comfortable in the room’s tub. Doug and Teddy are not with them.
Phil is worried, but there is nothing to be upset about just yet. However, when Doug calls from the hotel, waiting for his friends to arrive for breakfast, things head south in a hurry. Alan’s head has been shaved, and Stu’s got himself a permanent facial tattoo, the same type as Mike Tyson. As if things weren’t bad enough, Teddy is not accounted for. Sure, Doug is back safe and sound, but it turns out that the only lead they have with regard to Teddy is his severed ring finger that’s sitting on a table in a pool of water. Yes folks, it has happened again.
From this point forward, we pretty much have the same movie. The boys try like heck to retrace their steps, they can’t right away, but after emptying their pockets and having a meeting of the minds they set out to the streets of Bangkok to try to solve the mystery of what transpired, and find out what happened to Teddy. The supporting characters are the same; Mr. Chow is here, as well as the guy who owned the wedding chapel Stu got married in from the first movie. However, this time around Bryan Callen plays Samir, the owner of an exotic dance club, where he bartends and sells black market automatic weapons. Even the same soundtrack returns, featuring songs from Kanye West and Wolfmother. Heck it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that Todd Phillips timed Ed Helms’ new song “Allentown” to the exact same moment as Helms’ song in the original movie.
That being said, it is not necessarily a bad thing that things are the same. Most of the time, we want to see some kind of evolution in a film franchise, something to advance the characters from movie to movie. But why do we need that in an R-rated comedy about three guys who get so drunk that they can’t remember all the messed up stuff they did the night before? It would be one thing for Scorsese to make “Goodfellas” and then ruin it with “Goodfellas 2” but what more than the same can we expect from a movie called “The Hangover?”
Its biggest flaw may be the location, Bangkok. When the boys first set out in Vegas, aside from all of their dirty deeds, the flashiness of Vegas still offered a bit of intrigue. Although most of the trouble the guys get into the first time around could never happen in real life, the appeal of getting drunk and having a “story” that stays in Vegas looms large.
Not so, this time around. Bangkok seems too dark and too seedy. Although this may be the theme of the film, Phillips makes the city look like the sort of place that does not look fun to travel to. From rotten hotel rooms, to strip clubs, sweat inducing heat and crowded city streets, Phillips does paint a colorful enough picture of Bangkok to make it look fun to hang out in, even sober.
No, this is not a better film than the original. No, this is not more funny than the original. No, it does not really advance any of the characters; Phil’s still a bit of a prick, Stu’s still a dentist, Alan’s still demented and Doug’s still left behind. However, Todd Phillips gives fans exactly what they want with the “Hangover 2”. It’s a second night of foul-mouthed humor, and drunken stupidity from three guys we expect if from most. Other reviews say that the mystery is missing from this installment, and although I agree to an extent; (I do think they reveal too much of the night a little too quickly;) I was still guessing until the very end as to what exactly happened to Stu’s brother in-law. Yes, from flaming cop cars to full frontal male nudity and high speed car chases “Hangover 2” does everything the first movie did and adds a couple more jokes that’ll keep you laughing and talking afterwards. It’s the kind of movie that you watch the first time, think is ‘okay’ and then the jokes stick with you to the point you’ll laugh harder at them when you see it again later on DVD. Phillips and Co. are back, they’re funny again and if the franchise is indeed a trilogy, I’ll be happily awaiting the third adventure of Phil, Stu and Alan, a “Wolf Park” I don’t necessarily want to be a part of, but I sure enjoy laughing at the expense of.
“Hangover 2” Rated R: Features harsh language, very profane humor, drug use, nudity (male and female), excessive amounts of drinking, underage drinking, and violence.
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