“It happened again.”
These words, spoken more than once in The Hangover Part 2, do more than sum up the premise. Unfortunately, they accurately describe the whole film, which is why it doesn’t match up to the original. It’s funny, but the shine is gone.
Dentist Stu (Ed Helms) has moved on from Las Vegas hooker Jade and is now happily engaged to the lovely (and certainly more normal) Lauren (Jamie Chung). She’s from Thailand, and they’ve agreed to have the wedding at a private resort there, as much for the setting as to placate her father, who openly dislikes Stu.
He’s invited friends Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Doug (Justin Bartha), and eventually is pressured to invite the unstable Alan (Zach Galifianakis) as well. But he’s totally against a bachelor party, fearing a repeat of the trouble in Vegas. On the first night at the resort, he agrees to one quick beer on the beach with his friends and Lauren’s younger brother, 16-year-old Teddy (Mason Lee). From their first meeting, Alan is openly hostile to Teddy, resenting his inclusion in the “wolf pack”.
On cue, we cut to the next day, when Phil, Alan and Stu wake up in a seedy hotel in Bangkok with no clue how they got there, or what has happened. Doug is safe back at the resort, having left the party before things went haywire, but Teddy is missing and apparently injured. And so, the backtracking detective work begins again, this time in a foreign city with a lot more potential danger.
The problem here isn’t that The Hangover‘s premise is repeated. Lots of sequels do that, and in this case it’s really the only way the story could happen. The problem is that nearly every element of the original movie has been repeated in the sequel. It’s very nearly like director Todd Phillips and his creative team, baffled by the wild success of the first film, simply photocopied the script and tweaked the references.
The first movie had a cute baby – here there’s an adorable monkey. The original had a villain in Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) – Chow returns here, but this one also has drug runners and a shady fellow played by Paul Giamatti. And Stu is still into prostitutes, but not like anyone expects. Even the resolution plays out much the same way in both films.
The effect of all this cribbing is a continuous feeling of déjà vu that dampens the humour. We’re constantly being reminded of moments that happened in the first movie, which causes us to realize how much we enjoyed those moments more when everything was a surprise.
The actors aren’t served well by this approach, either. Helms does very well as the central character of this story, but Cooper barely registers, and Galifianakis has morphed Alan from childlike eccentric into something much more dangerous, bordering on unlikeable.
It does have laughs, and if you’re prepared to lower your expectations, you may enjoy it. But it really is too much of the same.
Tags: movie review
About the author: David Raitt
David Raitt is a writer and lover of pop culture. He lives in Oakville. He has also worked as an actor for The Second City, and has written, produced and performed his own sketch comedy, including the Canadian Comedy Award-nominated ALL THE RAGE. Semi-retired from performing, he still teaches improv and communications skills to students and corporate groups through his association with The Second City. Check out Dave's website at http://davidraitt.com
Follow
Subscribe