Pretty lousy repeat

Rating: 3/10 (15 June 2012)

The Hangover Part II is every bit as bad as you might expect a sequel to be when it simply apes what happened in the previous film. It strives to be uncreative, throwing its dim-witted, unlikeable leads into the same situations, with nearly identical jokes and shock moments. It's not even guilty-pleasure trash.
This time around, it's dentist Stu (Ed Helms) who's getting married. In Thailand, of course, where his betrothed is from. Of course it's Thailand, having them get married in Kansas would be dumb. Anyway, the Wolf Pack schleps off to the Far East, with not-sane Alan (Zach Galianifikis) in tow. Oh, and the bride's teenage brother, who happens to be studying at Stanford. Because he has a pushy dad, that's why.
Things go wrong just as they did in the first one in that, after enjoying a toast on the beach, the friends wake up in some hellhole, this time in Bangkok. They then spend the rest of the film figuring out where they are, where the teenager is, and how to save the wedding - again, somewhat of a repeat of the first film.
Raunchy movies can be a lot of fun, but this one offers very little in terms of wit, just blustery Americanisms (such as yelling louder at someone who might not understand English). Some fun is poked at the seedy underbelly of Bangkok itself and at culture clash in general, but it's an impotent mess. There's much racing about madly as the characters dash from scene to scene. In this case, that may have helped the movie, as one didn't have time to contemplate the implausible plot too much.
Let's look at some good parts. Paul Giamatti has a quick, showy role as a crime boss and does well. Mike Tyson sings and shows some personality. That's about it. The rest might make you cringe - if you had cared enough about the characters to begin with. Oh, there was one other good thing - the weakest character from the first film, Doug (Justin Bartha) is left to communicate with the other three via cell phone, wondering where they are. Smart move, because that guy was boring (he was the "lost one" they had to find in the previous film).
I suppose if you got really drunk and didn't care about anything more than a moving picture, you might find this endurable. Or maybe you could make a drinking game out of it - every time a monkey did something interesting, take a shot. Other than that, it's worthless.