Hysterically funny follow-up to the out-of-nowhere blockbuster comedy keeps the 'Wolfpack' back for action

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2011)

THE HANGOVER PART II (2011) ***1/2 Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti, Jamie Chung, Mason Lee, Jeffrey Tambor, Sasha Barrese, Gillian Vigman, Nick Cassavetes, Crystal The Monkey (cameo as himself: Mike Tyson) Hysterically funny follow-up to the out-of-nowhere blockbuster comedy keeps the 'Wolfpack' back for action along the same lines except instead of Las Vegas they head to Bangkok for more of the same in their fractured-memory evening of debauchery with groom-to-be, mild-mannered dentist Stu (Helms); Abbott & Costello (ah, Cooper and Galifianakis) and his future-brother-in-law (Lee, son of filmmaker Ang Lee) MIA; a very angry gangster (Giamatti having fun); a return visit from Mr. Chow (hilarious Jeong) and the scene-stealing, chain-smoking, drug-dealing monkey (Crystal) all attempting to fit the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of their lives. Director Todd Phillips – who co-wrote with Craig Mazin & Scot Armstrong – gets in touch with his inner Harold Ramis (a good thing!) – mixing the numbskull slapstick with some emotions and going decidedly darker (a severed finger; a trip to a he/she strip joint and the 'death' of a character) fuel the fires of familiarity yet on the whole it's still gut-bustingly FUNNY and rapid fire in sight gags/zingers and one-liners that requires several trips to get them all in !