The Hangover Part II

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2011)

The first film a huge surprise box office hit, it reminded me of Dude, Where's My Car?, but it wasn't rubbish, it was fantastically funny, and then I heard that they were doing a sequel, I was willing to give it a chance, from director Todd Phillips (Road Trip, Old School, Due Date). Basically it has been two years since the events in Las Vegas, and Stu Price (Ed Helms) is getting married to his fiancée Lauren (Jamie Chung), and to celebrate he, Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Doug Billings (Justin Bartha), to Stu's dismay Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis), and to Alan's irritation the brother-in-law-to-be Teddy (Mason Lee). They all travel to Thailand where the wedding will take place, and the boys all spend a quiet stag evening on the beach drinking a little beer toasting marshmallows over a camp fire, they make sure Alan doesn't have any dodgy drugs this time. The next morning however they once again wake up from a bad hangover, in a trashed seedy hotel apartment in Bangkok, joined by Alan's friend from Las Vegas, Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), the Asian gangster, Alan has a completely shaved head, and Stu with a permanent Mike Tyson style tattoo on his face. While Doug calls them safe and sound back at the hotel resort, they are missing Teddy, and they find his severed finger, as well as a chain-smoking capuchin monkey, so now begins a journey to retrace their steps with clues and leads. Along the way they find out where Stu got his face tattooed, they bail out who they think is Teddy but is actually a Monk who has taken a strict vow of silence, they visited a strip club where Stu had sex with a she-male, and the monkey deals things to people, so gangsters chase them again. Of course, despite swearing that he had no involvement this time with their lack of memory, Alan confesses that he drugged one of the bags of marshmallows with muscle relaxants and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) medication, he intended to have Teddy be knocked out, but he mixed the bags. After being conned by the police, led by Kingsley (Paul Giamatti) into busting a drugs ring, Phil is sure he will have to call the bride-to-be to explain everything, but Stu pieces some facts together and realises where to find Teddy, he is trapped in the elevator because the power went down. In the end they all make it by speed boat to the wedding in time, Mike Tyson is a special guest, and they again relive the night that they don't remember with the photos on Teddy's phone. Also starring Jeffrey Tambor as Sid Garner, Sasha Barrese as Tracy Billings and Gillian Vigman as Stephanie Wenneck. I think the bigger reason I saw this follow up wasn't just because I enjoyed the original film, but because there was some controversy surrounding it, such as Mel Gibson fired from the role as the Tattooist because of disagreements (and possibly that abusive phone call recording), and Mike Tyson suing the filmmakers, forcing them to consider digitally removing the tattoo from Helms's face. The cast are still well casted, and there are some original funny moments in the story, but to me it felt like the same film all over again, only in a different location, but it's not a bad comedy sequel. Worth watching!