I Felt Like I Had A Hangover After This Movie

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2011)

The Hangover Part 2 begins when Phil (Bradley Cooper) is on the phone with Stu's (Ed Helms) soon to be wife that someone has gone missing and the wedding may have to be cut off. Cut back to a week earlier, and Stu is getting married to his fiancée in Thailand. They bring along her little brother Teddy who Alan (Zach Galifianakis)despises. But suddenly the boys are drinking and wakes up with a hangover only to find Teddy missing and they must go through a series of events to find him.
Hold on a sec, I seem to be referring to the first movie. Wait, this is the second movie. It's the same scenario all over again. Stu's now got a tattoo on his face that looks suspiciously like Mike Tyson's (replacing his missing tooth from the first one) and Alan now has a bald head. It's the same exact formula!
To be fair, there are a few funny scenes in the movie that made me laugh out loud. I actually thought that the whole movie would be a rush job devoid of any laughs. The audience I saw it with was laughing throughout the movie, with a few down times here and there. Chow even makes an appearance but his return is mostly forgettable.
The first scene that made me laugh was at the toast in the beginning when Stu's soon to be father-in-law compares Stu to rice. It was actually quite funny. Then Alan makes a speech and I really thought the film would really nail it if he struck back at the father-in-law who was obviously badgering Stu in front of an audience of people. However, that did not happen. So close. There were a few other funny moments in the film, but it never seemed to quite live up to the first one. Well, maybe one part involving a monkey, a monk and a bus. The audience was rolling on that one. In fact, the monkey was the real show stealer. I'm betting he will return for the third installment.
The last third of the movie, however, felt very rushed. It was like the writers struggled to really find that ending that was just phoned in for the sake of finally ending this picture. Granted, the end credits helped salvage the rush job that they did, but it wasn't enough to warrant this a worthy sequel to the highly successful Hangover film.
With the third installment greenlit, let me spoil the third one for you. Bradley Cooper will be on the phone with Alan's fiancée, and the wedding will have to be called off. Flashback to sometime earlier, and we lead up to the events where they wake up with a hangover, and a series of events will follow which will probably feel just like the previous two installments. The End.