Hungover from the Hangover

Rating: 4/10 (30 May 2011)

This month, two hotly anticipated sequels were released- Pirates 4 and Hangover 2. For me, this should have been an awesome movie month. Well, OK, Bridesmaids and Thor were awesome movies- however the thing is, these aren't sequels, they're original concepts (OK, well not really original- I'm talking original as in "The start of something").
OK, now Pirates wasn't a bad movie, it had its share of entertaining scenes, but felt undercooked for the most part, and sadly, Hangover 2 suffers from exactly the same problem... except Pirates 4 was unfortunately much better.
Now, I LOVED The Hangover. I remember when it came out back in 2009 and I loved it so much, I saw it twice. Every viewing was just as entertaining as the first. When I heard a Hangover 2 was being made, I was excited. I figured the first movie was good enough to have a solid sequel, and Todd Phillips knew what he was doing was good. So I patiently anticipated this movie, and when it got released, I was one of the first people in line.
Unfortunately, this is no sequel. It is essentially a remake of the first movie. Why is that a problem? Because the first movie was way funnier.
The plot is essentially exatly the same... except this time it's set in Thailand. This time, Stu is getting married to a beautiful Thai woman, and Allan is not invited- he has even been rendered Catatonic for that reason. Yet after a bit of convincing, Allan is suddenly invited along, and alredy having problems with the chosen best man- Teddy, Stu's wife-to-be's brother. After a rather disconcerting celebratory dinner at the resort, the gang, with teddy, go down to the resort's beach and have a few drinks... and then the first movie happens... again.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you the rest, because I'm assuming you have seen the first movie already, and if you have, you've seen this movie too.
The problem with Hangover 2 is that it's just plain not original AT ALL. While it did have a few belly laughs, in particular a scene involving Stu discovering he had sex with a transvestite stripper, they felt forced, and I had felt like I saw it already two years ago. Plenty of people I know, my girlfriend and manager at work included, asked "Why didn't you like it? It's exactly the same as the first." The latter sentence is exactly why I was disappointed- I felt that with this being a sequel, they could have introduced something new. Sadly this wasn't the case- everything came from the first movie, and by the end of the movie, I just wanted it to be over. Because I saw it two years ago already, but much funnier. In my opinion, only one movie got away with being a carbon copy of its predecessor- Escape from LA.
That being said, maybe if you haven't seen the first movie, you will love this. But if you have, well, hoo boy, prepare yourself for a mega disappointment. They practically REMADE the first movie, all the way down to Stu singing a song about the crap they're in and then some. If you must see it, rent it on blu-ray- it is not worth the $15.75 UltraAVX price I paid to see it.
OVERALL: 4/10
PROS: -Some great laughs -The cast is great -They did the "Photo during the end credits" thing again
CONS: -A remake, not a sequel -Way too familiar -Familiarity even drives the film to the maddening point of predictability -None of the jokes seem natural at all- forced at best, really.