Been There, Done That (But Still Funny)

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2012)

While 2011 had its share of misfires in theaters, none were so insulting as THE HANGOVER PART II. Not because of it's darker humor and edgier content as compared to the first movie. I'm cool with that. Not even because I thought it was a bad movie; in fact, if you view the movie as a standalone (rather than a sequel) it's still a pretty funny flick. No, the movie is insulting because it's the exact same movie as the first. Now, I was a fan of the first movie and would probably include it in my top ten favorite from 2009 but that doesn't mean a studio can regurgitate the same exact film to me in a different setting. If you've seen the first film, the plot is near identical but here's the rundown anyway: Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married in Thailand and invites his fellow Wolf Pack along for the celebration. Despite actively trying to avoid a repeat of the events in Las Vegas, he awakens the morning after an innocent beer on the beach with Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) in a rundown Bangkok motel room. Stu realizes his fiancé's little brother Teddy (Mason Lee) hassurprise!...gone missing at some point during their night-long bender. Time is running out as the three hapless members of the Wolf Pack comb the dangerous streets of Bangkok for Teddy before the wedding is ruined. Sound familiar? I thought so. And it gets worse than that.
Director Todd Phillips and the screenwriters essentially treated the original HANGOVER like a Mad Libs, erasing key words and phrases and substituting new elements in their place. The filmmakers' laziness goes well beyond rehashing the same plot in a new locale. The tiger from the first movie is replaced with a Buddhist monk, the baby is replaced with a drug-peddling monkey, and Stu's missing tooth is traded for a Mike Tyson facial tattoo. Celebrity cameos? We've got them too: Paul Giamatti as a local crime boss and Nick Cassavetes as a tattoo artist. A familiar face from the first film even makes a bonus appearance at the end of the movie just to seal the connection (but I won't spill details in case you haven't seen it). Oh, and speaking of the end of the movie: can you guess how it ends? If you answered with "a series of photos depicting the debauchery of the missing night just like the first movie", you're either a mediocre psychic or possess common sense. I'm serious: beat for beat, this movie follows the same formula as the first movie. And it made ridiculous money at the box office. Warner Bros must've been laughing all the way to the bank on this one. If they hadn't been released in such close proximity, I'd have guess it was revenge for the poor reception towards their GREEN LANTERN box office bomb. As if my rant hasn't been enough proof, I'm really aggravated with how we were cheated here.
But it's not a terrible movie. It's still funny. Not as funny as the last one, granted, but you can't expect the gags to carry the same weight when we've seen them before. The Bangkok setting and the audience's preconception of the city as the ultimate cesspool of transsexual prostitutes and underage sex slaves give the story the chance to move into darker territory. If you thought Stu's marriage to a stripper was rough luck in the first movie, he's get it a whole lot worse here. The entire original cast return to reprise their roles and, seeing as how they demonstrated their awesome buddy chemistry in the first movie, we have no reason to worry that they won't deliver. Galifianakis has some great moments in this movie. I loved his awkward dinner speech and there's a great moment about halfway through the movie where we see the world through his eyes (he envisions himself and his friends as kids as they tear through Bangkok in drugged out party-mode). Ken Jeong returns as Mr. Chow and, while his schtick wears a little thin at times, he's still good for some funny. If you haven't seen the first HANGOVER, there's a good chance you will enjoy this movie more than the rest of us. As a standalone movie, it works (as long as you're not easily offended/overly conservative). For the rest of us, it's a retread of old territory so blatant that you know you've been cheated by the end but the Wolf Pack is a fun enough group of guys that it doesn't suck so bad.