The Hangover Part II

Oh it feels great to be reviewing again! It truly is fun but after doing Pulp I thought that I needed to do a more recent film for my friends and because I need to diversify my blog (even though I only did one post).

So one of the many sequels coming out this summer is Hangover Part II. The first Hangover was a surprise comedy hit for 2008 that took the nation by storm. It boosted the R-rated comedy to new levels and reminded everyone that raunchy can be funny without being shocking, will this sequel be able to continue that trend?


This time around the Wolfpack is in Thailand for Stu's wedding. It has been a while since Doug's wedding and the gang is well aware that they do not want a repeat of Doug's bachelor party. Unfortunately thing go bad and they lose Stu's fiancee's brother and must spend two days searching Thailand to find the brother and make it back in time for Stu's wedding.

While I loved the first Hangover and I was excited for this one, Hangover Part II was a huge disappointment and not worth the 10 dollars ! had to pay!!! (it's getting ridiculous.) The biggest problem with this movie is repeating the first one. At first you will chuckle at the commonalities between this and the first Hangover but as the movie goes on and on it just gets sad at the plot points are exactly like the first. At the end you will leave the theater questioning why they made this movie and why you wasted your time seeing it. You might as well pop in the original Hangover and pretend that they are in Thailand and you will have a better experience. They use the same actor from the Wedding Chapel but in a strip club, and while usually I would enjoy that the part was useless and not comedic in any way. They bring Mike Tyson back but no one laughed or even enjoyed seeing him, and by the way Tyson please do not try singing and dancing again.

I believe the saddest thing about the whole movie is that what made Alan funny and memorable does not work here. The movie makes him a villain in some ways and he loses some innocence that kept him hilarious in the first. His jokes don't land and most of the time it felt like the writers tried to hard to make him seem crazy or wacky. Stu was another disappointment because he has not changed at all since we last saw him. He is still the freakout of the group and cannot handle any situation thrown at him. It was a repeat performance with no changes and no surprises.

Lastly the small cameos were another disappointment. The tattoo artist would have been perfect for Mel Gibson, hell Liam Neeson would have been hilarious but Nick Cassavetes didn't bring anything to the table. Unfortunately Paul Giamatti also missed the mark as the "scary mob leader" and never added humor to the film. I could feel his effort and we know that Giamatti is hilarious (Sideways) plus I am a huge fan of his so I wanted his role to work but it was just a bad casting call.

Overall I do not blame Hangover Part II completely because if this movie came out as the original Hangover I believe it would have been hilarious. Part of the reason that the first was so funny was that it was shocking and original. So while Part II does have highlights it does not pull out a strong performance and missing the mark by a long shot. It feels like this was the second night of a play I had seen already the night before. 1 out of 5 stars.