Todd Phillips' The Hangover(2009) took me by quite the surprise. It takes a lot to get me to appreciate a comedy enough to feel reimbursed for the money that I've spent to go see it. In the last ten years there has only been a few comedies that I've really liked. These would include titles like Wedding Crashers, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Old School etc. Being that Todd Phillips had done Old School, and a very underrated Screwed(1996), I gave his 2009 flick a chance. I loved it. I loved the characters, plot, and happy ending. However, I didn't really see any room for a sequel. How wrong I was, because this is the day and age of sequels to movies that don't need them, and remakes of movies that were good enough to start with.
The setting has changed in this one, as Stu, Phil, Allen, and Doug are all headed to Thailand to watch Stu get married to a new girlfriend with almost no character involvement/development named Lauren. Lauren is desperately seeking the blessing of her father, who hates Stu, and puts Lauren's younger brother Teddy on a pedestal. The movie truly begins when the four main characters decide to have a drink on the beach, and starting the clusterfuck that is their next couple days. They wake up disoriented in a hotel room (sound familiar?) and part of their group is missing. (sound familiar again?). Lauren's little brother has gone astray, and Stu and gang must find him and get him to the wedding in two days, otherwise Stu's future will be jeopardized. This is the entire plot.
The Good
Even with the same plot and basically the same movie, the trio of comedians definitely are strong enough actors to feed off one another well enough to pry a few laughs out of me. I've always liked Zach G. They do a good job of showing why Allen is the way he is in these movies, and watching the re-inactment from his point of view was down right hilarious. Out of the three mains, I thought he was really the only one to pull his own comedic weight this time through.
Small cameos from Paul Giamatti, Mike Tyson, and Jefferey Tambor added their own talents to small parts of the movie. However, Mike Tyson's singing was just atrocious...as I'm sure it was supposed to be.
The setting in Thailand was beautiful and it was good to see some international film settings rather than just a Hollywood set made to look like one.
I'm pretty sure watching a monkey do human things is funny no matter what it is.
The Bad
I found myself wanting the movie to be over at almost the halfway point. I felt as though the jokes had already been done, and no longer was I watching a movie, but rather just three guys running around in circles screaming at one another. I got very bored, and it was mostly because the comedy was very drab and recycled. This was my main reason for being worried when I first heard the announcement of a sequel. Directors need to learn to leave well-enough alone.
The things that happened to the trio in Bangkok were just ridiculous. The things they went through were things that don't even happen in cartoons. As if the ridiculousness that a roofie could make you do and forget all that happened in the first movie wasn't enough, we were made to believe that taking a muscle relaxer would make you forget you were being raped anally by a stripper with a penis, or get a tattoo on your face. There is a fine line in comedy between stupid and too fucking stupid.
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Too Fucking Stupid.[/caption]Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper's comedy was weak. They fed well off one another, but it seemed liked both had lost an edge between the two movies...that or the fact they just didn't know what to do, considering they were just re-doing the first movie. Most their comedy was them screaming loudly.
Even with the slight thought of difference that Allen actually didn't create the problem this time, our hopes of change were shot down as the director decided to follow the exact same path in this category as well.
There comes a point in every man's life when countless dick jokes just aren't that funny anymore.
Overall
Although there were a couple spots that caused me to spring a leak of laughter, the movie just felt extremely bland to me. I felt like everything had already been done. I found myself wanting to do something else because it couldn't hold my attention. Of course I expect you all to make your own decisions about it, but I won't be seeing this again...and hopefully the director learns that making a bad sequel can even tarnish the originality and positivity of it's predecessor.
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