The Hangover Part II
Two years ago, the original “Hangover” shook, rattled, and rolled myself and other viewers into wicked fits of hysterical laughter as Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis tried to put together the pieces of a bachelor party gone out-of-control in Sin City. It set a high bar for R-rated raunchiness by throwing out several of the rules for comedy structure and going for broke with outrageous ideas. Now the Wolf Pack is in Bangkok, and some things never change.
I’ve never seen his 2000 debut “Road Trip,” but with the exception of “The Hangover,” Todd Phillips has yet to show me anything that makes me think he is anything more than lucky when it comes to his directorial career. Sure, “Old School” was enjoyable, but Will Ferrell was primed to become a big screen star when that 2003 hit came to theatres, while his 2006 comedy “School for Scoundrels” was fun but disposable, especially when you consider Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder were just rehashing their more famous roles in “Bad Santa” and “Napoleon Dynamite,” respectfully. As for “Starsky & Hutch” and last year’s ill-conceived “Due Date,” well, let’s just say his material failed the talented performers he had at his disposal. Sadly, “The Hangover Part II” is closer to those two films than it is to our first introduction to the lovable Stu, Phil, and Alan in “morning after” mode.
This time out, it’s square dentist Stu (Helms) getting married, this time to Lauren (“Sucker Punch’s” Jamie Chung) rather than a Vegas stripper. (What happened with Heather Graham’s sweet Jade?) The wedding is in Thailand where Lauren’s father, who hates Stu, is prepping things at a beach-side resort. Phil (Cooper) and original groom Doug (Justin Bartha) are already set to head to the wedding, but cautious Stu hasn’t invited Doug’s bizarre brother-in-law, Alan (Galifianakis); Stu is hoping for a quiet lead-up to the wedding, which explains why his bachelor brunch is happening at an IHOP. But Alan does end up with an invite, although he doesn’t like the idea of Lauren’s prodigy brother, Teddy (Mason Lee), tagging along. This is one time when Alan’s instincts are dead-on; the next thing we know, Phil, Alan, and Stu wake up in a ratty Bangkok hotel with a well-dressed monkey and Teddy’s finger in a glass of water. What the Hell happened now?
The biggest issue with “The Hangover Part II” is that, despite the new setting, the whole thing is very much same old, same old. Phillips and his co-writers, Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin, have just rehashed the original film’s structure and tried to raise the bar further with raunch and outrageousness. Stu still has a penchant for strippers, but now they must be shemale. The pack still finds a place for Ken Jeong’s crazy mobster, Mr. Chow, but after the surprise of him jumping out of a car trunk buck-naked, how does a hit of blow that stops his pulse (landing him in a hotel ice machine) compare? And that infamous tattoo parlor visit, where the tattoo artist was originally supposed to be troubled star Mel Gibson, then Liam Neeson before reshoots (for which Neeson was unavailable), ended up giving us Nick Cassavettes (the director of “The Notebook” who played a bald badass in 1997’s “Face/Off”), ultimately lacking the comic bite one wishes it had. (Regardless of what you think of Gibson, he would have rocked this part. Damn you, Galifianakis… and whoever else vetoed the choice.) Still, props to Paul Giamatti as the crime boss who may have Teddy as collateral, the old monk who ends up as part of the Wolf Pack for a brief time, and to the guys themselves: Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis; they may not be in top form as they were in the first film (and after his superb performance in “Cedar Rapids,” one hopes Helms starts looking for better material), but they still make an entertaining trio with whom to get lost when things get wild.
