Arts & Entertainment
'Hangover Part II' Trades Vegas for Bangkok, a Tiger for a Monkey
This time, the gang wakes up in Thailand.
The screenplay of The Hangover Part II is credited to director Todd Phillips, along with Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin. But you'll never convince me that they actually wrote a new script—they surely just took the original and made a few minor alterations.
Coming almost exactly two years after the sleeper hit, the sequel to The Hangover gives audiences exactly what they likely want: more of the same. Hangover II tells the same story, following all the same beats and hitting all the same marks as The Hangover did.
There are still a whole lot of laughs, but the attempts to go wilder and more over the top mostly fail. Even worse, what's missing is a huge part of what made the first film so good: the element of surprise.
The new film moves the action from Las Vegas to Thailand as Ed Helms' meek dentist, Stu, is getting married to Lauren (Jamie Chung) at a resort in that country. Slickster Phil (Bradley Cooper) and weirdo Alan (Zach Galifanakis) are along for the fun, as is the first film's missing groom (Justin Bartha) and the bride's teenage brother Teddy (Mason Lee).
After a first act consisting almost entirely of discussion of the first film's events, the characters fly to Thailand and then, in a shocker, they wake up the next morning in a seedy hotel in Bangkok, with one of the men missing and a long list of questions about exactly what had transpired the night before.
The ensemble still bounces off each other well, with the three lead actors managing to be funny again. There's quite a bit of wit in the writing, too. But the ultimate weakness of The Hangover Part II is that we see just about everything coming before it happens.
One of the best things about the first movie was that it was a mystery. We honestly wondered what happened to their friend, and were left with numerous other unanswered questions that the movie slowly answered.
Not to mention, everything that hit them was a surprise—when Ken Jeong jumped out of the back of the trunk naked and wailed on them, it was funny because it was unexpected and shocking. The same goes for Galifanakis' antics, which were much funnier when we were meeting the character for the first time.
Just about every memorable moment of the original has a corollary here, whether it's the confrontations with villains, the characters' epiphany about where their friend went, or Ed Helms finally standing up to someone at the end. A transvestite prostitute stands in for Heather Graham. Instead of a baby, there's a silent monk. And instead of a tiger, there's a monkey.
The other problem is that the gags are more over-the-top and outrageous than in the original without managing to be any funnier. And it's also much less relatable. I'd imagine most people in the movie's target demographic have experienced a wild night in Vegas. That's probably not the case with Bangkok.
The Hangover Part II isn't a bad movie at all. It just copies everything about its predecessor, in the process missing the best thing about it.
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The Silver Screen Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
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Roll Credits: The Hangover Part II
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Justin Bartha, Mason Lee, Jamie Chung
Playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 10:30 and 11 a.m.; 12:10, 1:10, 1:40, 2:50, 3:50, 4:20, 5:20, 6:40, 7:10, 8:10, 9:20, 9:50, 10:50 p.m.; shown in Digital Projection at 11:30 a.m., 2:10, 4:50, 7:40, 10:20, 11:20 p.m.
