THE HANGOVER PART II

The Hangover Part II stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong and Justin Bartha. Directed by Todd Phillips. Rated R with a running time of 1 hour and 42 minutes.

Plot: Well the wolfpack is back and this time they are in Bangkok, Thailand. This time Stu is getting married and wants nothing to do with another bachelor party. Inevitably though the gang wakes up in a grungy motel with no memory of the past nights events. This time they have lost Stu's fiance's little brother. Sounds familiar huh?

Like many people I am a huge fan of the first Hangover film. Im sad to say that I was very disappointed with this lazy rehash of a sequel. I call it lazy because it is essentially a shot for shot remake in a different location with a few new characters. Though it takes everything from the original Hangover, this is not what makes the film disappointing since the thought of having more of the same shenanigans was fine because The Hangover was a very funny film. Theres just one problem with The Hangover Part II, its not nearly as funny as the first film. Sure theres a few laughs here and there but the formula that worked for The Hangover feels very stale in the sequel.

Heres the formula: instead of Doug (Bartha) getting married, its Stu (Helms) tying the knot this time. This time they lose the brides little brother instead of losing Doug as in the first film. Ken Jeong returns as the gay, racist, "gangster" Chow. His act was getting tiring and unfunny in the first film and having a larger role in this one didn't do any good for the film. Instead of stealing a tiger, this time the guys steal a chain smoking monkey during their night of drunken debauchery. While the formula that worked for the first Hangover is here, the laughs that came with it are mostly absent. It is basically all of the same jokes as in the first one but the execution is just pure lazy and you can sense that a lot of the cast returned for the pay check. Paul Giamatti shows up for about 10 minutes as a crime boss and is also completely wasted in the role.

The Hangover Part II isn't all bad. I do think that the three main guys Helms, Cooper, Galifianakis have good chemistry and they play off of each other well. I do feel bad for Justin Bartha as Doug. He's in the movie for about 10 minutes and is wasted in the role. As in the first Hangover, Galifianakis gets most of the laughs as the lovable goon Alan. Walking into a monk monastery Alan asks "Is this a PF Changs or something?". There is also a funny scene in a strip club with some transgender strippers. I also did enjoy the pictures during the credits as they capture all of the wild happenings of the crazy night.

Overall I am saddened to say that The Hangover Part II is the biggest disappointment of the summer so far. Going in to it I knew it could not be as good as the first one but I had no idea it would go this low. It's essentially the same movie as the first Hangover but without many of the laughs.

C-