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The Hangover Part II

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifanakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong

Director: Todd Phillips

Have you ever had one of those black out drunken nights that was so vile, so depraved that you could never speak of it again? Oh, you have. Have you ever done it twice without learning from your previous mistakes? The stars of The Hangover Part II do. The sequel to the breakout comedy of 2009 wastes no time with original plotlines. Instead it crams new jokes into a recycled story. Todd Phillips and his team don’t exactly bring a lot of creativity to this new installment, but they definitely bring the laughs.

Phil (Cooper), Doug (Bartha,) and Allen (Galifanakis,) are back, but now Stu (Helms) who ripped his tooth out in the first movie is getting married and through the magic of cinema she’s a smoking hot Asian girl played by Jamie Chung. Otherwise Stu would probably be marrying Roseanne Barr. Now instead of Las Vegas the wedding is taking place in Thailand, the anus of the 3^rd world. However Stu does not want a bachelor party because the memories of Vegas still haunt him, much to the dismay of Phil. So after the rehearsal dinner Phil invites Stu for one solitary beer out on the beach. He agrees and brings the bride’s little child prodigy brother Teddy (Mason Lee.) They toast to Stu’s happiness and drink. Fast forward to the morning and they awake in a crappy, roach infested hotel room. Allen has a shaved head, Stu has a face tattoo, and Phil is just a little sweaty. Bradley Cooper must have something in his contract that says he must always be pretty. Now instead of the groom it’s Teddy that’s missing, and of course the usual happenings from the first movie occur.

The carbon copy opening of the movie really sets the tone for the next 90 minutes because what you’re in for is a beat for beat reenactment of the first movie, to the point where many of the actors from the first film are playing their Part II equivalents. Except Allen, where in Part I he played a slightly retarded man-child who means well, in Part II he’s nothing more than a selfish douche which makes it hard to like him in that silly “Oh that’s just Allen” sort of way. All the hijinks in the sequel are lifted straight from the original. Instead of a baby, they have a monk. There was a tiger in Part I, there’s a monkey in Part II. Not to say that monkey isn’t hilarious; it smokes cigarettes and finds people to perform a certain “service” but the writing smacks of laziness.

Despite having the exact same plot as its predecessor, The Hangover Part II will make you laugh. It’s the situations that are duplicated, not the actual jokes. When they say they’re in Bangkok, they really mean Bang-cock. There is an enormous increase of male genitalia which is probably the biggest difference in the two movies besides the setting. If you go into the theater expecting more of the same you will be very pleased with this film. Otherwise you can just pop I the first film and enjoy.

Final Score: 3/5