The Hangover Part II: movie review
When I recently compared 鈥淏ridesmaids鈥� to 鈥�The Hangover,鈥� I wasn鈥檛 being altogether complimentary. Now that I鈥檝e seen 鈥�The Hangover Part II,鈥� I must apologize to the 鈥淏ridesmaids鈥� people. By comparison, their movie is 鈥�Citizen Kane.鈥�
I can understand why this sequel to 鈥淭he Hangover鈥� exists. That movie was no masterpiece either, but it was intermittently laugh-out-loud funny and, more to my point, it made about $500 million. Its follow-up, not surprisingly, doesn鈥檛 mess much with the template, but there鈥檚 a disturbing shift in tone: This one is darker and scummier, to no real purpose.
Set in Bangkok, where life apparently is cheap, the sequel has straight-laced dentist Stu (Ed Helms) preparing for his nuptials with his Wolf Pack, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), in tow. Thailand is the home country of Stu鈥檚 fianc茅e (Jamie Chung), whose father is not a fan of the marriage. (In a prewedding toast he compares the groom to boiled white rice, which sounds about right actually.)
Despite Stu鈥檚 efforts to avoid what happened at Doug鈥檚 bachelor party in Las Vegas 鈥� i.e., 鈥淭he Hangover鈥� 鈥� things quickly take a turn for the wild side. The plot, such as it is, turns on a severed finger belonging to the fianc茅e鈥檚 brother, Teddy (Mason Lee), and a chain-smoking capuchin monkey (mercifully, the smoking was CGI). Paul Giamatti, seething his lines, turns up as an apparently shady businessman. Stu finds himself with a facial tattoo 脿 la Mike Tyson.
Throughout it all, director Todd Phillips and his co-writers Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong provide thudding action film sequences that are anything but funny and not all that well staged either. It鈥檚 as if the filmmakers were hungover from the first film and wanted to make a violent action movie instead. This is the same thing that happened to the 鈥�Beverly Hills Cop鈥� franchise, which quickly turned into something more suitable for Sly Stallone than Eddie Murphy.
I realize that it鈥檚 beside the point to take seriously anything that happens in 鈥淭he Hangover Part II.鈥� Still, I can鈥檛 dismiss the ugliness behind many of its antics. Teddy, for example, is touted as a promising classical cellist and future surgeon. Why is his losing a finger supposed to be such a laugh riot? I guess you had to be there. But really, dear moviegoers, you 诲辞苍鈥檛 have to be at theaters playing this movie. Grade: D+ (Rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content, including graphic nudity, drug use, and brief violent images.)
