MOVIE REVIEW: Hangover 2

Published May 27, 2011

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DIRECTOR: Todd Phillips

CAST: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike Tyson, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti

CLASSIFICATION: 16 LND

RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes

RATING: HHIII

Theresa Smith

BY TURNS so crass and gross it will make you cringe, this sequel is pretty much the first film, only set in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Drum roll please, for the sick joke about the city name that you just know is going to come.

Director Todd Phillips has the cast from the first film reprise their roles and this is not so much a sequel as a remake.

This time it is Stu (Helms) getting married in Thailand, so his best friends, Phil (Cooper) and Doug (Bartha), get on a plane to support their friend, with Alan (Galifianakis) in tow. Along for the ride is also Stu’s fiancée’s brother, Teddy (Mason Lee).

You know how this goes – the bachelor party goes wrong and Phil, Stu and Alan wake up in a strange place with no recollection of the previous night. They retrace their steps, only now we are not surprised that things got out of hand or amused by exactly the same behaviour.

Mr Chow (Jeong) – the little guy who exploded from the trunk of the car last time – puts in another appearance, but for this film, instead of a tiger or a chicken, we get a cigarette-smoking, Coke-snorting capuchin monkey.

Just as Las Vegas doesn’t look good in bright daylight, Bangkok and Asian people are not exactly painted in a flattering light. We get to see the city through a totally Hollywood lens. Imagine you’re an ignorant American tourist let loose on the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems – this is how you’ll see it, totally from the outside and clouded by your own hang-ups and prejudices.

It’s not like the first film was a character study – character development was not its strong point – but the bewildered camaraderie of the first film was endearing.

Now, however, everyone spends too much time saying “It’s happened again” to really be surprised, which is what made the first film work.

There are moments when cinematography suggests you are watching two totally different films. We see magnificent landscape shots and even some beautiful cityscapes, and then it’s the dizzying return to some girly-boy joke, or Alan and his non sequiturs in unflattering light and close-up.

Christopher Beck returns to handle the music, which provides a much darker soundscape, though Stu again sings his own little song, and as gross as it was, it was funny.

The first film made back its money and then some, so it’s no wonder there’s a sequel. Every person who liked that film will try to watch this one in the hopes of repeating the experience, so giving the people more of the same may have economic merit for the film-makers, but it’s not really going to add to the audience experience.

If you liked… Hangover… you will like this.

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