The original Hangover film broke boundaries with it's hilarious style of humor, and hysterical characters. Now the Wolfpack has come back for a second round in the Hangover Part 2, which has easily been one of the most hyped comedies all year. But is really any different than it's predecessor, or does break even more boundaries than the first?
The Hangover Part 2 follows the antics of friends Alan, Stu, Phil, and newcomer Teddy, who is the brother of Stu's wife to be. The pack heads to Thailand for Stu's wedding, and Stu tries to be extra careful that time doesn't repeat it's self. And sure enough, what was supposed to be a small bonfire turns into, well, their second hangover.
When Alan, Stu, and Phil all wake up, they realize that Teddy is missing, and that they all have problems of their own. Strangely enough, they find a monkey in their room as well as Mr. Chow. Mr. Chow informs them that they had a crazy night, but before he get's any further, he sniffs cocaine and dies on the spot.
The gang disposes of his body in an ice machine, and later gets a phone call from Doug who is still at the hotel saying that Teddy is in jail. They arrive at the jail to pick up Teddy, but instead are given an old monk who is vowed to silence. The officers at the jail force the gang to take the supposed "Teddy" with them, and set off on their quest to find out what happened to them last night.
Along the way, they run into transvestite go go dancers, Russian mobsters, other monks, a tattoo parlor with an attitude, and an under cover cop named Kingsley. And of course, a Hangover movie isn't a Hangover movie without some post credit pictures.
Honestly, this films offered nothing new once so ever. The template for the story was exactly the same as the first, they loose someone important, they get the wrong guy with the same name, the run across some guy with drugs, etc. It's really just deja vu, because it's the exact same movie as before, just with different characters and a different setting. It's it's kind of hard to believe the same thing would happen to the same guys again from the start.
While the comedy wasn't as great this time around, there were still many laughs in the film. Mr. Chow completely stole the show for me, and was the only characters who really stayed true to his counter part from the last film. Alan (Who was the show stealer last time around) was ruined in my opinion. While he was dumb and lovable in the first film, he was basically just a complete jerk throughout the film, and while it was meant to be funny, it really didn't workout that way.
The writers were trying to make a huge emphasis on Stu, and kept on giving him all the jokes and what not, that it just felt like they were trying way to hard. Alan felt like a natural show stealer in the first film, but Stu just felt forced into becoming a whole different character just for comedic purposes.
Paul Giamatti was pretty great as Kingsley, but unfortunately like Mr. Chow in the last film, he got very little screen time. One of the most hyped news for this film was it's cameos, and there was practically none at all other than Mike Tyson's cameo at the end of the film (Which isn't really a spoiler, because we all saw this coming). And the films new monkey serves as a reasonable replacement for Carlos the baby, but unfortunately felt like forced comedy as well.
While the film's formulaic plot is frustrating, it's hard not to enjoy the Wolfpack's antics once again, because they really haven't lost any charisma since the first film. While The Hangover Part 2 isn't the ground breaking comedy everyone was hoping for, it's still a very fun and enjoyable ride (And there's still many hilarious moments). If your not to picky about your comedies, than go right ahead and check out the Hangover Part 2. Rumors of a third film are already floating around, but I'd much prefer a Chow spin-off film.
I give The Hangover Part 2 3 out of 5 stars:
And here's the Hangover Part 2 trailer:
What did you think of the Hangover Part 2? Are you going to see it?
